Artist Jen Stark’s psychedelic artworks are driven by the creative’s interest in conceptualizing visual systems that simulate plant growth, evolution, infinity, fractals, mimetic topographies, and sacred geometries. Working with various materials from paper to wood and metal, Stark strives to create work that balances on the thin line between optical seduction and perceptual engagement. The Los Angeles-based artist has exhibited her work across the globe, with work in collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The West Collection, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, NSU Art Museum, and MOCA Miami, among others.
Stark’s kaleidoscopic sculptures have hypnotizing tendencies reminiscent of mandalas or the Finish Fetish art movement of the 1960s’
Stark creates work in 3D, 2D, in public spaces, as well as in the digital realm. Her multi-colored, mind-bending works resemble organic, molecular, cloud-like structures, that are “imbued with kinetic, undulating effects that serve to dislocate the viewer from staid reality into an immersive ecosphere of echoing patterns and the implausible designs found in nature”. There is reason and rhythm behind the multi-colored patterns that are derivative from nature, as the color patterns are inspired by the “attractant/repellent properties of flowers encouraging pollination or insects warning birds of their poisonous traits and the luminous mystery of phosphorescent sea creatures.”
“Traces of mandalas or nautili reveal themselves as sacred geometric forms in Stark’s spiritual reservoir”
Stark leads viewers into the depth of abstraction, through a meditative experience that comes through engaging with such captivating work. Vibrant color patterns in repetitive geometric figurations pull you into a supreme world of order and sacrosanct. “Traces of mandalas or nautili reveal themselves as sacred geometric forms in Stark’s spiritual reservoir”.
Images © Jen Stark