Wyo4News staff, [email protected] [PRESS RELEASE]
January 10, 2024 — Western Wyoming Community College (Western) will host an exhibition of artworks by new faculty Ben Nathan to start the year off in Western’s Art Gallery. Western recently welcomed Ben as an Assistant Professor of Art on campus. The artworks on display will demonstrate Ben’s unique artistic approach, which blends traditional printmaking techniques with drawing and painting. The exhibition, titled Welcome Home, will be on display from January 26 through March 1. A public reception of Welcome Home will be held in the Art Gallery on February 2.
Welcome Home will feature a number of Ben’s most recent artworks, which focus on themes of personal history, loss, and time. Ben’s work is heavily inspired by elements of the wide-open expanses, towering rock formations, and subdued colors of Southwestern Wyoming.
“I actually grew up in Green River, and I spent huge amounts of that time exploring and playing out in this incredible landscape,” says Nathan. “Certain elements of the landscape from this part of the state have always stuck with me and, to this day, this dusty stretch of Interstate 80 makes me more excited than any other landscape I have experienced. It just feels like home.”
Nathan graduated from Green River High School, attended the University of Wyoming, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Visual Arts, and later completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking from Utah State University. As a practicing artist, Nathan has exhibited his work nationally and internationally. This past Fall semester, he was very excited to move back to Sweetwater County to begin teaching art classes at Western.
Western’s Gallery aims to promote arts-centered learning for college students and community members alike. Ben hopes that Welcome Home will inspire students to continue making art and experiment with artmaking materials. He also hopes that the exhibition can broaden community members’ understanding of Western Landscape-inspired artwork.
The exhibition will be open to the public starting Friday, January 26, with a reception to be hosted in the gallery on the evening of Friday, February 2, from 4:00 PM-6:00 PM.
Works in the exhibition will be available for purchase, and proceeds will be split between the artist and Western’s Art Gallery. Ben will oversee the installation and display of Welcome Home along with the help of student gallery interns.
For additional information on the exhibition or other visual arts programming at Western, contact Ben Nathan, Assistant Professor of Art, at [email protected] or 307-382-1723.
