August 22, 2025
WCU’s Dept. of Art + Design Presents Woolly Mammoth: Paintings and Drawings by Kristopher
Benedict
This fall, West Chester University (WCU) invites students, faculty, staff, and members of the surrounding community to experience Woolly Mammoth, an exhibition of paintings and drawings by WCU Professor of Painting Kristopher Benedict. The exhibition will be on view Monday, September 2, through Friday, October 10, 2025, in the Knauer Gallery, Swope Music Building and Performing Arts Center, 817 S. High Street, West Chester. Admission is free and open to the public.
An opening reception will be held on Thursday, September 11, from 4 to 6 p.m., with an Artist Talk at 2 p.m. the same day. The Knauer Gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Benedict’s Woolly Mammoth is a body of recent work created during his Spring 2025 sabbatical, including time spent at the Jentel Artist Residency in rural Wyoming. While the exhibition’s title references the prehistoric giant, the works on display are not specifically about mammoths. Instead, Woolly Mammoth functions as a broad metaphor and entry point into Benedict’s creative process.
“The Woolly Mammoth, for me, is a figure of contradictions,” Benedict explains. “It
suggests both ruin and rebirth, childhood and extinction, the distant past and the
present moment. In many ways, painting shares these same contradictions. The work
in this exhibition embraces those tensions.”
The paintings and drawings presented in Woolly Mammoth explore imagery that shifts between abstraction and recognition, drawing on landscape traditions while challenging how we perceive and interpret our environment. Viewers can expect to encounter open-ended visual narratives that encourage reflection and invite multiple interpretations.
Benedict has exhibited nationally and internationally, with solo shows at David Richard Gallery, Sue Scott Gallery, and Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York City, among others. His work is included in public collections such as the RISD Museum, the Flint Institute of Arts, and the Orlando Museum of Art. Based in Philadelphia, he has taught at West Chester University since 2014.
The Department of Art + Design is proud to showcase Benedict’s work and invites both the WCU campus community and residents of the greater West Chester area to engage with this thought-provoking exhibition.
Woolly Mammoth
September 2 – October 10, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 11, 4 – 6 p.m.
Artist Talk: Thursday, September 11, 2 p.m.
Knauer Gallery, Swope Music Building and Performing Arts Center, 817 S. High Street,
West Chester
Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.