Maia Stark: Strange Dark Memory

Saskatoon-based artist Maia Stark explores the figure of the double—such as twins, doppelgangers, and mirrored selves—as mythological symbols, in her first major institutional solo exhibition, Strange Dark Memory. Drawing on her Icelandic, Irish, and Scottish heritage, the artist references European folktales and fairytales to explore her personal experience as a twin, where doubling offers companionship and threatens individuality—a conceptual tension that informs all her work.  

Traditional fairytales use magical realism to explore dark or difficult subject matter, such as disease and death. Stark’s ceramic sculptures draw on these thematics, engaging symbolism such as shapeshifting animals and doubles to examine different representations of the Self.  In many folktales, twins can be both harbingers of death and stand-ins for the immortality of the soul. In Stark’s paintings, human and animal subjects, always doubled, are depicted in isolated and intimate forest scenes, often linked to one another through vein-like tendrils or physical touch. Throughout all Stark’s work, the physical body is constantly in transition, a symptom of the uncanny experience of dissociation that happens as physical bodies shift during an illness as well as the imperfect reflection of one’s own body through the experience of being a twin. 

Stark’s mysterious and poetic world operates as a space for healing and protection. Through her use of folkloric symbolism, Maia Stark’s work invites viewers into a reflective space where the self is in flux. The gallery functions as an extension of Stark’s work, inviting viewers to explore the artist’s creative world.  

Opening Event

Join artist Maia Stark for an opening evening celebrating Maia Stark: Strange Dark Memory on March 26, 2026, featuring an artist-curator conversation followed by an exhibition viewing and reception.

ASL interpretation will be available.

Event information here