Andrew Polk has been making and exhibiting art since 1968. His work has been shown in over 600 exhibits, including one-person, small group,invitational and competitive exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. His work is included in numerous public and private collections, most notably the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Tucson Museum of Art, The Denver Art Museum, the University of Arizona Museum of Art, the Artist Printmaker/Photographer Research Collection (Texas Tech University), the Tucson International Airport, the Tucson Medical Center, and the Tucson Public Library.
Polk is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Arizona, where he taught lithography (as well as drawing, watercolor, painting, mixed media) at graduate and undergraduate levels for 32 years. After leaving the University, he and his artist wife, Kathryn Polk, relocated their studio, L-vis Press, to rural Indiana where they live and make art with their two dogs, Jack and Jill.
Primarily a two-dimensional artist, he has worked most extensively in printmaking, painting drawing , mixed media, and digital programming, and he has also done installation and video art. Over the course of his career, Polk has worked through different, disparate stylistic directions. His work has ranged from abstract to representational, from comedic to serious, from decorative to didactic, and from secretive to disclosive. Polk's working philosophy is to "stay inspired". When a direction runs its course – when the ideas become too repetitive, the unknown evaporates, and discovery falters, it's time to move on. Nevertheless, inspite of the many styles, there are core values that interweave throughout the entire body of work.