4/25 SOUTHWEST CONTEMPORARY: The Desert’s Living Skin: A Collaborative Effort to Bring Biocrust Into the Museum
Entering the gallery space initiates a tangible contact with the desert’s living skin—that is, the biocrust. At UMOCA, a portion of the biocrust, a community of organisms—lichens, mosses, and cyanobacteria—that form a carpet-like crust upon the earth’s drylands, has been removed from land slated for development, almost like a skin graft, and placed on a custom-made open platform where it continues to be nourished with moisture and light.
There’s a subtle sage aroma dispensed into the air. We can feel the visceral presence of the biocrust breathing and transmitting awareness as it observes itself and engages with viewers. Two channels of diagonal video projections flood the wall space with visuals of the desert from the break of dawn to a stunning timelapse of a starry night.
4/24 CITYWEEKLY: Ashley M. Bautista’s “Bedroom Poetry” at Mestizo Institute of Culture and Arts
Enter the poetic bedroom of Ashley M. Bautista and walk through her postmodern dreamscape, curated with objects that represent the thoughts and experiences that make up her identity. While the imagined space is incredibly vulnerable and personal to Bautista, be prepared to reflect back on your own childhood, your family and the memories that shape who you are.
The Mestizo Institute of Culture and Arts (MICA) is hosting Bautista’s exhibition Bedroom Poetry through May 18. The art installation exhibits the different aspects of Bautista: as a woman, a person of color, a child of immigrants from Mexico, a first-generation student, and as an artist. Bautista says that “the work is extremely personal. I recently moved out of my parents’ home to go to school, and I found that they were a huge part of my identity and life, which I didn’t realize until I left. I wanted to explore that part of my identity.”
4/17 CITYWEEKLY: Faces of Salt Lake County book and portrait reception
The 2020 census showed Utah as the fastest-growing state in the United States, but if you did deeper into those demographic trends, it also shows an evolution in what we might think of when we picture a “Utahn.” While we might be inclined to still think of this as a homogenous place, the immigrant population in particular grew by more than 100,000 between 2000 and 2019. And when it comes to Salt Lake County, that growing diversity is even more pronounced.
As a way of bringing that diversity to the forefront, Salt Lake County has put its energy behind Faces of Salt Lake County, a project that invited a broad range of individuals—ranging from brand-new immigrants to sixth-generation residents of the state—to share their experiences in interviews conducted by local youth groups, including the Salt Lake County Youth Government and Salt Lake County 4-H Teen Council. The book’s interview subjects were then captured in striking black-and-white portraits by award-winning local photographer Bry Cox. The Thomas S. Monson Center (411 E. South Temple) will host a reception, featuring an exhibition of the photographs and many of the interview subjects, on Friday, April 19 from 6 – 9 p.m. The book will be available for free to attendees, though donations are encouraged.
4/15 Salt Lake City Arts Council announces the 2024 Twilight Concert Series lineup.
The series presents a wide range of nationally recognized and upcoming recording artists paired with local musicians and performers. Concerts will take place primarily at The Gallivan Center this year, with one show at Library Square on August 16th.
Season tickets will go on sale April 16th at 10 a.m. MST. Individual show tickets will go on sale April 17th at 10 a.m. MST. Both types can be purchased at 24tix.com/twilight and are anticipated to sell quickly.
2024 Twilight Concert Series Lineup
June 21: Laufey, Grace Enger, Anna Beck
June 27: Thee Sacred Souls, The Mañanas, Jazzy Olivo
July 19: Watchhouse, TBA, Branson Anderson
August 7: JUNGLE, BALTHVS, The Plastic Cherries
August 16: The Marías, Automatic, Homephone
**happening at Library Square**
August 21: Alex G, julie, Cannibal Queen
For more information on the 2024 Twilight Concert Series visit twilightconcertseries.com.
4/15 THE UTAH REVIEW: For Earth Day, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art’s exhibitions about Great Salt Lake, public lands policy making, biocrust are outstanding examples of cross-disciplinary collaboration
With Earth Day approaching (April 22), an excellent representation of what is at stake in the Intermountain West’s natural surroundings is found in several exhibitions at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA). The standout feature of these exhibitions is the extensive evidence of excellent cross-disciplinary approaches uniting science and the humanities. Among the areas of focus are the Great Salt Lake, the management of public lands and the biocrust.
AS THE LAKE FADES
In a recent social media post, Darren Parry, a local Shoshone Tribe leader, wrote, “Saving the Great Salt Lake is not a science problem, but a values problem.” This sentiment is evident, as the 15 artists in the exhibition As the Lake Fades (which continues through June 1) collectively build a compelling platform for sparking substantive cross-disciplinary conversations we should be having that connect scientists with their counterparts working in the humanities. The artwork girds the descriptive theme of the Great Salt Lake as our “nonhuman kinfolk,” which Parry recalled how his grandmother referred to it. While the exhibition is large in scope and presentation, its understated manner feeds a constructive, welcoming atmosphere that could help transcend partisan stubbornness, political identity and, hopefully, a good chunk of the recalcitrance we use in balking at our responsibilities as stewards of nature.
UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Categories: Local Art News | Mixed Media | News
