Geoff Wichert has degrees in critical writing and creative nonfiction. He writes about art to settle the arguments going on in his head.
When Madison Donnelly showed her sculpture, “User Centered Design,” at the 2017 Statewide Annual Exhibition, it was outstanding in a field of more conventional works. As a photo that ran in 15 Bytes at the time reveals, even the staff at Rio Gallery seemed to think so: in […]
It sometimes seems as though Lenka Konopasek can do anything. Using only plain paper as her medium, she meticulously models a 21st-century American suburb, spread across a tabletop like an architect’s dream. Stripped of distraction and camouflage and reduced to a bleached-white, monochromatic array, the poverty and redundancy […]
People tend to see something one way until someone shows them another. —Frank McEntire Anyone who knows the art of Frank McEntire, whether sculpture, mixed media, or assemblage, will have witnessed his technique of bringing together found objects, often in the presence of natural materials like stone […]
Sarah Bown Roberts recently graduated from BYU, but she’s starting out strong with Head Lands. Like Noah’s Ark, her 10 mixed-media collages, three oil paintings, and six digital photos each carry paired aesthetic animals. Thematically, the first pair divides them into “archeological excavations” and “restorations.” In this, they recall […]
Artists of Utah recently announced the beginning of Round 2 of Utah’s 15, their project to celebrate Utah’s most influential artists (click here to learn about Round 2 of Utah’s 15.).In 2013, Sandy Brunvand was selected by 200 of her peers as one of “Utah’s 15 most influential […]
Something remarkable, though it shouldn’t have been, took place in the American Southwest in the years following the Second World War. Consider these three names: Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Martin, Beatrice Mandelman. Each of these artists resisted and ultimately rejected the New York mainstream. Each created original and highly […]
In 2013, Sam Wilson was selected by 200 of his peers as one of “Utah’s 15 most influential artists.” The following profile appeared in Utah’s 15: The State’s Most Influential Artists, published by Artists of Utah in 2014. Photo by Zoe and Robert Rodriguez. Sam Wilson says, “It’s all […]
Darn! . . . Shoot! . . . Fudge! . . . . Euphemisms—inoffensive ways of not quite saying what you mean—permeate every language and clog everyday speech. Angry young speakers bristle at having to use compulsory substitutions, which aim to comfort not the speaker but those […]
“Gitana,” Philip Buller, 60″ x 60″ Collecting and displaying damaged artifacts, like broken pottery and scuffed postcards, was almost certainly a matter of necessity before it became a preference, but if the choice is between a flawless replacement and an original that shows a mixed patina of age, […]
As someone who studies and writes about Contemporary art, I have often pointed out its tendency to be overly specific. There’s a real difference between Theodore Gericault’s “Raft of the Medusa” (1819), protesting a single event that scandalized Europe, and a porcelain figure of Michael Jackson by Jeff […]
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .” So Charles Dickens characterized the French Revolution in A Tale of Two Cities. So we may pray writers in the future will reflect on our plight today. In any event, it certainly can be […]
Less than a century ago, Abstract Expressionism brought the United States squarely into the dramatic center of world art for the first time. Pollock, de Kooning, Kline, Motherwell, Mitchell, and their peers formed the spine of a reinvention that evolved from the earlier revolt of Picasso, Matisse, Miro, […]
