The founder of Artists of Utah and editor of its online magazine, 15 Bytes, Shawn Rossiter has undergraduate degrees in English, French and Italian Literature and studied Comparative Literature in graduate school before pursuing a career in art.
Someone should slap a signature on these things and call them art. Land art. The Delta Solar Ruins near Hinckley, Utah, either tell the story of an ambitious but ill-fated solar energy experiment or, as at least one U.S. District Court judge would have it, a massive fraud. […]
When someone writes the history of Utah’s modern mural scene—not the indoor ones of the WPA era and the early Latter-day Saint temples; nor the ancient one of pecked and painted sandstone; but the mural scene of latex paint and aerosol cans—they’ll want to devote at least an […]
You may have seen Steve D. Stones’ work at the Ogden Farmers Market: the flaming Barneys and fish-headed Edwardians alongside video game icons like Pikachu and Mario hanging out in trippy, offbeat worlds, all tangled up with Halloween masks and comic book chaos. Stones’ art is a mashup […]
In a composition that fills the entire 15 by 15-inch surface with detail, we see a stern-faced man, holding a pistol and festooned with bandoleers, surrounded by a mixture of beautiful women, an intimidating rooster with wings outstretched, and a menacing clown—all rendered in fine, meticulous line work. […]
Diana Alberghini told her bosses it was time to get rid of the prints. “We have really elevated furniture in here, so we need elevated art,” she told them. And that’s how Forsey’s Fine Furniture, a family-owned business that’s been around since 1951, became a gallery space. Forsey’s […]
When June Harwood moved to Los Angeles in the mid 1950s, she found a fertile environment for her own artistic interests in the Hard-Edge movement then taking shape. She became friends with several artists, including Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg, who were developing a new, reduced, classic style […]
The first question you may ask yourself is, Why? Why stick a piece of chewed bubble gum onto a brightly-painted Volkswagen Bug in downtown Provo, Utah? Surely, not to be transgressive: the owners have encouraged you to. Nor likely out of necessity—that is, a big wad of gum […]
How long does Connie Borup tinker with her drawing, shifting and rearranging it, erasing and starting over? Or is it possible that she is lucky enough to find these graceful, elegant lines already composed by nature’s calligraphy? Borup’s recent work, currently on display at Phillips Gallery, continues her […]
Downstairs at the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Making a Scene highlights a burgeoning West Coast art scene, charting developments in abstraction and surrealism in the 1940s and 1950s (see our review here). Upstairs, two shows focusing on Los Angeles show us what happened next. Alongside the […]
Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company opened its 2024-2025 season with an evening full of tension, humor, elegance, and exuberance, featuring two world premieres and a dynamic exploration of human emotion. The evening begins with The Bunker, choreographed by Laja Field and Martin Durov. Set against an original score by Durov, […]
If you visited the Utah Shakespeare Festival this summer you may know how crowded with art the Southern Utah Museum of Art has been. The venue is usually packed — constructed as part of the architectural trend where designing an art museum focused more on creating an interesting […]
What was happening on America’s other coast as New York City was poised to become the center of the international art world? The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art explores this question by digging into its surprisingly rich vaults to stage San Francisco, the Golden Years 1930-1960: Making […]
What happens to an artist’s work when they die? The select few will be fought over at Sotheby’s and Christie’s. Most will become a burden to their heirs: what to keep, what can sell, what to do with all the rest? Somewhere in between, among the mid-tier artists […]
This May, when residents of Alpine, Utah mourned the demolition of the town’s last remaining pioneer-era home, the Carlisle House—razed to make way for an expanding charter school—painter and sculptor Dennis Smith was among them. He grew up in this Utah County town, nestled beneath the soaring granite […]
Dozens of ceramics line a back gallery at the Southern Utah Museum of Art. Some are so smooth yet tactilely tempting that you’ll want to reach out and caress them—or, maybe inspired by Harry Bertoia’s sound sculptures in the adjoining gallery, you’ll be tempted to pluck them with […]
We’ve heard a lot recently about plans to transform or revitalize downtown Salt Lake City. There’s renewed interest in the city’s Green Loop, the idea for an urban forest meandering through the city that would provide more opportunities for recreation and community engagement. The grassroots Rio Grande Plan […]
Celebrating its launch with events in both Ogden and Salt Lake City, a new literary magazine promises a fresh voice, blending tradition with a modern sensibility. Co-founded by poets Rachel White and Ken Waldman, The Nomad takes its name from Waldman’s life as a wandering writer and musician, […]
Considering Logan artist Fazilat Soukhakian began her career as a photojournalist in her native Iran, it is unsurprising that we best know her artistic portfolio for works that center the human form, largely in a documentary style. You may have seen the Utah State University professor’s portraits of […]
It’s almost like Frank Huff, Jr. dares you to dismiss his work. Or part of it. Take, for instance, his painting of a nondescript parking lot. Why bother? It’s not some social commentary, à la Joni Mitchell, paving paradise and all that. There’s no real judgment here. It’s […]
If you plan on scheduling a tour of the Salt Lake County art collection, be prepared. Kate Ithurralde’s enthusiasm for the largest publicly available collection of Utah art is infectious. She can dive deep into an individual work or range comfortably across the expanse of the collection, knitting […]
