Tyler Bloomquist, an artist and designer who earned his BA in Graphic Design from the University of Utah, was born in Salt Lake City and has lived downtown for 20 years. His varied artisitic practices—painting/drawing, printmaking, outdoor murals, photography, video/editing, graphic design, music/DJ-ing led naturally to his being an instructor in the Multi-Disciplinary Design program at the University of Utah where he has championed his students to develop critical cultural awareness and to work on constructive problem solving through Salt Lake City-based community design projects.

In 2018, Tyler is excited to bring his energy and eye to Downtown SLC Presents in his new role as artistic director, with an aim to embolden and showcase the art communities of Salt Lake City. He tells us: “This year I was honored to have been selected as the Artistic Director for Downtown SLC Presents, which is the managing entity of the Cultural Core initiative. This initiative is a visionary collaboration of the City and County of Salt Lake to promote and leverage the abundance of cultural offerings in downtown Salt Lake City. The idea is to raise the tide that lifts the whole arts community and share its wealth of experiences with people throughout the region on a local, national and international level. This new role allows me to focus my energy and ideas into creating innovative ways of emboldening and showcasing the art communities of Salt Lake City, an opportunity I am very excited to realize.”

Also in 2017, Bloomquist was perhaps most excited to show a new body of work titled Confusion at Fice Gallery that we reviewed here. “The work, [an exploration of police violence], was a new direction for me,” he says, “allowing the simultaneous exploration of my interests in conceptual work and pushing traditional mediums in new ways. Thanks again to Corey Bullough and Fice for sharing their space to show my work.”