Utah Visual Arts articles published in 15 Bytes, arranged by category.
Jerrin Wagstaff’s American Mythology, currently on display at Modern West, is a profound exploration of abstraction, narrative, and the myths embedded in the American landscape. Seamlessly blending historical context with a striking visual language, Wagstaff creates works that are at once accessible and challenging, inviting viewers to grapple […]
One of the things that women are generally better at than men is building a community. Get men together and many compete for status, want to be at the top of whatever they make. Women are more likely to seek connection and bond over their experiences than try […]
The answer to the question, “What is a lake?” depends on whom you ask. To a farmer, it might be a reservoir, storage for irrigation water. To a politician, a recreational resource for marinas full of boats. To the Romantic painters of the 19th century, a lake was […]
Social pundits have lately lamented the loss of “third places,” spaces other than work and home where people can connect and experience a sense of community. Think churches, pubs and community centers. For Utahns, those spaces might be outdoors, at the ski lifts or along the trails. But […]
For multimedia artist and curator Tiana Birrell, 2025 marks a pivotal shift in her artistic focus: an immersion into the complex ecology of the Great Salt Lake, with its briny pink shores as her muse. “The color pink has captivated me,” she shares. “My relationship with this color […]
Carol Biddle is entering the new year with a 3-D step forward in her artistic journey: a deeper exploration of sculptural forms. Known for her intricate felted artworks that meld traditional techniques with abstract painterly perspectives, Biddle is now venturing beyond two-dimensional surfaces to create vessels and multi-sided […]
On the site of the old state prison, where developers are promising a city of the future at the point of the mountain, ground was recently broken for the first stage of the development: a grand boulevard named after one of Utah’s more notorious citizens: Porter Rockwell. Called […]
Katie Lee-Koven, executive director and chief curator of the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (NEHMA), recently marked her tenth anniversary with the museum. Reflecting on her tenure, she noted her mission to transform NEHMA from a “hidden gem” into a leading academic and regional art institution. “On […]
Elise Wehle mentions two big accomplishments in 2024: For the first time in her career, a museum purchased her work; she also potty-trained her youngest child. “Although I’ve been creating art professionally for twelve years, this year was the first time a museum acquired my art…not just one […]
It’s hard to dispute painter Jennifer Nehrbass’s assertion that, from a female point of view, the popular story of the European exploration of the West doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s not just that women’s essential roles, and even their presence, are largely written out of that […]
In viewing photographs, we tend to look right through or past the photo itself, with all its elaborate technical background information, and imagine we are seeing the object in the picture as if it were actually present. In her piece “Poised Compression,” Rosa Barba short-circuits that impulse by […]
Leonardo da Vinci taught that a portrait should begin with the skeleton, to which muscles, flesh, and if appropriate, clothing would be added. The point was to be aware of the presence within the subject of those parts that gave form to the person: the form that became […]
Alex Regenold recently joined the staff of Park City’s Kimball Art Center, where as Director of Communications she’s currently busy promoting the Center’s new exhibit Moving Pictures. A Colorado native, she studied creative writing at the University of Colorado Boulder. She’s lived in Park City and Salt Lake […]
Nestled in Price, Utah, the Utah State University East Gallery is a hidden treasure along the familiar route to Southern Utah. The drive to the gallery itself invites a moment of reflection, encouraging you to consider your place within the broader landscape. As you approach, you pass through […]
Artworks are vessels of mystery. How could they not be when no one really knows where they come from or how they get here? Even so, there’s an uncommon amount of mystery in the front gallery at BDAC this month. Artist Antra Sinha and musician Megan Simper have […]
As we scan Utah’s artistic landscape, sometimes with apprehension and sometimes with hope—depending on whether we are noting the venues that are closing or those that are opening—we should remember to look for and note the many non-traditional venues supporting the arts in the state: libraries, cafes, bookstores. […]
We feel everything she needed to know she learned as a writer for 15 Bytes (from 2018 to 2019), but there’s a chance Brigham Young University Museum of Art’s new Curator of Religious Art picked up a thing or two in other places. Like in Heather Belnap’s Women […]
