The Gospel According to Ralphael
Artist Ralphael Plescia died earlier this month, leaving the future of his unique work of outsider art in Salt Lake City in doubt.
In his honor, we are rerunning this video piece from 2016.
Degrees of Authenticity: David Brothers’ Places and Propositions
David Brothers has worn many hats. He has produced, written and acted in radio dramas (most notably The Church of Jayne Mansfield and The New Atomic Age); written, illustrated and published comic books, pamphlets, religious tracts, trading cards and Tijuana bibles; created films and videos—some animated, some feature-length— three […]
Kaziah Hancock
She’s known for goats and for soldiers. The first she has raised for years on her ranch south of Manti, where she’s been given the nickname The Goat Woman: she bears the moniker proudly, her affection for the animals going back to an almost mythical origin story, her […]
Brian Snapp
There are numerous things to consider in ceramic artist Brian Snapp’s work, but one is fundamental: Clay is the medium that’s the message, and centuries of archaeological discovery support this. “There’s 30,000 plus years of the history of ceramics now,” Snapp says. “They used to talk about 10,000 […]
Tom Judd
“Go West, young man” was the catchphrase for generations of young Americans, urged to throw themselves into the rush of America’s Manifest Destiny. A century later, Tom Judd decided to go East, but the myth of the West was never left far behind, and this month the Salt […]
Blending Conversations: The Life and Art of Jody Plant
“I had always been a kind of kitchen-table artist,” says Jody Plant in her Salt Lake City studio, where she’s surrounded by a sprawling mass of assemblage sculptures, stacks of old books, tree limbs, shells and rocks. Far too much material for a kitchen table. In her former […]
Hyunmee Lee: Gesture and the Flow
At her most recent exhibition at Salt Lake City’s Phillips Gallery, Korean-born artist Hyunmee Lee unveiled a new body of work: paintings marked by large floating objects in bright colors, and ceramics and works on paper distinguished by her use of gestural black strokes. The paintings are now […]
Intersections: The Life and Art of Jim Jacobs
“It feels kind of like I’m just out of graduate school and I can finally work in the studio,” says Ogden artist Jim Jacobs, who is enjoying his first year of retirement after three decades as professor of art at Weber State University. Down a one-way alley off […]
For What It’s Worth: The Life and Art of Tony Smith
He’d rather show his work at Smith’s grocery store on the Avenues – galleries don’t agree much with Frank Anthony Smith anymore. But you can see his latest drawing, “The Big Tiny,” in a show opening January 16 in The Gallery at Library Square. He told me last […]
’Like nothing you’ve ever seen before.’ Larry Revoir’s vocabulary of annihilation comes to Finch Lane
Today’s artists come of age in a thicket of appropriation, whether it’s the quotation of a famous artwork, like Marcel Duchamp’s drawing a mustache on a postcard of Mona Lisa, or pop music made from sampled, previous hit songs. So it came as no surprise when, in April […]
In-Flux: The Art of Lindsay Frei
Shocking. Profane. Beautiful. Inspiring. These are but a few of the vast and diverse adjectives used to describe contemporary art. As a figural painter and photographer, Lindsay Frei has intentionally blurred the boundaries of such classifications, creating work that is both skillful and intelligent. An undeniable talent marks […]
Extracting the Subject: A Profile of Josh Winegar
photos by Emily Call We’ve been talking for about an hour and are about to leave Josh Winegar’s office to head downstairs when he says, sort of offhand, “So, actually, my office is a camera, too.” There is a lens I notice, then, in the window of his […]
Mysterious Purpose: The Life and Art of Susan Harris
It’s a common trope, the artist who tells you they began their career at an early age, attracting the accolade of adults when they were still preschoolers, or executing their first masterpiece on the dining room wall, to the—slightly proud—dismay of their parents. There was no such beginning […]
Capturing the Cosmos: Kayenta’s glassmaking wizard John Kolb
John Kolb, owner of the Kayenta-based Wizard Stones, blends his fondness for the Murano craftsmen of Italy with a fascination of the night sky to create unique glassworks that are truly out of this world. Employing dichroic glass, quartz crystal for sparkle, and a propane torch that burns […]
Forging a Passage: Fahimeh Amiri
A passage can be something literal, a tangible progression from one place to another, or it can represent something metaphorical, a life journey of gained personal experience, and the personal development it manifests. Utah artist Fahimeh Amiri, who is one of the featured artists in the Springville Museum […]
Linnie Brown
It goes on all over our country — housing developments sprout up on the outer rims of our suburban areas, attracting young homeowners looking for the amenities of suburban living along with the promise of open spaces. In a few years time, though, those fields and prairies are […]
Unapologetic: The bold, captivating ceramic art of Russell Wrankle
Growing up in a blue-collar family on the rural outskirts of Palm Springs, Calif., Russell Wrankle never imagined that one day his life would revolve around the arts. That all changed in college, when he took a ceramics class and was instantly hooked. “I guess it was something […]
