Installation view of Frank McEntire’s “The Sixth Dawn” at Mt. Pleasant’s Hub City Gallery.

It’s always worthwhile to keep an eye out for new places to see art, but lately in Utah it’s become vital. Independent galleries come and go, but lately our public galleries have become endangered. The Rio and Alice, each in its own way a wonderful place to see art, are gone. So soon after celebrating its 91st anniversary, the future of UMOCA is anything but certain. It’s all kind of like the Great Salt Lake: half full or half empty, with no way of knowing which way it’s going. Coincidentally, the news broke this week that the lake has fallen back to its 2021 all-time low, so those who proclaimed the threat over need to get real. Just the same as goes for art spaces.

As for new venues, meanwhile, Central Utah has always been an active contributor. Take the late CUAC, or “Quack,” which ended its run a couple of doors down from Modern West’s old location at 2nd and 2nd. It was founded in 2005 on Main Street in Ephraim, and when it decamped for Salt Lake City it was replaced by The Granary, which still occupies the pioneer-era rolling mill and the historic artists’ studios that were moved next to it. Just ten miles north, Spring City Arts has operated an exhibition space in this small arts colony since forming in 2006. On the northern end of Sanpete Valley, the Fairview Museum is home to a surprisingly large and eclectic collection of art, including original studies for some familiar portraits of President Lincoln and works created for the Mormon pavilion at the New York World’s Fair.

This brings us to Mount Pleasant and what may be Sanpete’s least-known public art gallery, which occupies the second floor of the City Hall building. Taking its name from its home’s former use as a regional banking hub, the Hub City Gallery has a no-nonsense layout for showing art: one large room with, for now, only perimeter walls that are interrupted by some windows at regular intervals. Its director, Abe Kimball, is himself one of the more prolific artist and teachers on the scene, whose innovative works have lately shown up at the Springville Museum, the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, and Utah Valley University. Now able to curate shows as well, he’s set out to prove that veteran Frank McEntire, despite showing frequently, still has unseen works in his signature style waiting to be shown.

Installation view of Frank McEntire’s “The Sixth Dawn.”

 

Installation view of Frank McEntire’s “The Sixth Dawn.”

The essence of Modernism was always old vintage in a new bottle, like a Greek epic set on the 20th century streets of Dublin. Evidence that it’s still working can be found in The Sixth Dawn, McEntire’s debut exhibition in the new space. McEntire has three portfolios: Spiritual Experience, War and Conflict, and the Environment. For his opening offering, Kimball chose the first, which because so many of the works are assemblages based on found objects, offers works of a tidy size to tuck in between the windows. For example, the first McEntires I ever saw, twenty years ago, were vending machines he’d found and repurposed with merchandise that questions the impact of commerce on religion. It was easy to make the mistake of thinking he was attacking those faiths, when in fact he was concerned with the vast quantities of merchandise spawned on the fringes of spiritual pursuits. We seek meaning in our lives and, in reply, are offered material goods at a price. It’s a problem not limited to the plethora of tax-exempt churches.

McEntire decided long ago that his art does better if he allows the viewer to respond personally, rather than follow his directions, so he omits titles. That may also explain his frequent use of typewriters, calculating machines and other bits of technology that in their previous lives allowed everyone to tell their own stories. In fact, he frequently uses texts from pivotal sources like the environmental reporting of Rachel Carson or the vast Sanskrit texts of Buddhism, which he knows cannot be read in the gallery, but are emblematic of texts and the roles they play, and might just be sought out by an audience that finds promise in his hints.

Hub Gallery shares its location with a hallway and stair that are also parts of its brief, where at least four other artists’ work are currently showing, with the likelihood that others will follow suit. Director Kimball modestly placed his un-captioned study of the passage of time between the Indigenous and Railroad eras in the same space, in a far corner between two public restrooms, where it remains certainly worth looking for.

While it may be a long journey for some to travel to Sanpete, many readers pass through the area, not to mention the art enthusiasts who live there.

Work by Abe Kimball at Hub City Gallery

Frank McEntire, The Sixth Dawn, Hub City Gallery, 115 W. Main Street, City Hall Building, second floor, Mt. Pleasant, UT, through Dec. 6. Hours: 9-5 M-F and 11-4 Saturday

Geoff Wichert

Geoff Wichert objects to the term critic. He would rather be thought of as a advocate on behalf of those he writes about.