Most exhibitions in Provo open on the first Friday of the month during the Downtown Provo Gallery Stroll, which is either days before or days after the release of the new issue of 15 Bytes on the first Wednesday of the month. This makes it difficult for us to cover shows there, but we do make a special effort to not neglect the numerous talented artists represented in numerous gallery spaces in Provo. This month the work of Gian Pierotti, a ceramics artist virtuoso, showing at the Sego Art Center, is exceptionally worth close examination.
Seen casually, Pierotti’s small yet complex forms, each individual networks of interlocking and geometrical incarnations, have an origami-like quality. When examined closely, the viewer learns that these intricate fabrications are constructed from porcelain. The mind takes a quantum leap from great articulation to baffling construction.
According to Pierotti, these objects are expressly for the viewer’s reception and interpretation. An existential being-like attribution is one such interpretation that resonates boldly. They are delicately structured, like an insect’s corporeal complexity. These “beings” are not organic in the traditional sense, but are a mesh of mechanical interlocking composition. Each unique creation possesses an unearthly presence alluding to a world, a universe, a dimension yet discovered.
They perhaps reference the alien but are ultimately rendered for the sake of contemplation and a plurality of derived significance. Invariably, these are marvelously and ingenuously constructed artifacts, sci-fi, biological, or simply pleasurable. All is permissible here in this incredibly impressive body of work.
Gian Pierotti’s sculptures are on exhibit at the Sego Art Center through December 27.
Ehren Clark studied art history at both the University of Utah and the University of Reading in the UK. For a decade he lived in Salt Lake City and worked as a professional writer until his untimely death in 2017.
Categories: Exhibition Reviews | Visual Arts
