December 31, 2022 marked the last day in my studio space of 20 years. 20 years. Thousands of images created, breeding grounds for over 80 shows, tens of thousands of hours of work, collaborations with curators, gallerist, collectors and friends, hundreds of studio visits and tens of thousands […]
“For nearly 50 years, Ralphael Plescia has been making religious art to explore the story of creation in his private museum in Salt Lake City, Utah. His project has one overriding vision: to tell the story of Biblical creation in the right way by restoring characters and tales […]
According to a satirical poster by the Guerrilla Girls, the premier advantage of being a woman artist is “Working without the pressure of success.” Down their list a few places comes, “Being reassured that whatever kind of art you make it will be labeled feminine.” That second permission […]
You might have heard a variation of this over Easter dinner (or whatever the matriarch at your table called Sunday’s meal): “The Great Salt Lake has already gone up three feet!” A vague enough statement — three feet from what, you might ask. But the implication is clear: […]
When the late Art Danto, then a leading American philosopher and one of the stars of art criticism, identified the 1990s as “the decade of women artists,” he specifically referred to those who had achieved national or international recognition for what we now call Contemporary Art. The sculptor […]
It’s a worn cliché, the idea that we should think “outside the box.” But sometimes the metaphor rings with the sound of truth, especially when the box is an actual one. Kristina Lenzi was, in her words, “on a rampage” to put performance art on Utah’s map, but […]
When, in the 19th century, French and English painters figured out how to make the impact of light on paper permanent, they invented photography. But that wasn’t the beginning of the search for a way to accelerate the labor of drawing. They and other artists had been playing […]
Disaster is rich fodder for artists, from Aflred Sisley, the French Impressionist who painted the 1876 flood of Port-Marly, to Utah’s Lenka Konopasek, of whom Ann Poore wrote, “Konopasek is always blowing things up or burning them down … disaster is her thing.” So when fire first unveiled […]
Tory Guilfoyle is an artist, curator, and visual arts professional living in Salt Lake City, Utah. She studied photography at Savannah College of Art and Design before transferring to Westminster College where she received a BA in Arts Administration. Tory has spent over 10 years working in the […]
Going forward, we’ll have to be careful. We’ll have to specify whether we’re talking about the “new” Gittins Gallery or the “old” one. The old one is located in the University of Utah’s fine arts building, that towering Brutalist hunk of concrete slab and wood trim that can […]
My friend Jen loves dogs. And dogs love her. Over the years in which I’ve been lucky to know Jen and call her a friend, she has fostered many, many dogs—lovingly called her pack. One day I ran into her on the street near Liberty Park while she […]
In April, Utah’s two flagship modern dance companies respond to the environment. With To See Beyond Our Time, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company joins the swelling number of artistic voices calling for dramatic change to save Great Salt Lake. Co-created by Ririe-Woodbury artistic director Daniel Charon and theatre director Alexandra […]
What could the adjective “homemade” possibly mean to someone who is homeless? At the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, the first of 13 exhibits offers an answer of sorts. Back in 1993, artist Willie Baronet, finding himself struggling with the dilemma of how to react to homeless persons […]
3/28 SLUGMAG: A Portrait of Humor and Sadness in The Melancholy Play Wasatch Theatre Company presents a charming and eccentric look at mental health at the Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center with the latest show in their season, The Melancholy Play by Sarah Ruhl. A bank teller named Tilly (Ariana Farber) journeys to find happiness as […]
“Go West,” was Horace Greeley’s exhortation. The West meant the future, opportunity, a supposed blank slate upon which to write one’s own narrative. At least for the “young man” of his audience. But Alexandria “Inez” Garcia has been going east, to the past, on a journey to discover […]
Born with a love of the Western landscape, Kelly Sooter uses her studies with European Masters to capture the West’s essence in a unique contemporary style – using four layers of oil.
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