Even though Rachel Henriksen and Carrie Everett sign their art works individually, they show them together, thereby demonstrating a common purpose. Their statement, signed by them both, reads rather like a research proposal: “to understand and process … the physical and emotional transformations associated with womanhood.” Considering how […]
Ever since history’s first public art gallery opened in the city offices — or Uffizi — of Florence in the 1580s, a tempest has raged in the teapot of art concerning what kind of signage should accompany a display. A minority has always detested those informative wall cards […]
This is How They Burn You is short, concise, and dark in the manner of all great dystopian literature.
One artist I can never get enough of is Alison Neville, so when I saw that she had curated a room full of art at BDAC, nothing could dissuade me: least of all the advance photos. The photos matter because the show in question, CreepyCute, contemplated a familiar, […]
From time to time an artist introduces a new material or technique, typically embedding it in a network of traditional, dependable approaches. In The Availability of Secret Information, Marc T. Wise blows away such caution with a plethora of stunning innovations, each a thrill to the eye […]
“WHO did THAT?” I ask, stopped cold by a large, just-hung abstract in rich, compelling colors – peaches, browns, grays, and a variety of blues and violets – hanging behind the front desk at Phillips Gallery. “That is a Bonnie Phillips,” replies Bonnie Phillips in a small voice.“It isn’t signed, but they tell me it is mine, […]
In the enigmatic “Nowhere On” the term “figure drawing” initially sounds ambitious: only the lower legs, from the knees to the feet, are drawn. Above them, a cloud of almost cubist marks could be anything at first, or nothing. In essence, then, the figure reads in reverse, from […]
In 1951, Ernest Hemingway began an adventure story by disguising himself as a painter. Islands in the Stream wasn’t finished (or titled that) until 1971, a decade after Hemingway’s suicide. It wasn’t one of his small handful of good books, though the film — in which the painter […]
Mi Vida – My Art, the Pilar Pobil retrospective at Weber State University’s Stewart Library, is appropriately named: as will be clear to anyone that visits the show, Pobil’s life and art are deeply and inextricably intertwined. Viewing Pobil’s work feels like a visual autobiography. She opens her mind, […]
The year was 2002, and Utah was host to the Winter Olympics … When the Springville Museum of Art was selected as the official venue for an exhibition of Utah art, a group of artists decided to go rogue and stage an exhibit closer to the action and UtahArt2002 opened […]
Corinne Geertsen’s many-layered art images, which begin as photographs, are magic tricks. They contain ghosts of the photographed past, people wearing clothing time has almost forgotten — derby hats and waistcoats, huge hats covered with flowers, children in proper attire — people, largely, in awe of being photographed, […]
There’s one life-size, cast-bronze golfer in the middle of this gallery, and a mysterious cut-out of a doorway, which staff-only can enter, behind a counter. Which leads one to feel that a mysterious and dreamy, miniature game of golf is being played here, in/at Salt Lake City’s Brushworks […]
There are those who believe that Brian Kershisnik never changes: that from year to year he paints the same subjects in the same way. While they may be right about some of the details — the dogs, birds, fruit, the flames, the haloes, and the palm-sized bicycles — […]
Ririe-Woodbury premiered two new works this past weekend, “On Being” by artistic director Daniel Charon, and “Two Hearted” by Keerati Jinakunwiphat. Jinakunwiphat is a New York-based dancer and choreographer, and recently graced the cover of Dance Magazine as one of their “twenty-five to watch” in 2021. Both works […]
Those who value the beauty of empty, open spaces on a canvas will find a warm welcome in the paintings of Leslie Duke, now on display at Salt Lake City’s 15th Street Gallery. Mainly still lifes of flowers and citrus, her works are vibrant and lively while also […]
ROBERT ARNESON’S “NOSE BRICK” DONATED TO NEHMA
Self-portraiture is recurrent theme throughout Robert Arneson’s productive career as a ceramic artist. “Nose Brick,” from 1978, is another twist on this theme—however, here the self-portrait is only of his nose, and it protrudes from the end of the brick form.
Arneson uses humor and self-deprecation to comment on a variety of things ranging from Western civilization, reverence of the artist in their own work, identity, and the complicated history of ceramics in the fine arts having historically been relegated to utilitarian, functional objects. As a standard industrialized material, Arneson was also commenting on the work of Minimalist sculptors such as Carl Andre, who in the 1970s dominated the contemporary art world with simple block forms hanging from a wall.
Arneson was born in California in 1930 and studied with ceramicists Anthony Prieto at Mills College and Peter Voulkos at the University of California, Berkeley. He was head of the ceramics department at the University of California, Davis from 1962–1991 and is considered the father of the Bay Area Funk Art movement.
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UMFA ACQUIRES WORKS BY CHIURA OBATA
Thirty-five works by Chiura Obata, one of the most significant Japanese American artists of the twentieth century, are now in the permanent collection of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) at the University of Utah—thanks to a generous gift from the Obata estate.
“We are thrilled that art lovers will have the opportunity to appreciate and study these works by our grandfather,” said Kimi Hill of the Obata family. “Because many of these artworks were created in Utah, we hope people will be inspired to learn the history of wartime incarceration and go visit the actual camp site in Delta as well as the Topaz Museum. Obata never wavered from the inspiration he found in nature and his faith in the power of creativity. The solace that Obata found in the beauty of the Utah desert landscape was profound. We appreciate UMFA for wanting to share his vision with the people of Utah.”
Obata was an influential artist and teacher notable not only for the beauty, variety, and quality of his work but also for his compelling life story as an immigrant American. He was an esteemed professor of art at the University of California, Berkeley, and a leading figure in the California art scene, when World War II and a shameful chapter of American xenophobia interrupted. In 1942, Obata and his family were unjustly incarcerated, with thousands of other Americans of Japanese ancestry, at the Topaz Relocation Center in Delta, Utah. He continued to produce creative work throughout his eight months in the Utah desert and even administered an art school, where he and fellow artists provided art education.
The gift to the UMFA collection consists of drawings and watercolors Obata created from 1934 to 1943, including many he made to record his incarceration at Topaz. Obata’s depictions of life as an internee in Utah, as well as watercolors, drawings, and prints of flowers, animals, and iconic California landscapes, resonated deeply with local audiences in 2018, when a major retrospective, Chiura Obata: An American Modern, traveled to the UMFA. His work was also featured prominently in When Words Weren’t Enough: Works on Paper from Topaz, 1942–1945, the 2015 inaugural exhibition for the Topaz Museum in Delta.
Tom Alder: My Third Reason for Collecting Art
“Whenever someone asks me how I go about collecting early Utah art,” Alder wrote, “I tell them my three rules: 1) I must like the particular artwork, 2) I must admire the artist and 3) (optional) an interesting story or provenance connected to the particular work of art will strengthen my decision to purchase it.”
Those interesting stories formed the basis for Tom’s column.
Paul Heath is a graduate of the University of Utah and lives and works in Salt Lake.
“I characterize my work as “Pop-Nostalgia”. As a lifetime Salt Lake City resident, I draw inspiration from the awesome neon signs we have around us. I see my work as playful documentation, looking at objects and neighborhood niches through a lighter lens. I also paint images of older antique toys… to elicit a smile or friendly smirk. My art heroes are Andy Warhol, Red Grooms and Wayne Thiebaud.”
To discover more artists, visit our Utah Artists Directory
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