In November 2011, 15 Bytes editor (and sometimes artist) Shawn Rossiter was at The Leonardo in Salt Lake City for one of their artist residencies. During his time at The Lab @ The Leo, Rossiter began work on his work without end, a large-scale project based on overlapping drawings that result in a single work that continues ad infinitum in mulitple directions.
From March 12 – March 23, Rossiter is back at The Lab @ The Leo to continue the project. He’ll be completing a new 14′ x 6′ section, as well as working on collaborative projects with fellow artists and visiting patrons. While there, Rossiter will be filming interviews with artists from Artists of Utah’ 35 x 35 exhibition, now up at Finch Lane Gallery; he’ll also be working on the April edition of 15 Bytes, Utah’s Art Magazine.
If you’ve been dying to see the mummies down at The Leonardo, stop in this week or next and you might also catch a former-artist-turned-editor resurrected.
The Leonardo is open Sunday – Wednesday, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Thursday – Saturday 10:00am – 10:00pm. During the Salt Lake Gallery Stroll, Friday March 15th, The Lab @ The Leo is free of charge, 6-10 pm.
UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Categories: Daily Bytes | Happenings
Hard for anyone, even a practiced critic, to compete with the words of an artist who knows what he’s doing and can talk about it, himself. The human figure is hard, and that’s only part of why it’s the Holy Grail of art. Mr. Rossiter is one of only a handful of present-day. local artists who is comfortable using the figure freely, neither avoiding it on one end of the spectrum or repeating a set of reflexive gestures on the other. I’m reminded of the murals Trevor Southey did for the airport and BYU, and I suspect Rossiter’s works face the same hurdle: “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I don’t like . . . anything outside my personal comfort zone.” Shame, because I think he offers a real alternative to the heroes of our times: celebrities, vampires, snipers. I wish I worked in a place where I saw this drawing every day, till it seeped under my skin and became part of how I saw the world.
Very interesting concept, this “forever” art. Saw Shawn’s work at The Leo, didn’t understand about the forever aspect… now I like it even more. I also liked how he opened his own art to others’ contributions, and how well the disparate influences and talents were integrated.