Exhibitions | Salt Lake Area Exhibitions

Alexis Rausch: Rapture | Rupture at UMOCA

Salt Lake City
June 26 – September 12, 2026

In Rapture | Rupture, Alexis Rausch examines the uneasy space between spiritual exaltation and violence, drawing on the visual language of roadside memorials, religious imagery, and billboard evangelism. Through paintings and installations, Rausch explores how gestures associated with communal worship, dance, and religious gathering can be read in dramatically different ways depending on the viewer’s perspective.

Working from found photographs of Christian gatherings and dances collected from across the United States, Rausch depicts bodies moving in and out of focus as participants seek fellowship, unity, ecstasy, and grace through collective movement. At the same time, those same gestures can appear chaotic, feverish, threatening, or violent.

Rather than offering a definitive interpretation, the exhibition embraces ambiguity. By presenting images that resist a clear moral hierarchy, Rausch invites viewers to consider how personal beliefs and experiences shape perceptions of religious practice and its visual culture.

Utah Museum of Contemporary Art
20 S. West Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84101

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