To be effective, satirical artworks must closely resemble the objects of their satire. Doing so successfully is both a weakness and a strength. The same flaws that mar the original and inspire criticism must inevitably appear in the mocking version. But then recognition comes quickly to the audience. […]
To enter the main exhibit hall at the Kimball Art Center in Park City this month it is necessary to run the gauntlet between two giant, standing figures that flank the entrance. These are the Sentinels, primarily glass but with mixed media inclusions: an installation by international artists […]
It’s often said that every artist can recall an early, transformative encounter with art or art-making. Often it emerges from the mist of childhood sensations as the first clear memory. In Seoul, South Korea, it was the tail end of the 1960s when Kathryn Stedham was born to […]
Spiral Jetta: a road trip through the land art of the American West by Erin Hogan The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 2008 In the 1960s and 70s, artists were drawn to slogans. “Art is dead” was followed by “Museums are where art goes to die.” […]
Self Retrato with Bandana by Daniel Ochoa, oil on panel, 36 x 36 Daniel Ochoa is an Anglo-Spanish artist from the San Francisco Bay Area who lives on the border of two cultures, between which he moves adroitly—if not necessarily comfortably—and who extends this experience in paintings that are […]
Back in March, Snow College Gallery Director Adam Larsen, inspired by Utah painter Brian Kershisnik’s monumentally personal re-conception of the traditional Roman Catholic story of Jesus Christ’s birth, invited more than twenty Utah artists of diverse religious backgrounds to create their own versions of the Nativity. Eventually eighteen […]
Most antiquarian bookstores have a spot set aside to display old maps and prints. These might have once been bound into books, but in any case they resonate with the booksellers’ appreciation for fine printing on paper. In Salt Lake, however, two excellent independent bookstores (which are increasingly […]
Back in March, Snow College Gallery Director Adam Larsen, inspired by Utah painter Brian Kershisnik’s monumentally personal re-conception of the traditional Roman Catholic story of Jesus Christ’s birth, invited more than twenty Utah artists of diverse religious backgrounds to create their own versions of the Nativity. Eventually eighteen were able […]
Since 15 Bytes comes out monthly, we tend to find ourselves talking about large scale and durable works of art, like architecture, sculpture, and painting. More ephemeral genres, like video and performance, can be hard or even impossible for readers to see and so are less satisfying to […]
Growing up in Utah, Meridith Pingree was surrounded by evidence of geometry contributing its structures to nature. Consider hexagons; these most efficiently packable of all shapes give form to living things across the spectrum, from the honeycombs of bees to the triangular shape of Sego Lilies. Nor was Pingree […]
Artist Profile of Salt Lake artist Joey Behrens.
Driving south on I-15 the other day, I was mildly amused to see a billboard promising passersby that a particular obstetric clinic provides “better birthdays.” The advertiser’s attempt at wit was really just the commonplace confusion of two terms, “birthday” and “birth day.” We rarely use birth day, […]
The best religious art of any time, like the important work in any subject matter, challenges its audience. The naked, physically powerful saints of Michelangelo shocked the Renaissance congregation, while the 1st to 2nd century transformation of Jesus from bearded elder teacher to youthful shepherd helped the early […]
Pity the poor art photographer. No other medium has been so thoroughly victimized by its own success. Invented by visual artists in the early 1800s as a shortcut to getting an image on the page, photography and its offspring—motion pictures, video, infrared and X-rays among others—have become the […]
Certain trade-offs seem unavoidable. Taking time off from work yields more free time, but what good is time without money? A new car rarely needs to see a mechanic, but instead of repair bills there’s a monthly payment to the bank. The encounter with art is an intimate […]
One of the more accessible yet intimate places to encounter new and innovative art is the adamantly casual, dependably irregular gallery that winds among the workspaces and between the furniture at Saltgrass Printmakers. On Friday, May 8, with live music during the Sugarhouse Gallery Stroll, and again Saturday afternoon, […]
Draw an X from corner to corner across Utah (something the Democratic Party did years ago) and right where the two diagonals meet, in the geographic center of the State, Sanpete County nestles in the valley that shares its name. Like Shangri-la, this long, narrow rift, stretching from […]
Ed Bateman — teacher, printmaker, and contributor to 15 Bytes — once said, “Every object exists in two worlds. One is the tangible that we know through our senses, and another exists only in our minds.” He might have added that we dress the things in our minds in […]
Matthew Choberka, a well-liked and influential painting professor at Weber State, can briefly be seen in overlapping exhibits in two of the most progressive galleries in Utah. His work could be called postmodernist, or painterly– environmentalist, but it seems to me that he partakes of a mainstream movement […]
