A joke popular in the mid 20th century went like this. Recovering from a near-death experience, a man tells the eager listeners crowded around his hospital bed what happened to him after he had, for all intents and purposes, died: “I went to heaven,” he tells them, “and […]
Speaking of art . . . by Geoff Wichert A painting by Sunny Belliston hanging this month in the main gallery of the Central Utah Art Center (CUAC) looks something like a segment of wooden flooring that has been tilted upright and painted black. Narrow vertical stripes have […]
COLOR FROM A LOCAL HIVE by Geoff Wichert Regular readers of 15 Bytes may have had their curiosity piqued by the appearance, in the current issue, of wax used as a finish for works of art made in other media, such as photography. The works referred to in […]
The task of 15 Bytes being to connect artists with the public in Utah, we usually try to choose exhibitions for review that are up long enough to allow readers to go and see for themselves. Even though few of our readers may drive to St. George or […]
Encaustic is among the most versatile mediums used by painters. Readers of the August issue of 15 Bytes will have seen Amy Adams use it to sculpt human heads covered with convincing flesh. Other artists, including some who will be discussed here, use wax to impart a quality of finish […]
A comment in a recent essay by physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Steven Weinberg recalls one of the often–overlooked, fundamental truths about modern art. Writing about the impact of science on religious faith, Weinberg says “Perhaps I emphasize belief because as a physicist I am professionally concerned with […]
Next to Christmas, the sweltering Dog Days are the season for nostalgia, perfect for recalling the glorious summers of youth—when sports and picnics and swimming and romance were wont to bloom in tall grass and long afternoons—even while enjoying today’s diminished but still pleasurable version. Despite its […]
Thirty years ago, an artist gave me a business card bearing an embossed drawing of a skull. Gripping the skull was a C-clamp. I remember the artist vividly, but I also recall his name, Weiss, and that it’s properly pronounced “vice.” What’s more, I still have that card […]
Scopophilia, the inborn love of looking, and espionage, making war with the eyes, are neither identical nor mutually exclusive activities. Voyeurs, who seek the scurrilous and scandalous, can be found at both ends of the spectrum, and so can artists. Operation Salt, a loose association of (currently) ten artists […]
It’s one of the ironies of our time that, while most novels and poems are bought and read by women and most self-proclaimed professional artists are women, men in these fields continue to get a free promotion in significance and importance, and stating that ones art is rooted […]
In 1986, when I flew to Ireland to begin a summer walking the extensive hiking trails of the British Isles, there weren’t too many choices for taking photographs along the way. I ended up at security in each airport I took off from—Portland, Oregon, and Atlanta, Georgia, […]
Survival, art making, and beyond . . . by Geoff Wichert When Ruby Chacon loaded four kids into her Ford Explorer, hitched up the trailer, and hit the road out of Sacramento earlier this week, she probably thought the toughest challenge ahead was finishing her painting and hanging […]
The thing that captures the eye is a series of heavy black lines rising from a square base and curving, converging to a point. This cage stands to the right on a yellow-brown field extending beyond it, visible through its bars. On the left rises a meticulously observed […]
The arrival in Salt Lake of what is fast becoming the preeminent new style of art is marked for the moment by the appearance, on the parking strip in front of Nobrow Coffee, of an object as hard to identify as it is to overlook. Looking decidedly less monumental than […]
The first piece could easily be overlooked. It’s an upholstered pair of what the British call “inverted commas,” but Americans call quotation marks. Its mate, the last piece, closes the quotation, marking the 20 works in between as something of a statement. “It’s my nod to Postmodernism,” quips […]
I do not endorse casual use of the term “Fascist” in civil discourse. In spite of Abu Graib, in spite of Gitmo, in spite of racial and economic profiling, and in spite of efforts by the Bush Administration, the McCain campaign, and right-wing blogs to convince Americans that […]
If you’ve already read 15 Bytes then you know about the opening for Stefanie Dykes Cathedral tonight at Finch Lane Gallery, 6-9pm (see page 7). But Dykes’ work is not the only reason to make Finch Lane part of your Friday evening. Also showing with Dykes is photographer […]
Two years ago, in an exhibition at the Central Utah Art Center (see September 2006), Stefanie Dykes showed a pair of architectural fantasies: ornamental woodblock prints combining the flat perspective of diagrams with animated details and figures cavorting in space. Standing before these large prints (each 3 feet high and 2 […]
photos by Shalee Cooper When artists talk about their work they often project a feeling of inevitability. It had to be; either that or they say it was an accident. Speaking on film, Georgia O’Keeffe points to the top of a nondescript hill she feels she must climb with […]
