The phrase “perennial avant-garde” may sound positive, but it’s actually a criticism of one of the primary characteristics of Postmodernism: the need of mainstream artists to continue demolishing the user-friendly accessibility of traditional forms in order to advance the task of making room for a revolutionary new art. […]
It has happened again. In the immediate aftermath of my breakthrough in understanding an artist whose labors in two separate artistic gardens had puzzled me for years (see here), another artist has brought forth a similarly converse second body of art. Robert Füerer is a seasoned world traveler, […]
After a hit Broadway musical, the curious presentation of an animated TV show, and a live-action series on plural wives—each more popular than could have been anticipated—it may be hard to believe that there was a recent time when some Latter-day Saints, except when on a mission, didn’t […]
I have friends who deny themselves the pleasures of visiting a gallery, so determined are they to avoid the wall signs that they interpret as telling them how to look at the art, how to interpret it, and how to respond. They’re equally determined not to read the […]
There are any number of categories into which the variety of fine and visual artists, and their works, can be divided. There are characteristics of the artists themselves: are they men or women? Are they young and newly fledged (like those in Artists of Utah’s 35×35 exhibit) or […]
I first learned of the future Orem Public Library when samples of its stained glass panorama, drawn from folk tales and children’s literature, appeared in public, but I didn’t get there to see the finished complex for myself until I was recently encouraged by Marissa Albrecht to see […]
A trend that has emerged on the international art scene is getting national notice, not all of it positive. These artists and their works depart markedly from the modernism of the past century. Where in the past there were specific movements—Impressionism, Cubism, the Fauves, The Blue Rider—today’s artists […]
Chatting with Scout Invie in her official capacity at Modern West, where for a time she performed such invaluable services as putting visitors in touch with the artists whose works were on display, was always a pleasure and a learning experience. Not only did she know her subjects, […]
Before there were any art museums, there was the Wunderkammer—the Room of Wonders—and the Cabinet of Curiosities. Beginning in the 16th and continuing into the 17th centuries, these were how royalty and the wealthy showed off their collections: of art, natural history specimens, scientific instruments, and noteworthy objects […]
Given all of the counter-productive and even at times anti-social uses that social media have been put to, it’s easy to wonder if the Internet and its offspring are worth the cost in technology, energy, and time they consume. So it’s good to know that there are whole […]
On any given day, galleries are better able than museums to show artists in depth, so that the subjects and treatments each prefers can be clearly seen. Sometimes a single venue places two such artists side-by-side, allowing useful comparisons, and at other times it’s necessary to travel between […]
If a painter was born and raised on a wild and rugged, scenic western mountaintop, near one of the world’s most famous lakes, and he chose through his art to celebrate the landscape and unique people he lived among, then it seems he ought to work in Utah, […]
Parables, folklore, and traditional stories in general constitute important ways we embody the truths of our cultures: the core reality so often lost in a labyrinth of distorted facts and well-meaning or self-serving untruths. This is, for instance, where we can clearly witness the indisputable and universal second-class […]
In a fever dream, a teenager makes a solitary visit to a relative’s home when no one is around. Descending to the basement, the youth passes swiftly through the familiar game-and-TV room, friendly and open to the sky through windows high in the walls, and enters an inconspicuous, […]
The history of art doesn’t record how many of those it documents have identified with Sisyphus, the king of Ephyra whose pride and cleverness, especially in regards to cheating death, caused Zeus to condemn him to an eternity of struggling to roll a giant boulder uphill, only to […]
A perennially repeated yet mythical image of the artist holds that each is a solitary figure, working and even living entirely in isolation, whether because unable to get along with others or having no desire to. In reality, the successful artist often resembles more the CEO of a […]
NCECA appears to have taken over every available meter of Utah exhibition space in order to accompany Formation, their 2025 annual conference. The only venues they appear to have missed were those belonging to organizations, like the Nora Eccles Harrison MoA, that have their own invaluable ceramic art […]
Just inside the gallery door, a single painting stops those entering and announces that what waits beyond may be different than a lifetime of viewing has led them to expect. Two pre-adolescent girls with snarling mouths and hands like claws seem poised to attack each other. Only the […]
There’s only one thing more enjoyable for an arts writer than discovering a fresh young artist (usually just escaped from one or another splendid college program and shyly showing off inventions they’ve been misled to expect no one will be thrilled by)—that even greater, if only because less […]
