Utah Artist Profiles published in 15 Bytes, featuring magazine length profiles of Utah artists.
Salt Lake City artist Bret Hanson. Photo by Simon Blundell. Bret Hanson has been playing guitar since he was 16. “At one point, I wanted to start using a slide guitar but I didn’t want to buy one because it was so expensive,” he says. “I thought to […]
We often conform our lives to the expectations of others: family, medical professionals, religious doctrine, local culture or society as a whole. These choices help us to navigate our path through life and grant us acceptance by our chosen “tribe.” Sometimes, unquestioning conformity is to our detriment, eroding […]
Identity is a tricky thing. It’s hard to know anymore if we are supposed to proudly declare our differences or attempt to blend them seamlessly into the larger tapestry; be aware of color, gender, ethnicity, or blind to it. The task is made more difficult for the hyphenated […]
photos by Simon Blundell John O’Connell’s new work fascinates on several levels: they are abstracted 3-D compositions with spare painted portions that beg for lots of time to absorb. Mark-making and writing are there but mostly obscured beyond recognition; inexplicable cuts are evident in the surfaces of the […]
Wayne Geary is a big fan of Salt Lake City’s Main Library. He’s a frequent patron, and holds a Friends’ annual membership, which has allowed him to buy hundreds of CDs from the bi-annual library sales a day before most everyone else can. ”That’s when you get the […]
One of the most annoying questions you can ask an artist is: “How long did this take to make?” Stacy Phillips’ solo exhibit at Trove Gallery, opening Dec. 30, demonstrates the long gestation time it takes to bring creative ideas to life. In fact, it provides a glimpse […]
photos by Simon Blundell Maureen O’Hara Ure shares her truth, however whimsical, however wrenching, in mixed media on panel. The incident in “The Night of the Fire,” which is part of Love & Work, her fascinating solo show at Phillips Gallery through Nov. 11, actually occurred in 1978, when […]
Seemingly a bit lost in the 21st century, Joseph Marotta finds a number of things wrong with now; and particularly with here. His photographs explore the concept of time – the way we experience its passing and how that experience now seems to be accelerating. So when […]
Artist Ralphael Plescia died earlier this month, leaving the future of his unique work of outsider art in Salt Lake City in doubt.
In his honor, we are rerunning this video piece from 2016.
David Brothers has worn many hats. He has produced, written and acted in radio dramas (most notably The Church of Jayne Mansfield and The New Atomic Age); written, illustrated and published comic books, pamphlets, religious tracts, trading cards and Tijuana bibles; created films and videos—some animated, some feature-length— three […]
She’s known for goats and for soldiers. The first she has raised for years on her ranch south of Manti, where she’s been given the nickname The Goat Woman: she bears the moniker proudly, her affection for the animals going back to an almost mythical origin story, her […]
There are numerous things to consider in ceramic artist Brian Snapp’s work, but one is fundamental: Clay is the medium that’s the message, and centuries of archaeological discovery support this. “There’s 30,000 plus years of the history of ceramics now,” Snapp says. “They used to talk about 10,000 […]
“Go West, young man” was the catchphrase for generations of young Americans, urged to throw themselves into the rush of America’s Manifest Destiny. A century later, Tom Judd decided to go East, but the myth of the West was never left far behind, and this month the Salt […]
“I had always been a kind of kitchen-table artist,” says Jody Plant in her Salt Lake City studio, where she’s surrounded by a sprawling mass of assemblage sculptures, stacks of old books, tree limbs, shells and rocks. Far too much material for a kitchen table. In her former […]
At her most recent exhibition at Salt Lake City’s Phillips Gallery, Korean-born artist Hyunmee Lee unveiled a new body of work: paintings marked by large floating objects in bright colors, and ceramics and works on paper distinguished by her use of gestural black strokes. The paintings are now […]
“It feels kind of like I’m just out of graduate school and I can finally work in the studio,” says Ogden artist Jim Jacobs, who is enjoying his first year of retirement after three decades as professor of art at Weber State University. Down a one-way alley off […]
He’d rather show his work at Smith’s grocery store on the Avenues – galleries don’t agree much with Frank Anthony Smith anymore. But you can see his latest drawing, “The Big Tiny,” in a show opening January 16 in The Gallery at Library Square. He told me last […]
Today’s artists come of age in a thicket of appropriation, whether it’s the quotation of a famous artwork, like Marcel Duchamp’s drawing a mustache on a postcard of Mona Lisa, or pop music made from sampled, previous hit songs. So it came as no surprise when, in April […]
Shocking. Profane. Beautiful. Inspiring. These are but a few of the vast and diverse adjectives used to describe contemporary art. As a figural painter and photographer, Lindsay Frei has intentionally blurred the boundaries of such classifications, creating work that is both skillful and intelligent. An undeniable talent marks […]
