Utah Artist Profiles published in 15 Bytes, featuring magazine length profiles of Utah artists.
“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 […]
photos by Emily Call We’ve been talking for about an hour and are about to leave Josh Winegar’s office to head downstairs when he says, sort of offhand, “So, actually, my office is a camera, too.” There is a lens I notice, then, in the window of his […]
It’s a common trope, the artist who tells you they began their career at an early age, attracting the accolade of adults when they were still preschoolers, or executing their first masterpiece on the dining room wall, to the—slightly proud—dismay of their parents. There was no such beginning […]
John Kolb, owner of the Kayenta-based Wizard Stones, blends his fondness for the Murano craftsmen of Italy with a fascination of the night sky to create unique glassworks that are truly out of this world. Employing dichroic glass, quartz crystal for sparkle, and a propane torch that burns […]
A passage can be something literal, a tangible progression from one place to another, or it can represent something metaphorical, a life journey of gained personal experience, and the personal development it manifests. Utah artist Fahimeh Amiri, who is one of the featured artists in the Springville Museum […]
It goes on all over our country — housing developments sprout up on the outer rims of our suburban areas, attracting young homeowners looking for the amenities of suburban living along with the promise of open spaces. In a few years time, though, those fields and prairies are […]
Growing up in a blue-collar family on the rural outskirts of Palm Springs, Calif., Russell Wrankle never imagined that one day his life would revolve around the arts. That all changed in college, when he took a ceramics class and was instantly hooked. “I guess it was something […]
Teacher, artist and filmmaker Claudia Sisemore was “hot stuff” when she was 21, says Layne Meacham of his former Hillside Junior High teacher. “All the guys would talk about her and her silver Jag XKE,” the Salt Lake City artist recalls. Local artist Trent Thursby Alvey, then […]
An architect who rescues greyhounds retired from racing; an accomplished artist who does paintings of the saxophones she plays; an environmentalist who recycles to an admittedly obsessive extent — Toni Youngblood is an intriguing woman who constantly keeps busy. Though she works in a variety of mediums, encaustic […]
When you walk into Professor Carrie Trenholm’s office at Southern Utah University, you cannot help but notice the brightly colored glass and ceramic pieces that adorn her shelves and desk. There is a crisp, creative energy in the air. Carrie is the Endowed Chair and Assistant Professor of […]
One of John Vehar’s most characteristic images, and consequently one of his best, is “Bison,” which can be seen currently at his solo show at Modern West Fine Art. The strength of the image is in the balance the artist strikes between raw, coarse, brushwork, and what ultimately […]
Denis Phillips is every sort of artist: he flows comfortably between abstraction and realism, moves easily from the Renaissance of restoration work and making frames to the Space Age of creating his own computer-generated prints and synthesizer music. “I like the change,” he once told me of […]
Photo by Zoe Rodriguez David Maestas doesn’t regard being an artist as a career choice, or something he necessarily initiated at a certain point in his life. It is a way of life, and how life always has been. “I think being an artist is a full-time thing, […]
