Utah Exhibition Reviews published in 15 Bytes, Utah’s art magazine, including reviews of local Utah artists, regional artists, group exhibitions and traveling exhibits of national and international artists.
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 […]
“When I set out to start this series, I had spent two years doing only self portraits, and I got so bored of it,” says artist Matalyn Zundel during the opening reception for her latest show, No Woman Is an Island. “I just started painting my friends, and […]
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 […]
A painter, part-time high school art teacher, and fellow writer for 15 Bytes, Nolan Flynn is showcasing his spectrum of play at Harrington Art Studios in Midvale with a pairing of large and small works. The two styles are striking together, one working to prove technical prowess and […]
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 […]
Now is a difficult time for transgender people. From the current president’s attacks on what he calls “transgender ideology” and the “sexual mutilation of our youth” on the federal level, to HB 257’s ban on trans people’s ability to use restrooms of their choosing in Utah’s government-owned buildings, […]
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, […]
Historically, ceramics have existed on the margins—labeled “craft” or “decorative”—but Katie Lee-Koven says they are increasingly recognized as essential to understanding 20th-century modernism and beyond. This is one reason she was drawn to The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (NEHMA), where she has been director and chief […]
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 […]
Brian Christensen has been spending a great deal of time—and craft—creating ceramic works that look like chunks of rock, the kind you might find littering the Utah landscape. He spends hours building this illusion: forming the mass, carving striations, staining the surface with mineral-like hues. And then, he […]
In simple rotations of old “American West” postcards, from the time when John Wayne was filmed roaming the deserts of Utah, Phoenix Ostermann’s Ways of Seeing reinvents old imagery of iconic Western landscapes into kaleidoscope compositions. In her artist statement for the show at the Marmalade Branch of the […]
When we think of ceramics, we often picture a thrown vessel, a hand-built sculpture or maybe even our favorite artisan coffee mug—weighty, functional and tactile. But in Porcelain Threads, Dara Hartman turns that notion inside out. Her solo exhibition at Modern West strips away any expectation of heaviness […]
Deep in South Salt Lake, Signed & Numbered framing shop hosts one of NCECA’s 2025 ceramic exhibitions, don’t be careful with me i’m normal. The exhibition, boasting 22 pieces, lies across two rooms of the studio, where the rich scent of cut wood frames the atmosphere. “Care is […]
At the heart of one of the numerous ceramic exhibitions currently in Salt Lake City, as part of the NCECA conference, is a simple but profound premise: to see people too often ignored. “My art stems from my innate desire to make connection with my fellow human beings,” […]
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 […]
“I have always been unable to resist the allure of yet another outdated magazine or satisfying trinket,” says Salt Lake City artist Maya England. This impulse to gather, paired with her dedicated drawing practice, results in works that feel like visual archives—personal yet universal. As an expansion of […]
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 […]
