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.
Although I said nothing aloud at the time, I was disappointed in the recent Spirituality and Religion exhibition at the Springville Museum of Art. It seemed as though the show’s title had been reversed. While there were countless narrow images of specifically Christian traditions, and even more of […]
Reliquaries, a show by Hannah Vaughn, billowed on the air’s breath as viewers passed through the western-facing gallery at Finch Lane. The sunlight pouring in at golden hour during the Gallery Stroll opening cast shadows on the structures hanging by threads. Her pieces breathe, like I imagine Georgia […]
When F. Scott Fitzgerald famously remarked that “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function,” he might just have been referring to the everyday cognitive skill of any […]
For an exhibition of Christian art, there are surprisingly few images of the main character. The first painting you encounter in Earthbound and Heavenward is Herbert Schmalz’s “The Return from Calvary”—a large, theatrically lit academic canvas that anchors the exhibition’s entrance. It depicts a group of four women […]
The April offerings at downtown Provo’s Compass Gallery represent well their mission of celebrating symbolism, storytelling, and spirituality. With three one-person shows and a group exhibition all together in the space, the art covers the gamut of spiritual and symbolic representations. In The Greatest Act of Love, numerous […]
The late folk singer and labor activist Utah Phillips liked to quote his crony Idaho Blackie, who claimed that voting couldn’t change anything, as evidence for which he claimed that if it could, it would be illegal. What neither man could have anticipated was the extensive contrary evidence […]
You don’t pay taxes on unfinished homes. That may not be the only reason so many houses in the community of Colorado City-Hildale went unfinished, but it is what first drew Jim Mangan to the place. Known for his work across the American West—particularly in Utah and Colorado, […]
Those who follow Utah’s legislative sessions will have noticed the passage last month of SB 193, a bill that would make Good Friday—or at least four hours of it—a state holiday beginning in 2027. Those in certain social media circles will also have heard the clamor surrounding the […]
For centuries, an essential division of labor ruled over humanity’s closest animal companions. There were those humans kept for work alone: farm animals, useful creatures, those we domesticated but didn’t exactly tame. Those we ate. And then there were the dogs, which still had assigned labors, such as […]
Josanne Glass and Paul Vincent Bernard’s works are nestled among each other on the walls of Phillips Gallery this month, bringing out their best qualities through contrast. Bernard’s anxious, restless line moves between attentive examinations of the landscape and, at times, darker glimpses of a world under strain, […]
This month, David Ericson Fine Art once again presents two artists whose differing styles highlight the breadth of contrast encompassed by today’s art. While a former professor like me wants to see this as a teaching opportunity, Dave Ericson insists that the arrangement is practical. Alternating the still-life […]
Light is doing a lot of work in Gwen Davis-Barrios‘ exhibit at Border and Square. And it’s not the flattering kind. Headlights, streetlamps, the ambient glow of a building—her scenes are lit the way the world is at certain hours. Partial light. Temporary light. The kind that picks […]
The exhibition of John Hafen’s work at the Springville Museum of Art is quietly beautiful: pastoral landscapes float in soft tonal harmonies; fields, trees, and distant hills seem to belong to a simpler century. The paintings are assured and accomplished, the work of an artist clearly in command […]
For years, Jenna von Benedikt painted wherever she could find room—on the kitchen counter, at the table, between preparing lunch and dinner as four young children raced through the house at the speed of light. She carved out creative time in fragments. “Was it an hour? Was it […]
When the painter John Sproul lost a beloved friend, he found a way to visually represent both the other man’s presence in life and the intensely personal experience of his loss. He produced at least 30 images in this innovative visual language, expressing both “emotional turbulence and its […]
Imagination sits at the center of creativity. It also fuels our dreams. Utah-based artist Melissa Tshikamba explores both in her exhibition at the Orem Library Hall Gallery. With a BFA from BYU, Tshikamba—a name that combines two female ancestral names from the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic […]
The coos of the birds from their nests at the Tracy Aviary echo into the warmly lit entry gallery at Chase Home Museum of Utah Folk Arts, now showing Denise Kaafi’s Polynesian fashion garments flaunted with feathers and shells, fusing modern visions with her traditional roots. The ‘Ilisapesi […]
One way of looking at art has always been as a luxury item. Hence the precious metal castings and finest-stone sculptures, the gold-leaf frames, and such personal adornments as jewelry and splendid accessories. Then, in the 20th century, other options emerged. In part, that was a result of […]
4 Common Corners is a fiber arts collective whose members come together to celebrate the beauty of the Southwest. Over time, their exhibitions have celebrated such signature local elements as Rocks, Cottonwoods, and Things Abandoned. Their current showing, now in the Edna Runswick Taylor Foyer, at the East […]
