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.
One of the great stories of European art concerns Leonardo da Vinci’s unfinished masterpiece, “The Adoration of the Magi,” which was abandoned, left lying face down in a stable, and nearly lost. Eventually it was recovered, repaired, and hangs today in the Uffizi Gallery. Note that it was […]
While discussion of a book often begins with a quotation, talking about art more often requires a description. The graphic art of Nancy Steele-Makasci, which grabs viewers by their eyes but speaks to them as well through the written word, requires both. A stark, high-contrast face with large, […]
Pushing back a black curtain, you enter a small room where your ears are met by women’s voices singing the words to Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land.” Overlapping these vocals is the sound of a gunshot hitting metal. At the same time, you notice, in the […]
Colorful. Full of life and energy. Radiant. Joyous. An explosion of color into form. All words and phrases that describe Untamed, the new body of work by Nicholas Wilton at Julie Nester Gallery in Park City. But walking into the gallery, surrounded by so many large and busy […]
There were times in the 20th century when the most compelling works of art came from the crafts end of the art spectrum. Some works that emphasized fundamental materials, be it wood or glass or ceramics or textiles, seemed closer to the essence of artistic expression than what […]
It was recently calculated by the University of Cambridge that the amount of electricity required by Bitcoin in a year would power all the tea kettles of the United Kingdom for 27 years. This startling assertion brings to mind two facts, both of which are part of the […]
At first glance, there’s something distressingly familiar about Nick Pedersen’s Slow Apocalypse, which — installed in the Exit gallery at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art — represents a traditional gallery, including an upholstered viewing bench surrounded by 14 framed-and-hung works. Initially it recalls, among other things, a […]
“If we could unpeel ourselves down to our lone intelligences, what might we find in our personalities?” – LAZERos “Can a Woman Forget?” – Kathryn Ivy Reese “Can any human being ever reach the highest light?” – Brinnley Ashton “Is there a third path?” – Daenen Rolapp These […]
A small animal’s skeleton is visible from inside a domed sphere at the center of an elaborate golden frame. The adornment evokes the gilded macabre of a medieval Christian reliquary. Throughout And No Birds Sing at Nox Contemporary, one sees Frank McEntire’s love of interesting and unusual found […]
Set against a background of shades of gray, bright, vivid colors and shapes pop. Deep blue circles, squares filled with the colors of a warm red sunset, and sharp triangles fill the canvas. Maude I. Kerns’ “Composition #57” feels very reminiscent of works by Kandinsky. In contrast, on […]
Together, two paintings hanging side by side in the Alice Gallery illustrate the paradoxical nature of language in general and titles in particular. Each features a large, single figure juxtaposed among smaller ones, and each is identified by a particular word. In “Society,” scale separates the lone figure […]
A towering, light purple mountain range punctuated with intermittent white waterfalls cascades powerfully down the top half of the canvas. The pastel purple, pink and blue of mountain and sky draw the viewer into a mystical, dreamy world. But, as the viewer’s eyes descend down the canvas they […]
There any number of ways of looking at the painted world of Russell Case, but perhaps the most important one is that he paints real places. This fact was brought home to me while visiting his current exhibition at David Ericson’s splendid new gallery in the Avenues. First, […]
When I remember my favorite movie scenes, it’s often because of something particularly revealing that an actor does. But in the hands of a really good director, there is always another actor in the scene whose work I may not remember — may not even consciously notice — but whose work precedes those I do notice and may be far more telling. Perhaps the camera holds a shot for a several seconds, until I become aware that through its lens I am fixated, staring at something. Then it wheels about and fixes on something else, and I understand what the character sees and how they are thinking. The camera in those minutes reveals itself as the most important actor.
Working in a digital print medium, Jiyoun Lee-Lodge draws figure outlines — sophisticated cartoons, so to speak — of figures set for the most part in only slightly more detailed settings. Often she borrows the overall composition from an almost too-familiar image, like Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks,’ a Manhattan […]
“Great Salt Lake Sunset” does several things we look for art to do. It immortalizes a dramatic moment in time and space: the setting of a brilliant sun over Antelope Island on a haze-free day, offering an inspiring, spectacular, and always rare event that offers a durable alternative […]
A linen print tacked to the gallery wall beckons our gaze with its earth-colored, vertically-configured shapes. At proximity, the planes of color converge with bold, textured patterns and strategically placed outlines that reveal the underlying canvas. Immersed in the scene is a standing figure — a maid — […]
It quickly becomes apparent from her Instagram posts that Terri Froelich takes countless photos of her nautical environment, mostly shot close enough to isolate textures like wood grain, rusty industrial decay, sun-dappling on water and any bright colors that sport unexpectedly on the dull fabric of the everyday. […]
Nicknamed the Beehive state, Utah proudly integrates imagery of beehives into many aspects of its being: the state flag, road markers, architecture, and more. The beehive has roots in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the arrival in the land Brigham Young named “Deseret,” or […]
