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.
Planning is useful. It provides structure, focuses energy. But, as Zachary Proctor’s new works at Park City’s Terzian Galleries attest, getting lost in the work has its advantages as well. In Destinations Unknown, Proctor is exhibiting with longtime friend and past exhibition partner Lane Bennion. The pair usually […]
Reverse of Volume, Yasuaki Onishi’s ethereal, transformative installation at Weber State University’s Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, is created from simple material yet alludes to complex phenomena. Light and gravity contribute to the work’s perceptual illusion in which a wavering plastic sheet appears to float in midair with […]
The conundrum: dirt is bad; dirt is sometimes beautifully dramatic. Dirt and dust make sunset beautiful, many-veiled: that’s the magic particulate richness of dust. We’re alive due to excess, things leftover: cast-off matter forms planets; stars are globbed accumulations of recycled matter. We are of dust/dirt, as […]
Suburbia: a term which not only refers to the outer parts of a town stereotyped for its comforting (or discomfiting) uniformity but descriptive of a way of life associated with the people who occupy its margins. Both isolation and collective community can be found in these ubiquitous spaces. […]
Ties between Utah and China run deep: from the contributions of Chinese laborers that helped complete the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 to former Gov. Jon Huntsman’s appointment as U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China from 2009-2011, residents of this quintessentially Western state have access to numerous […]
“By the Sea,” the characteristically collectible catalog Susan Meyer put together for her annual presentation of Brian Kershisnik’s new directions for 2019, includes a challenge from the artist to everyone who’s ever written, or even thought about, his art: The heavy symbolic weight of books in my […]
“The artist Guy Dill has carved out a unique niche for himself on the borderline between abstract and figurative sculpture.” That’s the metaphor that first comes to mind, but the thing is, it doesn’t really work, because he doesn’t carve. They’re assembled in that distinctly American geometric style, […]
Tolerance, a worldwide touring poster exhibition, has made its way to Salt Lake City. This project, devised by New York-based Bosnian comics artist Mirko Ilić, explores and brings together various interpretations and understandings of what tolerance is through graphic art. Having opened in Slovenia in 2017, the project […]
With so much political art being made and shown these days, it would be easy enough to conclude that social criticism and satire are about the only ways art can help in troubling times. Yet however much contemporary art’s moralizing encourages its fan base, it’s far from being […]
“I want to take a viewer somewhere”—Roland Thompson There’s something that in theory can happen to any artist, but is particularly wonderful when it happens to one who has chosen an arduous path: one that imposes some external standards of its own on the craft of art making. […]
Professors may retire, artists don’t. For Wayne Kimball, a former professor of printmaking at Brigham Young University, the post-university years have been a flourishing period of artistic creativity. Pressing On, an exhibition of his most recent prints, collages, and boxes, on exhibit through Dec. 12 at his old […]
It’s about time they did an art show together: Bob Griswold, 97, and his son John, recently retired, who cares for him. Both watercolorists, father and son share an interest in painting their favorite things: camping, hunting, fishing, dogs, and subjects from hundreds of photographs they’ve taken. On […]
Entropy and Healing, currently on view at Draw Inc., features paintings and drawings by Robert Asay and stained glass by Megan Greer, works created in response to Asay’s recent diagnosis of epilepsy. The artists, who are partners, say they’ve used the act of artmaking as an avenue for […]
We’ve become accustomed to a number of preconceived notions about the life of an artist; often, we picture them as colorful and eccentric, right-brained individuals, who work irregular hours, wear paint-splattered clothes, and are at the mercy of the muses, prone to sporadic bouts of creative genius. The […]
In the words of Derek Zoolander, 200 South is “so hot right now.” It’s true, 2nd South, like much of Salt Lake City, is pretty hot right now. On any given night the stretch between 1st and 2nd East along 2nd South is buzzing with activity. It’s no […]
This is ART, Not a Sign is a fitting title for Tanner Lenart’s exhibition at Nox Contemporary, which opened Nov. 16. The barrage of commercial signs, posted grid-like on the wall, and reading alternately “This is a Restaurant, not a Bar” or “This is a Bar, not a […]
Upon entering the Urban Arts Gallery at Salt Lake City’s Gateway Mall, one sees what appears to be a boutique selling T-shirts, knickknacks, art prints, etc. It doesn’t feel like one has arrived at Seeing the Sacred, the gallery’s current show. Even moving farther back into the cavernous […]
A fellow painter first introduced me to Jonathan Frioux on Instagram. His collage and mixed media approaches to painting are fresh and intriguing, so I decided to follow him. I indulged in small-format square photos of his works until just recently, when he posted a flyer for an […]
Maybe they are too bulky or I’m wearing too many layers, but I’m having a hard time checking my biases at the door. When I see a Confederate flag hanging over two young boys playing in their front yard in one image, or, in another, the words “I’d […]
