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.
Two feisty spirits with plenty in common makes for an interesting friendship, one that can be traced back to when Claudia Sisemore was Trent Alvey’s uber-cool creative writing teacher at Hillside Junior High. Their artwork, though, has less in common, which makes for an interesting show at The […]
From impossible staircases to gravity defying waterfalls and hands that draw themselves, Dutch artist M. C. Escher’s paradoxical works defy logic and reason. His use of mathematical objects and operations allowed him to create works that play with perspective and conceptions of reality, creating impossible constructions and infinite […]
“The airplane has unveiled for us the true face of the earth.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars Imagine life as Leonardo da Vinci: you want to know everything. The land, the sky, how things work, how things within invisible spheres exist, how to make brand new […]
15 BytesUTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“Gitana,” Philip Buller, 60″ x 60″ Collecting and displaying damaged artifacts, like broken pottery and scuffed postcards, was almost certainly a matter of necessity before it became a preference, but if the choice is between a flawless replacement and an original that shows a mixed patina of age, […]
“Cloven,” by Nicole Pietrantoni, at the Kimball Art Center, photo by Stanna Frampton “Reader, this is a record of loss and abundance. Let me be clear – what is vulnerable has potential for change. Reader, as this is consequential, so let us be systematic.” So opens an excision […]
Two artists featured at Art Access, beginning Feb. 16, bring similar precision to abstract design using different mediums. Eric Fairclough paints with acrylic or aerosol paint on birch panels, while Jessica Springman cuts her geometric designs out of paper using a very sharp knife. Fairclough is a […]
“The photograph that we experience is not always the photograph that we see,” writes Joe Marotta on paper tacked to a wall of his show at Gittins Gallery. “I can look at a photograph I’ve looked at a dozen times and come up with a different story.” And […]
Brian Kershisnik is one of Utah’s best-loved and most-respected artists, and his paintings, whether mural size or off the easel, are in private and public collections from Logan to St. George. He was given the Governor’s Mansion Award in 2010, was selected in 2014 as one of the […]
As someone who studies and writes about Contemporary art, I have often pointed out its tendency to be overly specific. There’s a real difference between Theodore Gericault’s “Raft of the Medusa” (1819), protesting a single event that scandalized Europe, and a porcelain figure of Michael Jackson by Jeff […]
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .” So Charles Dickens characterized the French Revolution in A Tale of Two Cities. So we may pray writers in the future will reflect on our plight today. In any event, it certainly can be […]
Is Expressionism dead in the age of conceptual new media? Salt Lake City artist Rebecca Pyle suggests it is not. In her current exhibition in The Gallery at Library Square, Pyle presents her incredibly emotive painting through powerful brushstrokes and luminous colors. Her paintings function like topographical memory […]
If you want to put Denis Phillips in a box, make sure it’s a big box — to quote singer/songwriter Dan Bern — “with lots of windows, and a door to walk through.” Call that box, if you will, “one of Utah’s most talented abstract painters,” as Bob […]
The 1-5-B, Episode 9: Square One – Helper Artists of Utah https://artistsofutah.org/15Bytes/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/the-1-5-b-helper_1-2_1-2.mp3 For a while, seemed like everyone was painting still lifes. Images of vintage toys and figurines (maybe some marbles and matchbooks as well) viewed straight on and placed in nondescript settings popped up everywhere. It was […]
Racism and discrimination have played far too important a role in the formation of American society. The treatment of minorities in this country has been a history of violence and oppression, filled with stories many would wish to forget, but cannot. Though many great strides have been made […]
Myriad Dance Company recently presented its winter offering, Perspective, at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA). The company’s first publicized performance under the artistic leadership of Kendall Fischer, Perspective lived up to its name by subverting expectations for the venue and format in which dances are presented. If you’re not […]
“Metallic Dream,” Lee Deffebach, 1986. Once they were our Young Turks, upending the establishment, smashing the windows of a staid and conservative artistic world with new styles, techniques and ideas. Because they found a home in Phillips Gallery, they thrived, determining the tastes of a generation of Utah […]
Prolific Utah-based artist Nathan Florence has never been averse to change (as we’ve noted before in 15Bytes) but his new exhibit leads us further into his ongoing process of exploration and the resultant progress. While many artists will try to demonstrate their progress in leaps, often pivoting […]
“Arcanum,” Adam Watkins, 2015. Adam Watkins’ photography is strangely hypnotic. Using ornate settings, theater-like props, and bright colors, his images are given a life of their own, creating scenes he describes as “paradoxes of hyper-reality and the empathic tissue of the photographic narrative.” Watkins even admits to sometimes […]
