Utah Visual Arts articles published in 15 Bytes, arranged by category.
Next to Christmas, the sweltering Dog Days are the season for nostalgia, perfect for recalling the glorious summers of youth—when sports and picnics and swimming and romance were wont to bloom in tall grass and long afternoons—even while enjoying today’s diminished but still pleasurable version. Despite its […]
On Saturday, August 16th, there will be a steamroller at work in the area adjacent to the famous “one-car parking lot” of Saltgrass Printmakers at 2126 S 1000 E. Those rendered anxious by recent destructive trends in the Sugarhouse neighborhood will be relieved to know that no further […]
Friends compare her to the Travelocity Gnome, the red-capped garden figurine that appears in travel snapshots all over the world in the company’s ad campaign. Wong is more local than her bearded counterpart, but equally ubiquitous. Wherever she goes she is herding people (friends or strangers) into groups, […]
Thirty years ago, an artist gave me a business card bearing an embossed drawing of a skull. Gripping the skull was a C-clamp. I remember the artist vividly, but I also recall his name, Weiss, and that it’s properly pronounced “vice.” What’s more, I still have that card […]
Scopophilia, the inborn love of looking, and espionage, making war with the eyes, are neither identical nor mutually exclusive activities. Voyeurs, who seek the scurrilous and scandalous, can be found at both ends of the spectrum, and so can artists. Operation Salt, a loose association of (currently) ten artists […]
It’s one of the ironies of our time that, while most novels and poems are bought and read by women and most self-proclaimed professional artists are women, men in these fields continue to get a free promotion in significance and importance, and stating that ones art is rooted […]
Survival, art making, and beyond . . . by Geoff Wichert When Ruby Chacon loaded four kids into her Ford Explorer, hitched up the trailer, and hit the road out of Sacramento earlier this week, she probably thought the toughest challenge ahead was finishing her painting and hanging […]
ARTISTIC TEMPERAMENTS (v2) in the May 2008 issue of 15 Bytes focused on Second Life as a virtual world in which artists make and sell digital artworks, and in which galleries and museums duplicate themselves for greater visibility and market share. So I am now turning the telescope around […]
Lila Abersold, Visual Arts Manager for the Utah Arts Council, stands in front of a painting by Lee Deffebach located in her office. What hangs above your mantel? I do not have a mantel in my place, but my favorite wall adornment are two small prints from Pont […]
The arrival in Salt Lake of what is fast becoming the preeminent new style of art is marked for the moment by the appearance, on the parking strip in front of Nobrow Coffee, of an object as hard to identify as it is to overlook. Looking decidedly less monumental than […]
Many consider James Tayor Harwood [1860-1940] to be the father of Utah art, so no mere column could hope to describe his life and contributions to our cultural history. It would be like sitting at the keyboard and writing a 1,500 word essay about George Washington. My first […]
Leave it to an outsider to insightfully decipher the history of the American West through its own language. British-born photographer Brian Parkin, in an exhibit currently at Moab Art Works, focuses on barriers and their explicit signs to piece together the story of how this expansive landscape has been divided […]
For those of us who love great art, who recognize the value of seminal art and artists and their impact on history, Utah Valley University’s current exhibit, the da Vinci Experience, gives insight to the potential, vicissitudes, and some very practical aims of historic art. The exhibition, now on […]
Phillips Gallery takes exceptional care of its artists. From putting the perfect background color on the walls to creating the ideal partnership in a two-person show — they know the right juxtaposition can result in a sale that benefits everyone. Gallery director Meri Ploetz DeCaria does the juxtaposition part […]
As a professional artist and photographer nothing strikes fear in my heart more than hearing, “Would you mind taking our picture?” or, “Amanda is the photographer, let her take the picture.” How do I tell my grandmother that I am used to photographing non-moving desert landscapes with a […]
We caught up with printmaker Paul Vincent Bernard in his Poor Yorick studio a couple days after he returned from Fresno, California with his new floor-model lithography press. He found it on eBay and braved California gas prices to drive it back to Salt Lake because it will […]
The first piece could easily be overlooked. It’s an upholstered pair of what the British call “inverted commas,” but Americans call quotation marks. Its mate, the last piece, closes the quotation, marking the 20 works in between as something of a statement. “It’s my nod to Postmodernism,” quips […]
For those of us who love great art, who recognize the value of seminal art and artists and their impact on history, Utah Valley University’s current exhibit, The da Vinci Experience, gives insight to the potential, vicissitudes, and some very practical aims of historic art. The exhibition, now on display […]
I do not endorse casual use of the term “Fascist” in civil discourse. In spite of Abu Graib, in spite of Gitmo, in spite of racial and economic profiling, and in spite of efforts by the Bush Administration, the McCain campaign, and right-wing blogs to convince Americans that […]
