Utah Visual Arts articles published in 15 Bytes, arranged by category.
In a fever dream, a teenager makes a solitary visit to a relative’s home when no one is around. Descending to the basement, the youth passes swiftly through the familiar game-and-TV room, friendly and open to the sky through windows high in the walls, and enters an inconspicuous, […]
Originally opening its first glassblowing hotshop and showroom nine years ago in Park City’s Iron Horse District, Red Flower Studios now has a second location with a gallery space in the rapidly developing Granary District of Salt Lake City. The new location hosts glassblowing classes and workshops, facilitated […]
Historically, ceramics have existed on the margins—labeled “craft” or “decorative”—but Katie Lee-Koven says they are increasingly recognized as essential to understanding 20th-century modernism and beyond. This is one reason she was drawn to The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (NEHMA), where she has been director and chief […]
The history of art doesn’t record how many of those it documents have identified with Sisyphus, the king of Ephyra whose pride and cleverness, especially in regards to cheating death, caused Zeus to condemn him to an eternity of struggling to roll a giant boulder uphill, only to […]
A perennially repeated yet mythical image of the artist holds that each is a solitary figure, working and even living entirely in isolation, whether because unable to get along with others or having no desire to. In reality, the successful artist often resembles more the CEO of a […]
First there was the billboard. Now the phone booth. Interventions by public and private organizations on behalf of the Great Salt Lake continue at pace. Since February of this year, a new billboard in Salt Lake County has been bringing the Great Salt Lake’s condition into sharp public […]
Brian Christensen has been spending a great deal of time—and craft—creating ceramic works that look like chunks of rock, the kind you might find littering the Utah landscape. He spends hours building this illusion: forming the mass, carving striations, staining the surface with mineral-like hues. And then, he […]
In simple rotations of old “American West” postcards, from the time when John Wayne was filmed roaming the deserts of Utah, Phoenix Ostermann’s Ways of Seeing reinvents old imagery of iconic Western landscapes into kaleidoscope compositions. In her artist statement for the show at the Marmalade Branch of the […]
When we think of ceramics, we often picture a thrown vessel, a hand-built sculpture or maybe even our favorite artisan coffee mug—weighty, functional and tactile. But in Porcelain Threads, Dara Hartman turns that notion inside out. Her solo exhibition at Modern West strips away any expectation of heaviness […]
Deep in South Salt Lake, Signed & Numbered framing shop hosts one of NCECA’s 2025 ceramic exhibitions, don’t be careful with me i’m normal. The exhibition, boasting 22 pieces, lies across two rooms of the studio, where the rich scent of cut wood frames the atmosphere. “Care is […]
At the heart of one of the numerous ceramic exhibitions currently in Salt Lake City, as part of the NCECA conference, is a simple but profound premise: to see people too often ignored. “My art stems from my innate desire to make connection with my fellow human beings,” […]
NCECA appears to have taken over every available meter of Utah exhibition space in order to accompany Formation, their 2025 annual conference. The only venues they appear to have missed were those belonging to organizations, like the Nora Eccles Harrison MoA, that have their own invaluable ceramic art […]
“I have always been unable to resist the allure of yet another outdated magazine or satisfying trinket,” says Salt Lake City artist Maya England. This impulse to gather, paired with her dedicated drawing practice, results in works that feel like visual archives—personal yet universal. As an expansion of […]
Just inside the gallery door, a single painting stops those entering and announces that what waits beyond may be different than a lifetime of viewing has led them to expect. Two pre-adolescent girls with snarling mouths and hands like claws seem poised to attack each other. Only the […]
As part of NCECA, the Visual Arts Institute hosts Altar/Alter, a group show that explores themes of transformation, ritual, human experience and the evolving nature of belief. The exhibition dances between the sacred and the playful, inviting viewers to reconsider objects, materials and personal meaning. At its core, […]
Stephen Wolochowicz’s work, featured in one of several shows at the Visual Arts Institute as part of NCECA, invites viewers into a world of carefully orchestrated ambiguity. His sculptures, or “torps,” as he calls them, are purposefully vague, hovering between industrial relic, sci-fi artifact, and playful contraption. Each […]
Oh brother, he’s at it again. The prop impresario and sorcerer of the cinematic, David Brothers has dumped another load of art on the Salt Lake scene. You may remember “Jimax,” from 2023. Set in a narrow alley in Salt Lake City’s Central 9th neighborhood, it was a […]
What could be more sustainable than ceramics, right? Feldspar, the main component of clay, constitutes 60 percent of the earth’s crust. Water covers 70 percent of the earth’s surface (admittedly, most of it has salt). We’re not likely to run out of either anytime soon. Firing? Ok, that’s […]
Picture an event featuring the work of nearly 500 ceramic artists attracting thousands of clay enthusiasts. Some of these artists and visitors are local to Utah but many hail from across the United States and overseas. During the conference (and in some cases after) attendees and the public […]
