Utah Visual Arts articles published in 15 Bytes, arranged by category.
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, […]
Shari Lyon is an encaustic artist who paints with beeswax and damar resin in her American Fork studio. She also incorporates the use of oil paints, pan pastels, oil sticks, photography, and drawings. She says the dreamy, ethereal image with texture and appeal, is unlike any other art […]
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 […]
Making a shy curtsy — like a Degas ballerina — the bus stop/shelter at the southeast corner of 2505 East Parleys Way is an appropriate welcome and nod of approval for the performance of a new type of building: one that is more than sustainable. This building’s self-image […]
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 […]
Back in school we learned that a line has one dimension: length. A plane measures two ways: length and width. Space, of course, has three dimensions. Art schools tell us that if it has three dimensions it’s a sculpture, while if it only possesses two, it’s a painting. […]
We’re frequently posting news on murals, street art and public art projects in the Salt Lake City area — capitol city, location of our headquarters and all that. But other municipalities in Utah are not willing to sit idly by while SLC paints its walls. Certainly not Provo, […]
Since a majority of the state’s residents adhere to teachings from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, religion in Utah can often feel homogeneous. Because of this, we often make assumptions concerning the religious and spiritual beliefs of individuals around us. It is this climate that […]
“Lincoln Park Arboretum,” one of eight multi-part and five single-panel paintings at Phillips Gallery, sets up a paradigm and writes subtext for all 13 paintings. The celebrated arboretum was presumably the focus of a visit to Seattle by both Joseph and Melinda Ostraff, she in her role as […]
Over the past ten years Gary Swanson has completed a couple dozen interior and exterior murals in the Salt Lake City area, including Gallenson’s Gun Shop, Fat Cats Bowling, Purgatory Bar and Settebello Pizzeria. His latest mural is on the north side of Caputo’s Market & Deli […]
Chris Peterson has a studio in Holladay, but his mural practice has taken him all across the Salt Lake Valley and further afield in the American West. As part of Visit Salt Lake’s “West of Conventional” campaign, Peterson recently completed a mural on the east side of the […]
The act of pairing in a diptych offers the artist a diverse set of methods for storytelling: there is room for direct comparison, but also for extension. In the case of the latter, the structure allows for further exploration of a theme unbound by a singular canvas. Simply […]
The homey domestic character of Finch Lane Gallery, with its fireplace and wall of windows, contributes to the feeling that the people Aïsha Lehmann’s presents are our hosts: they’ve invited artist and audience to join them in a uniquely civilized gathering. Surrounded by their colorful, intricate wallpapers, coordinated […]
As part of their West of Conventional Mural project Visit Salt Lake is unveiling ten new murals created across the Salt Lake Valley. The largest is probably Bill Louis’ mural on the south wall of the Hobby Lobby at Valley Fair Mall in West Valley City (3601 South […]
