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.
At the entrance of the Kimball Art Center, visitors are greeted by a large wall painted in a warm terracotta tone, which could be a nod to the foundational material of their current exhibition: clay. Curated by the Kimball’s Nancy Stoaks and staged in conjunction with The National […]
Two of art’s more technically challenging and aesthetically eloquent media are currently getting an unusual level of attention in local galleries. Under the influence of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, nearly every gallery in Utah is showing ceramic art sometime in March, a bounty […]
There’s a moment in Gandhi where an Englishman asks the film’s hero what a sympathetic member of the ruling class can do to help those who are struggling (for equity, diversity, access, inclusion, and respect), whereupon Gandhi tells him to go home and work on behalf of his […]
Whether one is drawn to the storytelling aspect of Joe Brubaker’s figures or the weightless elegance of Heather Zusman’s abstract sculptures, the works now at Julie Nester Gallery will undoubtedly spark conversation, both with others and within oneself. In the gallery’s beautifully lit space, enhanced by both natural […]
When, at the 1938 International Surrealist Exhibition, French painter Marcel Duchamp hung 1,200 empty coal sacks from the ceiling of a windowless gallery lit by a single light bulb, then handed out flashlights at the door so visitors could find their own way through the art, this most […]
Pursuing quilting as a hobby outside of her traditional mediums of drawing and printmaking, Mary Toscano was in the middle of making a quilt when Andrew Rease Shaw, her husband and a professional musician, recognized the shapes she was working with as the waveforms of a Low Frequency […]
Under the right circumstances, the entrance to an exhibition can be a portal to another reality. With good art, though, that strange land will soon reveal itself to be the one the audience sought briefly to escape, only transformed. Eugene Ofori Agyei, one of ten ceramic sculptors being […]
Showing at 15th Street Gallery until March 14, the works of Douglas Smith and John Collins contrast with each other, the former exploring the bounds of abstraction and title while the latter explores—literally—the forests and rockscapes of Utah in figurative displays of changing light. They offer viewers a […]
“It is better by far to remain silent and be thought a fool…than to speak and erase all doubt.” This popular paraphrase of Proverbs 17:28 has nothing to do with the art of Hunter Bailey, now showing at Bountiful Davis Art Center, but it does support an element […]
“I heard him say, ‘The bigger the brush the bigger the rush.’ ” John Erickson presents the statement for his current show at Phillips Gallery as a conversation between his family cats, Emmaline and Cecily. Speaking of the artist’s creative struggles as they witnessed them from underfoot—endeavors that […]
Work and Wonder: 200 Years of Latter-day Saint Art—on display now at the Church History Museum and organized by the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts—is touted as the “largest and most comprehensive attempt to show the variety of works by Latter-day Saint artists around the world from the […]
“Doomscroller invites viewers to reflect on whether our compulsion to engage with constant data streams is a survival strategy or a path to self-destruction.” These words, which conclude the introduction to Doomscroller, an exhibition currently at Ogden Contemporary Arts, posit an intriguing dilemma. The audience will likely identify […]
In Europe, art enthusiasts occasionally come across dismantled fragments of some major, long-gone work of art in a museum or gallery. Often these are surviving parts of some noteworthy, even famous architectural commission from a building that was subsequently damaged in war or otherwise demolished. This might include […]
Walking into Finch Lane Gallery, one is immediately struck by the sheer scope of Carel Brest van Kempen’s work, by what feels like a lifetime of meticulous observation and dedication to painting. BIODIVERGENT presents an extensive range of pieces, oscillating between hyperrealistic renderings of wildlife and surreal, metaphor-laden […]
In The Second Sex, her indispensable survey of the status of women, Simone de Beauvoir dispenses with the romantic notion that once upon a time women ruled the world, pointing out that men were always larger and stronger, and a less civilized time in history than ours was […]
Once confronted with the name “Copper Ouroboros,” many might think of a serpent swallowing its tail, or a never-ending cycle, a symbol of infinity. But for others, copper evokes something different: a utilitarian resource, essential yet often overlooked, a material tied to industry, infrastructure, and, crucially, environmental consequence. […]
For much of its history, and even today in many places, art has been considered a craft and not a profession. Now, our artists are required to provide themselves with the benchmarks of professional status. One of the details in such an artist’s resumé is where the individual […]
The Southern Utah Museum of Art’s Salt Lines exhibition places the fragile state of Great Salt Lake at its center, not through advocacy or policy-driven rhetoric, but through poetic, immersive, and deeply sensory works that settle into the mind like salt into the seams of everyday life. If […]
Clay is elemental. Ancient. Intimately connected with humanity’s development. It is the stuff of creation myths, from Mesopotamian to Mesoamerican. Gods mold clay and animate it with the breath of life. Meaghan Gates’ sculptures seem to embrace this lineage, embodying a vitality that makes them feel like living, […]
