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.
In Sticks Laid In Patterns and Other Mundane Oracles, her upcoming exhibit at the Alice Gallery in Salt Lake City, Wren Ross mines the symbologies of oral storytelling traditions to explore the contemporary need for new myths and new heroes. As she says in this video interview, recorded as […]
Since completing his MFA at Yale in 2014, Michael Ryan Handley has been busy. A native Utahn, he now operates out of studios in Philadelphia and New York. His artistic processes are complex and experimental, combining a western fascination with the land with a typically eastern penchant for […]
In Submerged Reflection, up this month at Modern West Fine Art, the versatile painter J. Vehar-Evanoff moves away from depicting the natural world of animals to abstracted landscapes and unpredictable natural elements. As someone from the West — Vehar-Evanoff was born in Wyoming and raised in Utah — this recent […]
“We invite people who carry a camera in their pocket to explore this creative art form that mirrors and shapes everyday life,” writes curator Kathy Cieslewicz of the Sears Museum’s new photography exhibit Sight Site, which opened June 19.It certainly seems that the idea of “everyday life” lies in […]
“. . . the wings torn with old storms remember The cone that the oldest redwood dropped from, the tilting of continents, The dinosaur’s day, the life of new sea-lines.” – Robinson Jeffers Pelicans are ancient birds. The remains of a beak found in France dating back 30 […]
“Becoming Whole” by A.J. Oishi. Acrylic on canvas. 60″ x 72″ Notifications pinging and screens flashing: the average person’s day is filled with hundreds of stimuli demanding attention. In The Human Condition, philosopher Hannah Arendt writes that the point at which the world passed into modernity is when […]
I’m standing on a sandstone cliff, about to make my way down to “False Kiva,” a Class II archeological site located beneath a dramatic overhang in Canyonlands National Park. In the distance, Candlestick Butte is unmistakable. It’s a flat fin of a rock that juts out into the […]
Also known as prestidigitation or legerdemain, sleight of hand refers to the manual dexterity used by conjurors and magicians to manipulate commonplace physical objects so that they appear to materialize and dematerialize right before our eyes, making the impossible and remarkable appear normal and ordinary. The painter Jeff […]
Sculptures by Richard Johnston, including “Helmet” (front) with paintings by Joe Ostraff at Phillips Gallery. Mahonri Young won his largest sculptural commissions in Utah only after he left the state (he had been in New York for three decades when he began work on This is the Place monument). Something […]
“The idea for Sun Tunnels became clear to me while I was in the desert watching the sun rising and setting, keeping the time of the earth. Sun Tunnels can exist only in that particular place – the work evolved out of its site. Words and photographs of […]
In her latest work, Laura Erekson Atkinson explores a very intimate experience in her life – pregnancy. “It’s a beautiful process, but it can also be hard, painful and difficult,” she says. “I wanted to explore all parts of pregnancy from the moment you know you have a […]
“Jackson Lake at Twilight” by George Beard, Courtesy of L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University. The LDS culture places a strong emphasis on family history, encouraging its members to research genealogical data as well as preserve the stories of family members. In this cultural endeavor, a […]
“The Man Behind the Zion Curtain” by Ben Steele Gallery owner Diane Stewart conceived Art Behind the Zion Curtain as a challenge to artists with local ties to reflect on Utah’s social, political, and cultural issues. Fourteen painters, sculptors, and photographers responded with pieces on view at Modern West Fine […]
Barbara Ellard has mastered the ability to combine simplicity of form with complexity of surface, a fact that easily can be seen in her ceramics show, Organic Geometry. For this exhibition, open at Finch Lane Gallery until June 9, Ellard has managed to create several pieces that are strikingly […]
“Wound” by Whitney Horrocks, 48″ x 48″ In Personae, her current exhibit at Salt Lake City’s Marmalade Branch Library, Whitney Horrocks has managed to bring emotion to the surface through many layers of abstraction, showing the viewer the depth of the work even as the initial presentation may seem […]
What is the role of the artist: storyteller, activist, documentarian? In this time of ever-increasing globalization, complete with rising concerns about our rights and our future, the lines between roles continue to blur. As artists seek to create works that will appeal to many, they also find themselves […]
Doug Tolman exhibits his photographs of abandoned structures in Utah, Mexico and Central America at Art Access beginning Friday, April 21. Ben Sang, of Shaded Minds, discussed this body of work with the artist in 2016 (see the original article here). Doug Tolman is a young photographer based in Salt […]
Christopher Lynn Misplaced Wall Latex paint on cardboard 2017 What defines sculpture and painting? How do we understand the difference between flat surfaces and dimension? What colors represent contemporary misery? Specific Abject, a group show open through May 12 at the Rio Gallery, features two- and three-dimensional pieces that […]
“In Arcadia” by Madeline Rupard, acrylic on panel, 2017 In ancient Greek mythology, Arcas, the son of Zeus and Callisto, ruled over Arcadia, a utopian paradise that later housed the god Pan. Arcadia eventually eclipsed its namesake to become a symbol for a mythical and unblemished landscape, a […]
