Utah Visual Arts articles published in 15 Bytes, arranged by category.
Economic strife requires many things from people: reconsideration of consumption, conservation of resources, redefining necessity, solidarity amongst individuals, and, perhaps surprisingly, a flourishing of the arts. Inspired by the dance hall marathons of the depression era, Dark Horse/Fallen Shadows hearkens appropriately back to a time where financially desperate times […]
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when photography was in its infancy, the questions – What is photography? Documentation or art? – were hotly debated. Photographer Shalee Cooper revisits these questions in her latest series of photographs on display at Rose Wagner Art Center through October. […]
An Addiction to Colored Pencils A video interview with Erica Houston Portrait painting is a notoriously difficult task, and not just because the ability to achieve a reasonable likeness with line and color is a craft that requires hours of dedication. Dealing with the emtoins and self-image of […]
Some artists embrace their background. Others flee it. Chad Crane does something in between. Though he is a rural Utah boy who grew up watching Westerns and surrounded by the cowboy life, Crane hates cowboy paintings. Which is precisely why he started to paint them. These aren’t the […]
a photo essay by Kelly Green Like many people who study art in college Lloyd Platt went on to do something a little more practical for a living. After graduating with a BFA from the University of Utah Platt earned a Masters of Architecture and ran a successful […]
It’s at a private institution but Dan Cummings and Dana Kuglin’s dazzline new four-storey sculpture still fits our search for public sculpture. Situated in the atrium of Westminster’s new Meldrum Science Center, Metamorphic Synergy hangs from the ceiling, spiraling towards the bottom floor, its helix shape and glass […]
Art galleries can turn up in unexpected places. If you happened to stop by the Neighborhood House on September 17th or 18th you saw the latest incarnation of Urban Gallery, a collaboration between the west side day care center and Salt Lake Art Center’s 337 Project, where nine […]
Earlier this year Ernesto Pujol’s Awaiting captured our community’s attention as dozens of participants joined the artist in a 12-hour site specific performance at Utah’s State Capitol (see our April edition). Tonight, Gary Vlasic’s 48-hour performance at the Salt Lake Art Center — entitled “Dark Horse: Fallen Shadow” […]
If you’ve visited Artspace City Center (home of Art Access Gallery, Tanner Frames Gallery and uaf Gallery) you’ve probably seen the work of Blue Critchfield. For years his large paintings mixing realistically rendered figures with surreal elements and abstracted styles caused visitors to stare through the glass walls […]
Because of our two features on public art in this month’s edition of 15 Bytes, we’ve been keeping our eyes out for art in the public eye . . . The Utah Museum of Fine Arts recently added a sculptural landmark to Salt Lake’s east bench when they […]
Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of Gilgal Garden becoming a Salt Lake City public park. Of course the art that became a park is much older than that. Salt Lake’s answer to Simon Rodia’s Watt’s Tower or the Palais Ideal of Facteur Cheval, Gilgal was the creation of […]
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. Jo-Ann Wong is more local than her bearded counterpart, but equally ubiquitous. Wherever she goes she is herding people (friends or strangers) into […]
Many of you will be familiar with what goes on in the two upper floors of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, where the curatorial staff puts on a variety of exhibitions culled from the museum’s collection and loans from other institutions. Less well known is what […]
“I really like stuff,” Gretchen Dietrich tells me, her emphasis on the last word suggesting an orthographic marker somewhere between italics and ALLCAPS. “And I like order.” We are seated at a small round table in Dietrich’s office on the top floor of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Her […]
It is not unusual for an artist to layer paint in a way that allows parts of the underpainting to show through in the final work. Nathan Florence, whose work is currently on display at the Kimball Art Centerin Park City, has taken this process a step further: He uses […]
photos by Zoe Rodriguez Finding Leslie Thomas in her studio is akin to looking for Waldo in a rabbit warren. She and her artist husband, Mark Knudsen, are nestled in a back corner of the maze of studios, galleries, classrooms and frame shops cobbled together from three old […]
“Of Two Minds” by Emily McPhie The predicament of art that takes the human figure as subject matter today recalls Dickens on pre-revolutionary Europe: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” On the one hand, with reading on the decline and the graphic […]
It’s hard to find a frame shop around town that doesn’t secretly want to be a gallery. They may start off with the intention of simply framing art, but somehow, whether through the relationship with their artist clientele or their own passion for art, hosting exhibitions becomes an […]
by Curt Hawkins “Shadowed Arch” by Kate Starling, 30″ x 40″. Watching Colleen Howe set up her easel during the “wet paint” painting session is a defining moment. I get it. On the spot painting. I watch Colleen Howe squeezing tubes of oil onto her palette, squinting into the […]
