Utah Visual Arts articles published in 15 Bytes, arranged by category.
One title, “Coffee Cake with Salmon Cream Cheese,” conjures in the mind’s eye a painted plate, an appetizing dessert, whether on a breakfast table or an inviting café setting, a sweet slice of crumbly baked goods supporting a thick layer of creamy pink frosting. Instead, though, while there […]
Photography brought many things to the visual arts, like permission to cut a figure in half at the edge of the canvas, or leave some undesirable empty space, neither of which was done much, if ever, before the camera made them necessary and convincing visual facts. The shutter […]
As it happens, the root meaning of the word “design” is to mark. That could be because designers do a lot of drawing, but it’s just as likely to be because what designers want is to leave their marks on the world. That might explain the significant changes […]
At Ogden Contemporary Arts (OCA), which just received the Utah Cultural Alliance’s 2022 Utah Exceptional Cultural Contribution Award, Survey: The West is an exhibit composed of Ya La’ford’s signature geometric design and ethnography. La’ford is an internationally recognized painter, installation artist, muralist, social practice artist and educator from […]
The cover of a chaise lounge looks more like a painter’s canvas than an invitation to lie down. One plant shades it, but another grows right through it. Yet it appears someone has succeeded in drowsing here, and further that whatever troubled their sleep has left a record: […]
Not all walls are created equal. Ask any mural artist. Some are relatively smooth, others worn rough with age. Some are broad and accessible. Others are tall or out-of-reach. Trent Call has painted just about every type. His works have been going up on walls in the Salt […]
Encircle is an ever-expanding non-profit organization that supports members of the LGBTQ+ community in Utah. Founded in 2016 by Stephanie Larsen, Encircle began as a gathering place and resource center for LGBTQ+ youth and their families. With locations now in Provo, Salt Lake City, and St. George, Encircle […]
In the foreground of “I Dreamt I Could Help You,” a large oil and acrylic painting on canvas by Eli Kauffman, two young persons confront each other through the open, driver’s side window of a bright, flame red car. We see the driver through a spiderweb of cracks […]
These must be some of the least iconic images of Utah ever to grace the walls of the State Capitol building. In place of, say, that monument to eons of slow erosion, Delicate Arch, an isolated monolith standing in a virtual sea of bare red rock, “Azure Stream” […]
During your First Friday Art Stroll each month in Ogden, you may find yourself lucky enough to run into a man named Codey Quintana, wearing a satchel full of zines and stickers ready to be handed out. Quintana is a digital artist and the creator of the OUNCE […]
In response to the historical challenge presented by the camera, painters have sought, and found, ways to surpass the limits of photography by doing things with paint that far exceed anything the camera can do. But since most of the art we see still comes to us through […]
After a two-year Covid hiatus, the Utah Arts Festival has returned to downtown Salt Lake City, June 23 – 26, with six stages, more than 170 artists and 200 performances. Here’s a taste: Artists of all mediums show off their talent, ensuring you’ll be able to find […]
Kalani Tonga is embracing her “hafekasi weirdness” in Midvale. Originally from Allen, TX, Tukuafu now calls Midvale home and was able to celebrate her personal heritage with her neighbors as part of the Midvale Main Street Mural Festival. Tonga’s father is from Tonga and her mother’s family has […]
In Renaissance workshops, artists often specialized: for a nativity scene or portrait of a noble, one artist might work on all the background landscapes, while another might be called in to paint the folds in a saint’s robes and a third would show off their skills on delicately […]
In Crockett Johnson’s classic children’s book (which has been adapted for the screen), a young boy named Harold wields a magic purple crayon that brings to life the world of his imagination. With it, he draws animals or houses or trees, or simply drags it along by his […]
Art is play. It’s also work, hard work: work so challenging many people assume they can’t do it. But that’s because they think it’s nothing but work. Better they thought it was play. To be sure, Mike Whiting works very hard on his art. The precision demanded by […]
Most of the murals going up around town are outside (and one wonders what their condition will be in a decade or so), but get out of your car and step inside and you’ll find large works going up in more climate-controlled settings. One of the newest is […]
In an overheard conversation prior to our interview, a passerby who knows the artist exclaims, “You made your earrings?!” Instead of a simple yes, Heather Rison opts for, “I make a lot of things,” followed by a smirk. A seemingly simple statement was an apt introduction to this […]
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) has received a 2022 Bank of America Art Conservation Project grant to conserve “Two Running Horses (1932),” a four-panel screen by Chiura Obata (1885–1975). Obata is considered one of the most prominent Japanese-American artists of the 20th century. The work is […]
