Frank McEntire, former executive director of the Utah Arts Council, is a sculptor, independent curator, and arts administrator and was the art critic for The Salt Lake Tribune and Salt Lake City magazine.
One memory of my friend Tony Smith, who died this past Thanksgiving Day, was his penchant for wearing T-shirts. Ever confident in himself, he wasn’t one to hide the paunch such apparel revealed, even emphasizing the tummy bump in drawings of himself — attire as satire. I […]
Like clockwork, at 10 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Willie Smith, who has mild Down syndrome, accompanies his father Tony from their home in the Avenues to their West-side studio across the street from the LDS Church’s Welfare Square in Salt Lake City. Willie immediately goes to […]
In 2001, after retiring as a professor of art at the University of Utah, Frank Anthony (Tony) Smith also retired from painting — and the art market.
During his 40-year career as an art teacher at the University of Utah and other universities and workshops, Smith succeeded as a dual-career player in the local and national art markets. He is best known for his innovative, illusionist nod to trompe l’oeil through his groundbreaking use of stenciling, cutting, taping, and airbrushing. “He’s fooling you, folks,” wrote Susan Mendelsohn in an undated essay. “These paintings are fancy bags of cheap tricks. They are trap doors and fake bottoms, things up his sleeve and wires and mirrors … It is an invisible experience in the imagination, which shows us how the world looks through Tony Smith’s eyes. Because of his pictures, we can ride piggyback into his encounter with reality. It’s a very remarkable ride.”
“Peonies VII,” etching by Jenni Christensen, photo by John Snyder “I have always loved flowers and the garden. The variation is endless.” – Jenni Christensen Although in the high desert of the Great Basin, you could mistake a small patch of Pleasant Grove, Utah, for a flower-filled backyard […]
In 1968, I discovered Krishna. That year, I took a spiritual journey from being a University of Texas at Austin theater student and anti-Vietnam war demonstrator to a student of the Bhagavad Gita and chanting the Hare Krishna mantra in Los Angeles. After several weeks of instruction, I was initiated […]
A conversation with sculptor Neil Hadlock in anticipation of his 20-year retrospective at Nox Contemporary.
We remember a Utah artist who was a pioneer in backlit art.
This Is The Place Monument by Mahonri Young is about as popular as public art gets in Utah. It’s big. It’s multi-cultural (kind of, counting Catholic priests from Spain and Native Americans). It’s Brigham Young. And visitors can tell what it is just by looking at it. It’s […]
Need to raise money for your favorite cause or charity? Hold an auction! And always include lots of art work. Utah nonprofit organizations facing financial woes, needing to meet operational costs, or financing projects and programs seem to rely more and more on this practice. Auction sponsors and […]
Almost thirty years ago, V. Douglas Snow began building a studio half way between the small southern Utah towns of Grover and Teasdale. He expanded it over time to accommodate his bourgeoning art and family life. “It has grown into a jewel over the years,” said friend and […]
Need to raise money for your favorite cause or charity? Hold an auction! And always include lots of art work. Utah nonprofit organizations facing financial woes, needing to meet operational costs, or financing projects and programs seem to rely more and more on this practice. Auction sponsors and […]
On October 18, 2009 Utah artist Doug Snow was killed in an automobile accident. His friend Frank McEntire recorded the state of his studio at the time of his passing. Frank McEntireFrank McEntire, former executive director of the Utah Arts Council, is a sculptor, independent curator, and […]
Someone once said that, “pottery is as old as the human soul.” The need to carry and store the most fundamental items necessary to sustain life has dictated the need for containers. At the outset of human history, the most fundamental containers were pots, as evidenced in the […]
This weekend, a group of friends, including honorees Charles Bowden and Rosalie Sorrels, sat in Ken Sander’s living room to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Ken Sanders Rare Books. The night concluded a manic month-long series of events in his store, including visiting authors, performers, and artists. Not […]
Through the month of July, the Central Utah Art Center is displaying an exhibition entitled Open Secret:Undisclosed Works of Kent Wing, Alex Bigney, Frank McEntire. In this month’s edition of 15 Bytes, Frank McEntire spotlights his fellow exhibitors. Kent Wing was born close to the Mexican border in the […]
Through the month of July, the Central Utah Art Center is displaying an exhibition entitled Open Secret:Undisclosed Works of Kent Wing, Alex Bigney, Frank McEntire. In this month’s edition of 15 Bytes, Frank McEntire spotlights his fellow exhibitors. Alex Bigney was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Both of Bigney’s […]
“I have lived to bridge the two worlds of the horse and buggy and the automobile,” Ted told me during an interview for The Salt Lake Tribune in March, 1994. “I drove a buggy as a young boy until my dad bought a car in 1916. He continued […]
