Given all of the counter-productive and even at times anti-social uses that social media have been put to, it’s easy to wonder if the Internet and its offspring are worth the cost in technology, energy, and time they consume. So it’s good to know that there are whole […]
On any given day, galleries are better able than museums to show artists in depth, so that the subjects and treatments each prefers can be clearly seen. Sometimes a single venue places two such artists side-by-side, allowing useful comparisons, and at other times it’s necessary to travel between […]
If a painter was born and raised on a wild and rugged, scenic western mountaintop, near one of the world’s most famous lakes, and he chose through his art to celebrate the landscape and unique people he lived among, then it seems he ought to work in Utah, […]
Parables, folklore, and traditional stories in general constitute important ways we embody the truths of our cultures: the core reality so often lost in a labyrinth of distorted facts and well-meaning or self-serving untruths. This is, for instance, where we can clearly witness the indisputable and universal second-class […]
In a fever dream, a teenager makes a solitary visit to a relative’s home when no one is around. Descending to the basement, the youth passes swiftly through the familiar game-and-TV room, friendly and open to the sky through windows high in the walls, and enters an inconspicuous, […]
The history of art doesn’t record how many of those it documents have identified with Sisyphus, the king of Ephyra whose pride and cleverness, especially in regards to cheating death, caused Zeus to condemn him to an eternity of struggling to roll a giant boulder uphill, only to […]
A perennially repeated yet mythical image of the artist holds that each is a solitary figure, working and even living entirely in isolation, whether because unable to get along with others or having no desire to. In reality, the successful artist often resembles more the CEO of a […]
NCECA appears to have taken over every available meter of Utah exhibition space in order to accompany Formation, their 2025 annual conference. The only venues they appear to have missed were those belonging to organizations, like the Nora Eccles Harrison MoA, that have their own invaluable ceramic art […]
Just inside the gallery door, a single painting stops those entering and announces that what waits beyond may be different than a lifetime of viewing has led them to expect. Two pre-adolescent girls with snarling mouths and hands like claws seem poised to attack each other. Only the […]
There’s only one thing more enjoyable for an arts writer than discovering a fresh young artist (usually just escaped from one or another splendid college program and shyly showing off inventions they’ve been misled to expect no one will be thrilled by)—that even greater, if only because less […]
Since she assumed the role of Executive Director, Laura Allred Hurtado, along with her eight-member staff and accommodating docents, has seen to it that the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art’s six galleries present an unbroken parade of unforgettable exhibitions. While there’s no sign of flagging anywhere in the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
“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 […]
“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 […]
