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.
A small animal’s skeleton is visible from inside a domed sphere at the center of an elaborate golden frame. The adornment evokes the gilded macabre of a medieval Christian reliquary. Throughout And No Birds Sing at Nox Contemporary, one sees Frank McEntire’s love of interesting and unusual found […]
Set against a background of shades of gray, bright, vivid colors and shapes pop. Deep blue circles, squares filled with the colors of a warm red sunset, and sharp triangles fill the canvas. Maude I. Kerns’ “Composition #57” feels very reminiscent of works by Kandinsky. In contrast, on […]
Together, two paintings hanging side by side in the Alice Gallery illustrate the paradoxical nature of language in general and titles in particular. Each features a large, single figure juxtaposed among smaller ones, and each is identified by a particular word. In “Society,” scale separates the lone figure […]
A towering, light purple mountain range punctuated with intermittent white waterfalls cascades powerfully down the top half of the canvas. The pastel purple, pink and blue of mountain and sky draw the viewer into a mystical, dreamy world. But, as the viewer’s eyes descend down the canvas they […]
There any number of ways of looking at the painted world of Russell Case, but perhaps the most important one is that he paints real places. This fact was brought home to me while visiting his current exhibition at David Ericson’s splendid new gallery in the Avenues. First, […]
When I remember my favorite movie scenes, it’s often because of something particularly revealing that an actor does. But in the hands of a really good director, there is always another actor in the scene whose work I may not remember — may not even consciously notice — but whose work precedes those I do notice and may be far more telling. Perhaps the camera holds a shot for a several seconds, until I become aware that through its lens I am fixated, staring at something. Then it wheels about and fixes on something else, and I understand what the character sees and how they are thinking. The camera in those minutes reveals itself as the most important actor.
Working in a digital print medium, Jiyoun Lee-Lodge draws figure outlines — sophisticated cartoons, so to speak — of figures set for the most part in only slightly more detailed settings. Often she borrows the overall composition from an almost too-familiar image, like Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks,’ a Manhattan […]
“Great Salt Lake Sunset” does several things we look for art to do. It immortalizes a dramatic moment in time and space: the setting of a brilliant sun over Antelope Island on a haze-free day, offering an inspiring, spectacular, and always rare event that offers a durable alternative […]
A linen print tacked to the gallery wall beckons our gaze with its earth-colored, vertically-configured shapes. At proximity, the planes of color converge with bold, textured patterns and strategically placed outlines that reveal the underlying canvas. Immersed in the scene is a standing figure — a maid — […]
It quickly becomes apparent from her Instagram posts that Terri Froelich takes countless photos of her nautical environment, mostly shot close enough to isolate textures like wood grain, rusty industrial decay, sun-dappling on water and any bright colors that sport unexpectedly on the dull fabric of the everyday. […]
Nicknamed the Beehive state, Utah proudly integrates imagery of beehives into many aspects of its being: the state flag, road markers, architecture, and more. The beehive has roots in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the arrival in the land Brigham Young named “Deseret,” or […]
Back in school we learned that a line has one dimension: length. A plane measures two ways: length and width. Space, of course, has three dimensions. Art schools tell us that if it has three dimensions it’s a sculpture, while if it only possesses two, it’s a painting. […]
Since a majority of the state’s residents adhere to teachings from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, religion in Utah can often feel homogeneous. Because of this, we often make assumptions concerning the religious and spiritual beliefs of individuals around us. It is this climate that […]
“Lincoln Park Arboretum,” one of eight multi-part and five single-panel paintings at Phillips Gallery, sets up a paradigm and writes subtext for all 13 paintings. The celebrated arboretum was presumably the focus of a visit to Seattle by both Joseph and Melinda Ostraff, she in her role as […]
The act of pairing in a diptych offers the artist a diverse set of methods for storytelling: there is room for direct comparison, but also for extension. In the case of the latter, the structure allows for further exploration of a theme unbound by a singular canvas. Simply […]
