Features on public art published in 15 Bytes, Utah’s art magazine.
If all that walking between the Capitol and Washington Square has left you winded during recent protests, you may have stopped in for a short break at the Brigham Young Historic Park, at the northeast corner of State Street and North Temple. Developed in the 1990s as a […]
Whether you came as a visitor to the April 2025 general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or were on your way to the State Capitol to add your voice to one of the recent protests, if you passed through Temple Square in downtown […]
On April 11, 2025, a new public art installation titled Hidden Waters was unveiled along North Temple in Salt Lake City. The project features eight eye-catching sculptural works mounted on utility poles from State Street to 600 West, tracing the buried path of City Creek as it flows […]
Tooele has had a graffiti problem. Walk through the town’s center and you’ll see signs of it—brick walls patched over with mismatched paint, ghostly traces of tags. The marks are subtle now, but they tell the story of a city trying to reclaim its surfaces. The first major […]
First there was the billboard. Now the phone booth. Interventions by public and private organizations on behalf of the Great Salt Lake continue at pace. Since February of this year, a new billboard in Salt Lake County has been bringing the Great Salt Lake’s condition into sharp public […]
Oh brother, he’s at it again. The prop impresario and sorcerer of the cinematic, David Brothers has dumped another load of art on the Salt Lake scene. You may remember “Jimax,” from 2023. Set in a narrow alley in Salt Lake City’s Central 9th neighborhood, it was a […]
Demolition began last week on Salt Lake City’s Fleet Block, where, since 2020, large murals depicting individuals killed by police, both locally and nationally, have faced the public along 300 West and 900 South. Created by the anonymous collective SL Mural Makers, the murals began appearing on the […]
When Salt Lake City’s visionary art czar Stephen A. Goldsmith decamped for Oregon in 2019, he left some stuff behind – like several of his own works at Phillips Gallery and many entrancing water projects in public spaces and private homes. Now, the Salt Lake City Arts Council’s […]
In 2015, Logan, Utah’s Planning Commission granted conditional approval for a series of murals on a historic downtown building at 22 E. Center Street. The murals, mounted on a durable material designed to resemble paint, would change out periodically. While the project had strong support from the […]
Once known for its dazzling array of neon signage, State Street played a defining role in shaping Salt Lake City’s urban identity. In a nod to that legacy, artists Alexander Billany, Verónica Pérez, Chuck Landvatter, Emma Ryder, Liz Shattler, Valerie Jar, Kalani Tonga, and Ryan Perkins have created […]
Nestled beside the crook of Utah’s interstate system, where the Idaho arms of I-15 and I-84 join in Box Elder County, Tremonton is one rural town that is keeping pace with growth in more urban areas. In fact, one can imagine in a decade or two that it […]
Someone should slap a signature on these things and call them art. Land art. The Delta Solar Ruins near Hinckley, Utah, either tell the story of an ambitious but ill-fated solar energy experiment or, as at least one U.S. District Court judge would have it, a massive fraud. […]
When someone writes the history of Utah’s modern mural scene—not the indoor ones of the WPA era and the early Latter-day Saint temples; nor the ancient one of pecked and painted sandstone; but the mural scene of latex paint and aerosol cans—they’ll want to devote at least an […]
When the Mormon pioneers arrived in Utah and laid down their grid system, they emphasized the cardinal directions with a series of right angles. The Interstate system did something similar a century later. But nature doesn’t work in right angles: one of the longest natural pathways in the […]
The first question you may ask yourself is, Why? Why stick a piece of chewed bubble gum onto a brightly-painted Volkswagen Bug in downtown Provo, Utah? Surely, not to be transgressive: the owners have encouraged you to. Nor likely out of necessity—that is, a big wad of gum […]
Most Utahns know these towns as pit stops—places to eat, pee and refuel while traveling between the Wasatch Front and points south. They’re familiar only with the fringes, where chain restaurants and gas stations line the highway exits. But if you venture along the business loops between I-15 […]
We’ve heard a lot recently about plans to transform or revitalize downtown Salt Lake City. There’s renewed interest in the city’s Green Loop, the idea for an urban forest meandering through the city that would provide more opportunities for recreation and community engagement. The grassroots Rio Grande Plan […]
In the heart of South Salt Lake, a mesmerizing mural captures the essence of vibrant creativity and intricate storytelling. This large-scale mural, created by Key Detail, a Belarusian-born, New York-based muralist known for his vivid and dynamic compositions, transforms an otherwise ordinary wall into a vivid canvas that […]
