Renato Olmedo-González is a proud queer immigrant who is passionate about the arts and social change. Born and raised in Guadalajara, México, Renato came to the United States as an undocumented immigrant when he was 15 years old. While still a student at the University of Utah, he […]
“I could not do this in my head,” Jerrin Wagstaff says as he passes an open palm over “Ultrascape #21,” the latest of his new paintings. This is a man who has spent half his life doing something most people rarely do, which is to create pictures of […]
Nancy Takacs’ fourth full-length poetry collection, Dearest Water (Mayapple Press 2022, 77pp.) continues the poet’s journey toward the spiritual center of wilderness, whether encountered out-of-doors (on a desert clifftop, say, or under a star-studded Western night sky) or glimpsed interiorly, after an argument with a beloved husband or […]
Stories, history, and culture weave themselves into the quilts currently on display at the UMFA’s Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts. Organized by Luke Kelly, the museum’s associate curator of collections, and Katie Seastrand, coordinator of school and teacher programs, the exhibition of 18 quilts, comprising early traditional […]
My neighbor, Eduardo Alvarez, asked my husband and me to come by and give him input regarding his work for 0 Tolerance, his show at Provo’s Writ & Vision gallery. I had spoken with Ed at church regarding Matthew Barney, Cindy Sherman, Gaudí, and Marina Abramovic (rare subjects […]
When we say immersive, what exactly do we mean? Is the term simply a catch-all? A trendy way of saying that the audience will perforce participate? Or that the stage will not be a stage? The supposed genre has been around long enough that perhaps it isn’t even […]
Walking into the small gallery at the Bountiful Davis Art Center where Paper Bandages is installed feels like departing on a road trip so early in the day that it’s still dark out. Silhouettes and familiar shapes can be made out at first, but as inky darkness gradually […]
Opening with a comedic premiere, SuperWomen began as Celine David and McCall McClellan showed us both their hilarious and athletic sides. Casual and colorful clothing transformed into the classic high leotards and tights we all know and love. This also included a seamless mix of ambient music with […]
You probably know Matthew Ivan Bennett from his plays, whether for the stage — like his 2013 play about gender identity, Eric(a), or Mesa Verde, which explored the enduring scars of chronic illness — or for the radio (listen here for a recording of “Sleepy Hollow,” produced by […]
Shelby Weaver (U.S., b. 1953) is a Utah outsider artist in a state where outsider has special meaning. He grew up in the small northern Utah town of Hooper. When asked what made him want to make art, he replied, “It was clouds, seeing shapes in clouds, saying, […]
On the one hand, the term “orb” might mean nothing more than a sphere, which is what McKenna Anderl, recently the Junior Artist in Residence at BDAC, chose to paint on a salvaged dictionary page. But then again, the word, primarily used in phrases like “the orb and […]
Katie Seastrand, manager of school and teacher programs at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) at the University of Utah, has been named Utah Museum Educator of the Year. Seastrand received the award Saturday, March 26, at the Utah Art Education Association (UAEA)’s Spring Conference held online. […]
“I recently read Leila Chatti’s Deluge and was awed by her unflinching gaze at chronic illness,” says Kathryn Knight Sonntag, a writer, poet and landscape architect who lives in Salt Lake City. “In her twenties, Chatti, a young Arab-American woman, started bleeding and didn’t stop. Her physicians referred […]
Plain white canvas frames a small rectangle of paint at its center. The painted portion features a viewpoint that looks out over a landscape of red and white rock. A bronze-looking plaque centers itself at the forefront of the work. The viewer is placed as if looking at […]
The beautiful hallways at Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center were filled with the pre-show buzz of an eager audience on the opening night of SALT Contemporary Dance’s Spring 9. My usual excitement was heightened by the fact that the show featured three world premieres, with works by distinguished contemporary […]
UMFA’S AWARD GRANT TO CONSERVE CHIURA OBATA WORK
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 one of 38 Obata works the UMFA acquired in 2021. “Weaving Eastern traditions into more contemporary and Western subject matter, the screen demonstrates the synthesis of Japanese and American art techniques and the artist’s mastery of sumi painting,” the UMFA’s press release says.
A prominent Japanese-American artist of the 20th century with a unique focus on the American West, Obata has remained relatively obscure until recent decades. Trained in Japan, he emigrated to and spent his life in the United States, teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, and creating watercolors, sketches and prints that celebrate the quiet beauty of western landscapes. During World War II, a time of high anti-Japanese immigrant sentiment, he experienced forced resettlement to the internment camp in Topaz, Utah.
Obata’s work resonated deeply with Utah audiences in 2018, when a major retrospective, Chiura Obata: An American Modern, traveled to the UMFA. His work was also featured prominently in When Words Weren’t Enough: Works on Paper from Topaz, 1942–1945, the 2015 inaugural exhibition for the Topaz Museum in Delta.
(image: Kimi Hill, granddaughter of Japanese-American artist Chiura Obata, with Two Running Horses, courtesy UMFA)
Baldwin Radio Company and the Flynn Artipelago
And if you’re an artist and want a booth at the centennial celebration this August, visit our Opportunities section.
Samantha daSilva (born 1978 Santos, São Paulo, Brazil) is a professional artist and educator living and working in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.
As a third generation artist, daSilva was inspired at an early age by her copiously artistic family, namely; her grandmother, a portrait artist, her aunt, an accomplished jewelry designer, and her mother, a watercolorist, who influenced da Silva to experiment with a variety of mediums.
“Water is an intrinsic part of my process. Straight from the tube, acrylic paint is tight, rigid. With the addition of water, the paint relaxes, takes a long, deep breath, begins to move and dance across the canvas. I tilt and manipulate the canvas so that shapes begin to form. I respond to these shapes intuitively. For this reason, my work is never preconceived. I prefer to have the work direct me instead. Fearless Abstract Painting is a process of adding and subtracting to create balance and harmony on the canvas.
My work is a celebration. Once, I identified myself as a victim. Broken, deficient, lacking. Today I am empowered, grateful, anew. Through my work, I attempt to illustrate the redemptive power of choice.”
To discover more artists, visit our Utah Artists Directory
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