Salt Lake City

October 9 – November 6, 2025

In Blueprint for Ruin (Strip Mining, Ecological Scars, and the Contaminated Legacy of the Anthropocene), artist Shawn Edrington examines landscapes bearing the scars of human intervention—open-pit mines, deforested terrain, and ecologically fractured sites. Using the cyanotype process, historically tied to scientific illustration and architectural blueprints, Edrington transforms these damaged environments into striking, map-like abstractions. His prints—defined by grids and ghostly silhouettes—document not progress, but extraction and erasure.

The works meditate on loss and futility, tracing the aftermath of industry and expansion while confronting the inadequacy of reclamation efforts to restore ecological balance. Edrington’s imagery becomes both evidence and elegy, offering a haunting reflection on our collective complicity in environmental degradation.

Originally from Salt Lake City, Edrington studied at Salt Lake Community College before earning a BA from Idaho State University and an MFA from Boise State University. Now Assistant Professor of Art at Idaho State, his interdisciplinary practice spans drawing, photography, video, sculpture, and sound, exploring the tensions between human and nonhuman systems.

Venue: Salt Lake Community College
Center for Arts & Media, Edna Runswick Taylor Foyer
Salt Lake Community College, South City Campus
1575 S State Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84115
Admission: Free