In 1966, Salt Lake City’s “Japan Town” was demolished to build the Salt Palace Convention Center, taking with it a deep cultural memory of institutionalized prejudice. Although many Japanese immigrants came to America between 1884 and 1907, Asian immigrants were prevented from becoming naturalized citizens until 1952. A […]
At Salt Lake’s September Gallery Stroll, Mestizo Institute of Culture and Arts | MICA opened Ali Mitchell’s Oil Fields, a multimedia exhibition evoking industrial landscapes as cultural artifacts as a means to explore complex systems of social, political, and economic production. 15 Bytes tracked down the recent University of Utah […]
“Mannequin Defectors I” Much has been written about Jann Haworth, but two things seem customary to mention. One is her formative involvement with Pop art, which began in England and with which she still identifies. This biographical fact might otherwise escape her American audience, since the substantive work […]
“Dinner Napkin No 1” Things were going swimmingly in the Garden of Eden before a sinister serpent offered Eve, Earth’s first woman, an apple. Though such a partaking was expressly off limits, Eve simply couldn’t resist the seduction of the deliciously bright and crisp fruit. Letting her selfish […]
“Have you ever heard of mammal watching?” a professor once asked me. “Besides whale watching?” I admitted that I hadn’t. “Sure,” he continued, “we humans like to watch animals of all kinds, but have you ever heard of a self-described snaker? Met an insect-looker at a party? But no one […]
Like microplastics, Justin Watson seems to be everywhere these days. There was “The Fountain of Youth,” his video installation at Bountiful/Davis Art Center, that came down recently, and currently you can see his piece |human| at Nox Contemporary and the exhibition . . . the future is the past is the future is […]
“The Wild Garden” by Susette Gertsch Some of Utah’s finest plein air painters converged on Brigham City for the Brigham City Museum’s Fourth Annual Plein Air Competition. Lydia Gravis, Gallery Director at the Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery at Weber State, juried the competition and selected Susette Gertsch’s […]
A few boxes remain to be unpacked in the entryway to Saltgrass’s new home. In anticipation of a grand reopening party on Saturday, Sept. 16., members, friends and volunteers are putting the finishing touches to Saltgrass Printmakers’ new space this week. Gentrification pushed the nonprofit out of its […]
In 2016, gallerist Brad Kramer decided to display a painting by J. Kirk Richards depicting the biblical Eve as African. The ensuing controversy came from an unexpected source. Not from the prudish, objecting to the depiction of her naked breasts (Kramer’s gallery is in Provo and his audience […]
Photo of DRYPP, courtesy of EyeKnee Coordination. En route to DRYPP, I passed people taking photos of the sun diffused by haze caused by smoke blown into the Salt Lake Valley from fires as far away as Los Angeles and the Pacific Northwest. I thought about my family and […]
READ LOCAL FIRST is your glimpse into the working minds and hearts of Utah’s literary writers. 15 Bytes regularly offers works-in-progress and/or recently published work by some of the state’s most celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction and memoir. Today we feature three poems from Holladay-based Natalie […]
Pam Bowman came to installation later in life, but over the past dozen years she has been making up for lost time, with numerous exhibitions here and abroad that have garnered respect and recognition, as well as a Utah Arts Council Visual Art Fellowship. Her most recent installation […]
Laura Sharp Wilson’s studio reveals the many influences that inform her work — the room in her basement in Salt Lake City is brimming with books that include botanical drawings, Asian art, outsider art, calligraphy, cartooning, abstract art, and Soviet art posters, so it’s no wonder her canvas […]
Installation view of “Cities of Conviction” at UMOCA. My dad told me a story once, from his childhood in Kansas. This kid lost all his money at a carnival, pitching rings at the necks of Coke bottles, trying and failing to win a prize for his sweetheart. The […]
Lisa Bickmore’s new poetry collection begins with a lament for the lost art of penmanship: “I tap the letters out in fluent clicks,” she writes, “What corsair has made off with my lovely pen?” The Frenchified word “corsair” belongs in a bodice-ripper! If only the act of writing were […]
The 5th Annual 15 Bytes Book Awards is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2017 Art Book Award. As with all nominees, finalists were eligible for consideration if they were published professionally in 2016 and had a connection to Utah via themes, setting, or author’s residence. The […]
This is a big month for the Orem-native Emily McPhie. Not only is her oldest child getting a driver’s license and youngest starting first grade, her new show Seasons has just opened (and will be up through September 20) at David Ericson Fine Art. She says that although it’s bittersweet […]
The 5th Annual 15 Bytes Book Awards is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2017 Creative Nonfiction Award. As with all nominees, finalists were eligible for consideration if they were published professionally in 2016 and had a connection to Utah via themes, setting, or author’s residence. The […]
Still from Isabel Rocamora’s “Body of War” Depending on when you enter the gallery your hearing may be assaulted or soothed. The soundtrack for “Body of War,” one of two films by Isabel Rocamora now screening at Weber State University’s Shaw Gallery as part of the exhibit Ecstatic Solitudes, […]
Stewart Seidman creates expressive acrylic works on canvas and with recycled FedEx envelopes that once served as his paint palettes, transforming everyday materials into compelling contemporary art.
To discover more artists, visit our Utah Artists Directory
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