The annual Utah Arts Festival (UAF) mask exhibition, now in its fourth year, opened Friday, Jan. 15, for Gallery Stroll at the UAF Gallery at Artspace, 230 S. 500 West, Salt Lake City. Featuring the work of 29 local artists, the exhibit is not only a display of […]
Thinking about my favorite piece in the UMFA collection, I am overwhelmed with memories. I was the collection photographer for the museum from 2006-2014, and I saw every piece in the 20,000+ collection—from a giant stained-glass dragon sculpture with interior lights and incense burners in the nostrils, to […]
Alexander Hraefn Morris has a thing for ravens – they are a sort of totem, a recurrent, though abstracted figure in many of his paintings. It’s not surprising, then, that “Hraefn” translates to “raven” from the Old English and that Yorkshire, England, is where Morris recently moved and […]
He’d rather show his work at Smith’s grocery store on the Avenues – galleries don’t agree much with Frank Anthony Smith anymore. But you can see his latest drawing, “The Big Tiny,” in a show opening January 16 in The Gallery at Library Square. He told me last […]
With Randee Levine it is hard to tell what comes first, philosophy or art. Levine’s art is an extension of herself, a physical manifestation of the psychological process and understanding that has brought meaning and awareness to her personal life, and has become central to her professional life […]
Today’s artists come of age in a thicket of appropriation, whether it’s the quotation of a famous artwork, like Marcel Duchamp’s drawing a mustache on a postcard of Mona Lisa, or pop music made from sampled, previous hit songs. So it came as no surprise when, in April […]
It took a lot of moxie to even consider turning AJ’s Kwik Mart into a decent art gallery, but Terence K. Stephens has done just that – even creating a “nice urban lofty kind of thing,” as he describes his elegant upstairs quarters, to reside in with his […]
Nathaniel “Nano” Taggart first saw the work of artist Andy Marvik at the Braithwaite Gallery at Southern Utah University, where both of them work. “If I hadn’t already decided that the arts had to be at the center of my life,” reports Taggart, “I suspect that standing in […]
A pair of marble lions from 15th-century Italy flanks a wide opening between two of the UMFA’s European art galleries. Modestly scaled, these little-noticed figures are each barely 2 feet long and less than 10 inches high. The lion on the right is calm but alert; on the […]
Dr. Michael Hicks is a widely-published musicologist at Brigham Young University. He teaches music theory, score analysis and aesthetics. He is also a singer/songwriter and a composer. His new work for string quartet titled “Of the” will premiere on January 31st at Libby Gardner Concert Hall as […]
by Christine Baczek America’s West is full of lonely roads and desolate countryside where a paper map and spare tire are more important than a cell phone. These roads set the stage for Passing Through, in which author and photojournalist Richard Menzies recounts the “existential wonderland of a […]
Small and unassuming, Dirck Hals’ pair of “Merry Company” images embodies a morally potent message about the fragility of life. Both works depict a boisterous gathering of individuals, who through their interaction provide a glorious snapshot of 17th-century Holland. As a master’s student in art history, I studied […]
by Krystal K. Baker Rennie’s dad is dead, and with his death, the life she’s known shrugs from her shoulders like a worn coat. Devastated and confused by the incidents surrounding his mysterious death, she is just as devastated by her father’s exit from her life as she […]
“The activity of actually making the painting, its successes and defeats, frequently is the most important factor we feel in the work, not simply how it ended up.” —Tony Smith I must have been among the last tourists to encounter the UMFA collection in its previous home, just […]
Most local audiences know Daniel Charon as the new Artistic Director of Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company (his recent work for the company has been reviewed on 15 Bytes here and here). What they may not know is that his dancing identity not only includes artistic direction and choreography but also a […]
To start out 2016 we checked in with some Utah artists to see what they are up to in the New Year. We’ll be running these short features throughout the month. When you think “Connie Borup” you think “nature” and often “trees,” though that theme has morphed in […]
Each fall and spring semester, I accompany my upper division art history students from Westminster College to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts so they have the experience of viewing global art in person, resulting in a research paper. After a tour of the galleries, I steal away […]
In August, Southwest Art named Tyler Swain one of “21 Under 31” artists to watch in 2015 (he’s all of 26 as of Dec. 31). He told them he’s been playing drums since he was 10 and “thought that being a professional musician would be pretty awesome.” He […]
“Very different,” “unique,” “colorful” – all are words Michael Beasley hears when he shows his three-dimensional masks to people. The artist has been making the intricately patterned masks, reminiscent of Native American or Mexican folk art, for nearly five years but had never tried to sell them until […]
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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