2/5 SLUGMAG: “Where Art and Community Meet”: The Curatorial Ethos of Michelle Pace Art is a very vulnerable gift,” says Michelle Pace, artist and curator of the Urban Arts Gallery’s 2025 exhibition Shades of Expression. “Art comes with judgement and opinion: positive, negative, whatever.” For Pace, an artist, […]
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 […]
The late novelist and essayist Martin Amis called it “The War Against Cliché.” Visual artists don’t talk about it so much, but particularly in Contemporary Art there’s been a move away from the predictable format of years past, though by no means has that familiar version disappeared. Yet […]
For Laurie Lisonbee, art is a meditative, almost metaphysical process. “Art is a fascinating search for something that is coming into consciousness and making itself known,” she explains. “The process of artmaking then gives physicality to what was formerly intangible and unknown.” Her paintings combine traditional realism with […]
One of the rarest and yet most compelling phases in an artist’s career is the time when she emerges like the universe from the chaos of limitless possibilities and begins to find her best direction forward: the work that will fulfill her potential. Antra Sinha has been working […]
“I was almost 30 when I started my bachelor’s degree at Weber State,” recalls Amber Peck. Having stepped away from college years earlier to raise her growing family, Peck found herself deeply immersed in the complexities of motherhood. “I was depressed, and I needed something for me. So, […]
Regular visitors to Phillips Gallery will be familiar with the work of Mark Knudsen, whose paintings of what he has called “the new West” have been a regular presence in its exhibitions for several years. Knudsen’s style—rooted in his years as a designer and illustrator for The Salt […]
The 2025 session of the Utah Legislature opened last week. While every legislative session holds significance for Utah’s art community (see Utah Cultural Alliance’s priorities for the current session here), none may have been as important as the session held 126 years ago, the state’s third, which created […]
There’s a nifty bit of architectural symbolism going down at the Bountiful-Davis Art Center this month. Around the periphery of the building’s main space, three separate artists have set up works that address the ever-present dilemma of how a society feeds its members. What’s in the middle, instead […]
At the end of 2024, V. Kim Martinez finished a four-year tenure as chair of the Department of Art and Art History. She begins the new year on sabbatical, preparing for a two-month residency in a recently devastated Los Angeles. Martinez is an artist and educator whose work […]
Looking to break down barriers of entry into the art world, specifically in the alternative processes of film photography, a trio of Salt Lake City photographers has turned their workspace at Art Space Commons into a community darkroom. With The Red Room, Jillian Meyer, Sarah Taylor and Angelique […]
Each of the three satellite galleries at BDAC currently offers an individual artist’s view on the theme of what we eat: how it’s grown, harvested, and handled. It’s not a common theme in art, but these artists have found creative ways to explore it, and the staff at […]
Jann Haworth has not run out of women to celebrate, whether in Salt Lake City, Utah, or in Davos, Switzerland. Her “Celebration of Women” mural, initially put together digitally during the pandemic and printed on vinyl for outdoor display, has now been collaged into a massive mural at […]
One of the more charming and inspiring stories to be told in paint recently has only a couple of weeks remaining at the South City Campus of Salt Lake Community College. Old Man and His Mountains: The Trail of Tails, Trials, and Triumphs is the work of Robert […]
Artists identify so well with the insults their critics hurl at them, that some of those eventually became the proper names of the most popular and respected artistic styles in history: “Impressionism,” “Cubism,” and “Baroque” come to mind. Meanwhile, Americans have always had ambivalent feelings about intellectual pursuits: […]
“The beginning of the new year is always a good time for me to evaluate the past and to implement new ideas for good business practices, efficiency, and production,” says David Koch, a seasoned artist with an impressive career. At 61, Koch finds himself at what many might […]
Jerrin Wagstaff’s American Mythology, currently on display at Modern West, is a profound exploration of abstraction, narrative, and the myths embedded in the American landscape. Seamlessly blending historical context with a striking visual language, Wagstaff creates works that are at once accessible and challenging, inviting viewers to grapple […]
There’s a whole menagerie of people who work behind the scenes in Utah’s art community, doing both the heavy lifting and the heavy paperwork to get shows up, receding into the background to give the limelight to the artists being featured. Since 2017, James Walton has been the […]
One of the things that women are generally better at than men is building a community. Get men together and many compete for status, want to be at the top of whatever they make. Women are more likely to seek connection and bond over their experiences than try […]
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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