Here’s a question each of us should ask ourselves: what is my legacy likely to be? Lately, each generation or era gets assigned an identity — the Greatest, the Boomers, the Millennials — each of which might signify something. But what is the relation between a generational impact […]
Taxonomy is a fundamental human activity … the behavior that enables thinking. It separates humans from the rest of the earth’s animal population. The science of distinguishing and classifying is what enables us not only to identify and react to the myriad things we encounter every day, but […]
When she returned after the war, Elaine Michelsen brought home some strange ideas. Unknown, foreign, from outside. Ideas suggested in pictorial form, alluded to in spoken word. Gathered from somewhere in the the wide world, she brought them to her Rocky Mountain home in Salt Lake City, Utah. […]
Elizabeth Sanchez’s exhibition Así se Acaba el Mundo/This is How the World Ends invites individual reflection toward the constant endings and beginnings of life. Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, Sanchez moved to Utah in 2003 to study painting at Brigham Young University. She received her BFA in Studio Arts […]
On a field of gravel stretching, by all appearances, to the horizon, torn and crumpled $100 bills lie scattered around rusting, broken-bladed iron scissors. It’s not the fun and games we normally associate with the phrase “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” but it is watercolorist Mariko Kowalski’s comment on the […]
Maynard Dixon captured the dry heat of our desert landscape in dusty yellows and browns, but he could also remind us of quieter nights and bright skies with an array of blues and greens. Each painting of earth, sky, or being is a graphic depiction of shapes created […]
The Utah Division of Arts & Museums has announced the 15 Utah artists in design, performing, and visual arts that have been awarded $5,000 fellowships to recognize their individual artistic excellence and support their professional careers. The fellowship provides unrestricted cash awards based on review by prominent arts […]
“I often wonder if I were the only person on earth, would I still make art?” Russell Wrankle wrote in a recent newsletter to the followers of his online gallery, Shape Theory Collective. “I’m not sure. Would you?” It’s a question many of us confronted during the between […]
In 1982, “New American Nudes,” an exhibition of precedent–breaking figure studies, began its introductory essay with a closeup photograph of a particularly shapely … ear. This bit of anatomy, which few readers probably had thought of that way before, was as nude as it was unexpected in its […]
A gallerist who helped build Salt Lake City’s thriving art scene, Dolores Chase died on April 18, 2023. As her obituary states, Chase was “passionate about poetry, the visual arts, roses, the ocean, and politics.” Chase, who grew up in Berkeley, spent three years in Europe before completing […]
What is identity to an artist? In cosmopolitan Europe, it was often where you came from: Leonardo from Vinci — a village outside Florence. El Greco: “the Greek,” Spain’s most popular painter. Johannes Vermeer of Delft, a successful trading city, eager to show off its luxury goods. In […]
Two decades ago, it seemed as though every artist felt compelled to respond to the events of 9/11. Twenty years later, not so many had something to say about the Covid-19 pandemic. Two locally showing artists who did both used water to represent a shapeshifting threat not just […]
If you’ve been in Salt Lake City’s art community over the past two decades, you’ve probably run into Lane Richins. Maybe at Weller Book Works, in Trolley Square, where Richins has helped stage countless readings. Or you might have seen him at Salt Lake Acting Company, or Plan […]
Informally trained and largely self-taught, Angelika Brewer was taught to read, write and embrace her creativity by her teenage mother and her almost entirely blind grandmother. With encouragement from a high school English teacher, she discovered the world of Spoken Word Poetry. She has been a featured speaker […]
December 31, 2022 marked the last day in my studio space of 20 years. 20 years. Thousands of images created, breeding grounds for over 80 shows, tens of thousands of hours of work, collaborations with curators, gallerist, collectors and friends, hundreds of studio visits and tens of thousands […]
According to a satirical poster by the Guerrilla Girls, the premier advantage of being a woman artist is “Working without the pressure of success.” Down their list a few places comes, “Being reassured that whatever kind of art you make it will be labeled feminine.” That second permission […]
You might have heard a variation of this over Easter dinner (or whatever the matriarch at your table called Sunday’s meal): “The Great Salt Lake has already gone up three feet!” A vague enough statement — three feet from what, you might ask. But the implication is clear: […]
When the late Art Danto, then a leading American philosopher and one of the stars of art criticism, identified the 1990s as “the decade of women artists,” he specifically referred to those who had achieved national or international recognition for what we now call Contemporary Art. The sculptor […]
It’s a worn cliché, the idea that we should think “outside the box.” But sometimes the metaphor rings with the sound of truth, especially when the box is an actual one. Kristina Lenzi was, in her words, “on a rampage” to put performance art on Utah’s map, but […]
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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