What is Art? This is a common question, perhaps even a tired question, but one that any lover of arts has or will encounter at some point in their studies. It was the question that filled my brain while walking through the Eccles Art Center’s Art In Bloom […]
In Utah, modernism was welcomed with open arms by only a belated minority. Three decades after New York’s Armory Show — when the various isms of modern art developed in Europe were revealed to the American public — artists in the state of Utah were still struggling with skeptical peers and a bewildered if not belligerent public — a public that often chose not simply to ignore the new isms, as they might with artistic trends today; they attacked, or at the very least, mocked them. Modern artists, to much of the Utah public, were considered incompetent or deranged, seen as hucksters and commies.
9/24 Leroy Transfield and Rose Datoc Dall featured in BYUtv’s Artful Leroy Transfield expresses his faith through sculpture. Rose Datoc Dall uses her skills as a painter to depict scenes of the Savior. WATCH THE VIDEO 9/26 KRCL’s Meet Your Maker, a series exploring creativity with local maker […]
When Emily Hawkins exhibited two pigment-printed photographs from her “Matriarch Diptych” series this year in the Bountiful Davis Art Center’s juried annual, and one took first prize, her image of a luminous presence prompted speculation that she meant to invoke a divine being. Indeed, she may have had […]
There’s an old story about someone who stared at something so intently it began to smolder — and eventually burst into flames. It’s suggested this is only possible when one looks at it the way artists look at their subjects. And no, they don’t look at things the […]
Nestled away from the sounds of the city, an art studio sits in Ogden’s foothills. To the average eye, it masks itself as a beautiful house, with architecture unlike others in the area. The studio was designed and built by the artist who works in it, Paul Butler. […]
The first Jim Jacobs sculpture that many Salt Lake City gallery denizens may recall seeing was a combination of two wooden objects, one a rather plain chair and the other a sapling big enough to be identified as a tree, yet small enough to fit into the high-ceilinged […]
Anyone who follows the excellent and very full presentation schedule at UMOCA has seen the aesthetic virtuosity of Jared Steffensen in action. Ironically, though, Curator of Exhibitions was not his first choice for a day job. Steffensen identifies strongly, perhaps first of all, with skateboards and boarding, almost […]
Tiffini Porter couldn’t not do this. “This” being a crisp new gallery space — sharp white walls, weathered concrete floors — tucked into a nondescript warehouse space in Salt Lake City’s Granary district. “I’ve been thinking about this for a long, long time,” says the newly minted gallerist. […]
I met with loveDANCEmore artist-in-residence Stephanie García to talk about the upcoming panel, Moving Forward Together: Latinx, Hispanic, and Chicanx Artists in Conversation. It will be this Sunday, Sept 25th at 5:00pm on the Spyhop Rooftop. You can RSVP to attend here. How did organizing this panel start? […]
When a living cell divides in half, first it duplicates its DNA and the strands move to opposite ends of the interior. Then it pinches itself between them until it separates into two new cells, each containing one complete set of genes. The new cells are called “daughters,” […]
In Salt Lake City, one of the most pleasingly brave and authentic events I have the pleasure of attending is 12 Minutes Max, staged by Paul Reynolds and Salt Lake City Public Library (Main Library) every third Sunday at 2 pm in its ground-floor Tessman auditorium. Each month, […]
For more than 40 years, the Glendinning mansion on South Temple has been home to the Utah Arts Council/Division of Art and Museums. No more. The division is getting the boot to make way for the expanding complex of their neighbor and boss: the governor. Which means the […]
Seventy years ago, Utah artist Lynn Fausett wanted to turn the administrative building of the soon-to-be-demolished state penitentiary into an art center. Other ideas for the old prison’s acreage (now home to Sugar House Park and Highland High School) included a reconstruction of the old Salt Lake Theatre […]
Susan Kirby loves Mexico — so much so that her last vacation there lasted six years. I mean, she bought a house (“a modern one”) in San Miguel de Allende, adopted two Mexican cats, Frida (smile) and Brigit, then settled in and just painted. Well, she took tango […]
The pandemic interrupted many habits and routines. Two years later, some of them are welcome losses, a few we may have resumed regretfully, while the resumption of others are joyful rediscoveries of the before times. Jaunts to the Salt Lake City Library, which for 70 years has provided […]
Zachary Proctor paints moments of courage and triumph: race car drivers, acrobats, horsemen and stunt jumpers. But his works are also full of foreboding and disaster: a race car smashing into a wall, a mammoth shark seen rising to engulf a small boat (see our review from Feb. […]
When Alice took a bite from a cake labeled “Eat Me,” or drank from the bottle tagged “Drink Me,” terrifying changes overcame her: she grew to the size of a house, then shrank to that of a mouse. It’s not hard to see those permutations, which artist Jennifer […]
The first thing to say about the 20th Biennial Juried Exhibition of the AAUW Utah Women Artists is that it should not be an exhibition. Instead, it would make a fine museum collection, something both permanent and available on a continuing basis. That way, when we tire of […]
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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