Salt Lake City
June 1–27, 2026
Reception: June 3, 5:30–7 pm

In Explorations, Salt Lake City artist and educator Sophia Esterman presents paintings and prints that reflect on motherhood, loss, and the cyclical nature of life. Created over several years marked by raising young children and the death of her own mother, the works weave together personal experience and symbolic imagery in layered visual narratives. Themes of birth, growth, mortality, and renewal emerge through densely composed compositions that invite viewers to discover meanings gradually, much as the artist herself often comes to understand the significance of an image only after it has appeared through the creative process.

The exhibition also reflects Esterman’s dual role as artist and educator. Several works revisit subjects and techniques developed through classroom projects, embracing the challenge of returning to familiar materials and uncovering new possibilities within them. Through painting and printmaking, Esterman explores how repetition, memory, and daily experience can become sources of ongoing artistic discovery.

Originally from the Washington, D.C. area, Esterman studied painting and printmaking at Carnegie Mellon University and Columbia University before moving to Salt Lake City in 2009. She later earned an M.Ed. in Art Education from the University of Utah and has taught art in Salt Lake City schools for more than a decade. She currently teaches at West High School while maintaining an active studio practice focused on examining the complexities of lived experience.

Marmalade Branch Library
280 West 500 North
Salt Lake City, UT 84103
801-594-8680

Hours: Monday–Thursday 10 am–8 pm; Friday–Saturday 10 am–6 pm; Sunday closed.

Listings

15 Bytes posts press releases regarding the arts in Utah, including exhibitions, call for entries, job opportunities, workshops, art talks. Send your press releases to listings@artistsofutah.org. Please include an expiration date for your posting.