{"id":100024,"date":"2025-12-04T01:49:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T08:49:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=100024"},"modified":"2025-12-10T13:19:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T20:19:32","slug":"a-geometry-of-balance-in-dan-evans-cut-paper-abstractions-at-finch-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/a-geometry-of-balance-in-dan-evans-cut-paper-abstractions-at-finch-lane\/","title":{"rendered":"A Geometry of Balance in Dan Evans\u2019 Cut-Paper Abstractions at Finch Lane"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Portrait<\/a>

Salt Lake City artist Dan Evans at his studio on the campus of the University of Utah. Image by Steve Coray.<\/p><\/div>\n

Dan Evans\u2019<\/a> work begins with the question of what remains once an image has been pared to its essentials. \u201cI\u2019ve always been drawn to systems where clarity matters,\u201d he says, \u201cwhere you pare things down until the lack of recognition engages the viewer and holds itself.\u201d It\u2019s a clarity rooted not in what the image depicts, but in the structure left behind after everything recognizable has been reduced. His new exhibition, Peripheral Dependencies<\/em>, at Finch Lane Gallery through December 26, presents photomontages that concentrate on edges, absences, and the quiet internal structures that shape visual experience. They are materially modest but conceptually exacting, built from an ethos of careful cutting, fitting, and refinement.<\/h4>\n

\u201cI was a kid from Salt Lake City dropped into this incredible art school,\u201d he says of moving to Los Angeles to attend Otis\/Parsons for his BFA. \u201cI saw the work of a designer who had done these major, commercially successful projects, and that was when it clicked for me\u2014I realized design was something I wanted to pursue.\u201d He remained in California to complete an MFA at the California Institute of the Arts, then worked in Los Angeles\u2019s world of visual design and studio practice, where restraint met experimentation.<\/h4>\n

Evans\u2019 background in California\u2019s design and music cultures threads through Peripheral Dependencies<\/em>, adding a subtle counterpoint to the clean geometry of his photomontages. It surfaces in the way his compositions feel edited rather than constructed. \u201cComposition has always been instinctive for me; it isn\u2019t calculated anymore,\u201d he says. Several works echo the pacing of analog record sleeves, where cuts function like sequential beats. \u201cThere\u2019s a sequence to how the cuts work together; it isn\u2019t musical in a literal way, but there\u2019s a rhythm to it, like moving through tracks.\u201d<\/h4>\n
\"Installation<\/a>

Dan Evans: Peripheral Dependencies at Finch Lane Gallery.<\/p><\/div>\n

That sense of equilibrium is clear in the exhibition\u2019s smaller compositions, particularly “Proprioception 1.” Constructed from irregular polygons sourced from printed books, the piece is a study in calibrated intuition\u2014the quiet knowledge of where shapes belong in relation to one another. The sharpened edges contrast with the work\u2019s overall effect: a composition that feels grounded, calming, and precise, with vivid red fragments acting as an anchor.<\/h4>\n

The use of red is a subtle nod to the University of Utah, where Evans joined the faculty in 2016. His work on campus connects him to a lineage of modern abstraction that the university has cultivated for more than half a century, shaped by clarity of form, disciplined paper-based practices, and a deep commitment to formal reduction. In many ways, Evans\u2019 approach exemplifies the slow looking and material sensitivity that have defined the university\u2019s visual arts programs since the mid-twentieth century, when Utah modernism was shaped as much by architecture and design as by painting itself. Students often describe his critiques as steady, methodical, and grounded in questions of proportion, weight, and visual logic. His works emerge as fragments cut with architectural accuracy, surfaces aligned with intention, and compositions assembled with a discipline that gives each piece its calm, load-bearing structure.<\/h4>\n

In Evans\u2019 view, this kind of balance is a designer\u2019s concern as much as an artist\u2019s: \u201cAsymmetrical balance is where the designer in me still shows up,\u201d he notes. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the hardest things for students to grasp, but it\u2019s essential to making a composition interesting.\u201d In “Proprioception 1,” that instinctive balance gives the work its grounded structure even as no single element dominates.<\/h4>\n