{"id":102579,"date":"2026-04-20T12:35:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=102579"},"modified":"2026-04-20T12:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:55:12","slug":"after-disappointment-a-resurgence-at-springville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/after-disappointment-a-resurgence-at-springville\/","title":{"rendered":"After Disappointment, a Resurgence at Springville"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Works juried into the 102st Spring Salon at the Springville Museum of Art wait to be installed.<\/p><\/div>\n

Although I said nothing aloud at the time, I was disappointed in the recent Spirituality and Religion<\/em> exhibition at the Springville Museum of Art. It seemed as though the show\u2019s title had been reversed. While there were countless narrow images of specifically Christian traditions, and even more of the same to be found in unusually wordy and predictable artist statements, there were virtually none of the images drawn from the wider, refreshing and encompassing spiritual subjects that are usually the great strength of this annual outing. While it\u2019s impossible to know how much the judges influence this sort of thing\u2014after all they have to create their vision from what the artists submit\u2014there seemed to be an overall retreat under way, perhaps in fear of reaction from the national mood for reversing decades of social and civil progress and taking the country back to what is both celebrated and demanded by our ill-chosen leadership.<\/h4>\n

So when I had a chance to take an advance look at the Spring Salon, I approached the request cautiously. But I needn\u2019t have worried. Not only is this year\u2019s Salon one of the best in memory, but specific examples of restlessness demonstrated by strong artistic impulses abound. As I walked through the rooms seeking that special experience, one after another strong excursion forced me to stop and appreciate the originality that is an essential part of our familiar excellence.<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Linnie Brown, “As of Now”, acrylic on panel, 2025, 36×36 in.<\/p><\/div>\n

Consider, for example, Linnie Brown\u2019s subtle, yet radical departure from her abstracts built from cubist quotations of domestic architecture. By fragmenting what she sees and turning the parts variously transparent, so that she can layer them into virtual landscapes, she has led the way towards the next step in cubism that some of our leading 20th-century critics named as the necessary next step to resuming the progress of Modernism. Her new direction steps back from the depiction of suburban vistas and concentrates on the sheer pleasure of color and form that underlay her semi-representational works, liberating her strength as a pure painter who is also arguably our best surviving academic artist.<\/h4>\n

Two more seismic shifts demonstrate that while there are new materials, there are also still unexplored uses of traditional media. Margaret Abramshe has been receiving some overdue attention since her appearance in last year’s Salon, and in that context \u201cOh Patience\u201d seems more than a bit autobiographical. Here we are told nothing about what the subject awaits: a train, a plane, an absent-minded husband? Her posture demonstrates the title virtue of a nation of women who waited endlessly for the human rights they began to successfully demand only a few years ago, and are now seeing stripped away again by a last gasp of reactionary greed. Azalea Rees, meanwhile, in her \u201cSelf-Portrait 2026,\u201d uses stitches almost like engravers’ marks, only the way she layers them up argues for brush strokes, in contrast to the manufactured weave of her supporting canvas. The sheer intelligence and discernment she visually claims for herself is brought to life along with a streak of skepticism recalling a favorite form of creative spelling: one that replaces the P in skeptic with a question mark.<\/h4>\n