{"id":102704,"date":"2026-04-24T10:03:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T17:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=102704"},"modified":"2026-04-29T10:54:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T17:54:00","slug":"anne-wolfer-paints-a-world-alive-in-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/anne-wolfer-paints-a-world-alive-in-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Anne Wolfer Paints a World Alive in Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Anne Wolfer, “Thread of Light,” 30×30 in.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cMy paintings stem from an innate desire to express something words cannot,\u201d says Anne Wolfer in her artist statement. The challenge to those who write about visual art may never have been more succinctly stated. Then again, the unmistakable differences between the way she represents the visible world and how every other artist does so, offer an opportunity to wrap a few sentences around what she sets out to make visible to the mind\u2019s eye, and how we might share it with the mind\u2019s ear.<\/h4>\n

Consider this: a familiar photograph by Ansel Adams depicts a boulder field that extends across the entire visual field, from nearly touching the camera at its bottom to the remote distance at the top. What makes this picture stand out is that every one of those round stones is perfectly in focus. It\u2019s not something that can be done with a cell phone or even a top-of-the-line SLR. It requires a view camera. But the important thing is that it achieves a frequent goal of photography\u2014to find a way to represent the hard-edged intransigence of the natural world, its unyielding determination to be what it is, as it is.<\/h4>\n

But the world Anne Wolfer presents could scarcely be more different. She sees a world forever in flux. Even her fields and mountains are in motion, alive in time. Specificity is essential to how she achieves this\u2014this crop, or in any event, this season\u2019s growth. Today\u2019s sky. A pasture saturated with rainfall that reflects the sky through newly green growth, but which as spring turns to summer will dry some and and turn a brilliant yellow.<\/h4>\n
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Anne Wolfer, “Gathering,” 30×30 in.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Anne Wolfer, “More Than Apples,” 18×18 in.<\/p><\/div>\n

There\u2019s a line in the musical Oklahoma! that says \u201cAll the cattle are standing like statues,\u201d and that\u2019s often how they\u2019re painted. Wolfer\u2019s cattle don\u2019t just stand; they gather, because they\u2019re alive and that\u2019s what living creatures generally do. Similarly, her vivid darkness isn\u2019t just out there; it\u2019s upon us. This incessant trembling of nature, punctuated as it is from time to time by cataclysms, invites the painter to present another traditional way of observing its presence: the still life. In \u201cMoca w\/ still life,\u201d there are an espresso pot, a coffee cup, a lemon in a bowl, and a pear. Seeming as immobile as eternity, yet (and to the frustration of someone who likes their coffee hot) each of these things would be perfect as a symbol not of permanence, but of the brevity of perfection. Or for that matter, of anything.<\/h4>\n

And here\u2019s the thing. That stunning view of the weather retreating over a freshly renewed pasture, or the ribbon of light that seems to sever the land, or the snowfall\u2013dusted distance … Stand still for a moment and take them in, because they won\u2019t last long, and despite the repetitious ways of nature, they will never come again just as they are now. That Anne Wolfer sees this reality in them might be deduced from her titles: “Shoulder Season,” “Open Pasture,” “Thread of Light,” “Moving On,” “Gathering,” “Drive By.” But of course much more will be found in her ever-active brush, with which she \u201cdeconstructs\u201d her subjects even as she presents them to her viewers for their pleasure. While she delights in small and subtle details, like the reflection of the sky off wet ground, she may shred a mountain with clouds or conceal as much with light as she reveals. And, of course, when the moments in life she captures are gone, they will still remain for us to see, in her art.<\/h4>\n
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Anne Wolfer, “Shoulder Season”<\/p><\/div>\n

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Trent Call and Anne Wolfer<\/em>,\u00a015th Street Gallery<\/a>, Salt Lake City, through Apr. 30.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy paintings stem from an innate desire to express something words cannot,\u201d says Anne Wolfer in her artist statement. The challenge to those who write about visual art may never have been more succinctly stated. Then again, the unmistakable differences between the way she represents the visible world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":847,"featured_media":102711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[979,2129],"class_list":["post-102704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts","tag-15th-street-gallery","tag-anne-wolfer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Thread-of-Light.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-25 23:24:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/847"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102713,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102704\/revisions\/102713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}