{"id":103256,"date":"2026-05-30T11:21:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T18:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=103256"},"modified":"2026-05-30T11:43:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T18:43:34","slug":"two-studios-one-life-lenka-konopasek-and-cordell-taylor-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/two-studios-one-life-lenka-konopasek-and-cordell-taylor-at-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Studios, One Aim: Lenka Konopasek and Cordell Taylor at Work"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Lenka Konopasek in her garden studio, with works in progress. The vaulted ceiling and large window \u2014 additions that transformed what was once a windowless garage \u2014 flood the space with the kind of light that makes the room feel larger than it is.<\/p><\/div>\n

Surely one of the necessary attributes of any artist\u2019s studio ought to be security, on several levels. Picasso\u2019s million dollar studio, in a couple of French chateaus, included numerous spaces, each behind a locked door, and he enjoyed waving around a giant ring of keys as he unlocked one room at a time for visitors, leaving all the others shrouded in mystery. Yet, privacy for their projects, in whatever stage of completion, is only part of an artist\u2019s freedom from danger. Often choosing to work long and irregular hours, both working and traveling alone, in the sort of risky or threatening neighborhoods that is all many artists can afford only adds a burden of anxiety to the pressures of deadlines and demands on one’s ego. Then there\u2019s the value of the contents, rumored or real, cross-referenced with the deplorable reputation of art thieves for wrecking whatever they come across, whether they choose to steal it or not, and which if recovered\u2014never guaranteed\u2014is often damaged, sometimes beyond restoration.<\/p>\n

The studio tale of Utah’s Lenka Konopasek<\/a> and her partner, Cordell Taylor<\/a>, is more than a short story. It\u2019s more like a novel featuring the two romantic leads, universally known as Lenka and Cordell. We started in her primary studio, a weathered, ranch-style cottage at the rear of her garden, in a domestic neighborhood in the 9th and 9th neighborhood of Salt Lake City, behind the home the two have shared for more than three decades. Originally the garage, windowless and as inspiring as a shoebox, it responded well to the artists\u2019 efforts to turn it into an asset on several levels: as a charming feature of their garden, a dedicated space reserved for contemplating and making art, but also a secure place sheltered within their own homestead. So for the quarter century she\u2019s had it, it\u2019s never been replaced by the second, larger, more publicly accessible studio she set up in a more commercial part of Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A corner of Konopasek’s studio holds several bodies of work at once: kinetic-looking metal assemblages on stands, a large laser-cut panel mounted to the wall, and crates holding smaller works in various states.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A worktable in Konopasek’s studio holds panel works at various stages \u2014 circular forms with layered, topographic line work in blue and green alongside a large matte-black sculptural mass.<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s pretty clear that Lenka isn\u2019t at ease anywhere else. It may have something to do with her having grown up in Czechoslovakia, a small, historical, but land-locked and much mistreated nation in what\u2019s known as the cockpit of Europe, which had then only recently emerged from the most destructive war in world history, thus far. In her art, we see endless images of violence, both in nature and among humanity, which she has aestheticized. In her paintings, architectural models, sculptures, and installations, she reveals the sheer, rarely seen beauty of an attribute of existence most of us have trouble even looking at, let alone seeing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A corner of Konopacek’s garden studio, where paintings in various stages of completion compete for wall space with circular panel works and drawings pinned directly to the wood.<\/p><\/div>\n

In addition to that, the area where good studio space was available in Salt Lake City was still struggling to recover from freeway construction that had severed community streets and whole neighborhoods, producing threats of crime on the one hand and the certainty of urban renewal on the other. She knew that any space she could acquire for a studio could be torn down, sooner or later, to build apartments in line with the current public practice of calling for more homes, then using the resulting approval to build investment properties instead.<\/p>\n

In fact, the remote building that houses her other, newer studio came with a laissez-faire owner and inadequate security, which only grew worse when the building was bought by one with no interest in its future. Break-ins were frequent, leading to the day when Taylor, who had stopped by for an errand, called to inform her the place had been invaded and effectively trashed.<\/p>\n

This brings us to Cordell\u2019s studio, a modern business facility set back from its parking lot where, behind a solid-looking brick-and-glass facade, a rabbit warren of office-like spaces lead to something more important: the back rooms have generous floorspace and high ceilings clearly intended to provide their occupants with the flexibility to create whatever options were required or desired. Those who have seen his occasional exhibitions in which he summarizes his progress, or followed them in 15 Bytes, will be aware that while much of his work consists of large, even monumental metal abstracts, he also works in sequences of small, intimate objects that commemorate the process by which he develops new forms and explores their capacity for expression. Most of these end up here in the studio, where it would appear that possibly hundreds of them are displayed on shelves and tables.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The front entrance to Taylor’s studio-gallery on 964 South reads more professional firm than artist’s workshop. The brick-and-glass facade belies what’s inside.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A shelf of Taylor’s welded steel heads, ranked like a formation.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The back room \u2014 high ceilings, industrial fittings, works at every scale from tabletop to monumental.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n