{"id":26069,"date":"2014-07-09T00:22:41","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T06:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=26069"},"modified":"2018-11-29T10:50:28","modified_gmt":"2018-11-29T16:50:28","slug":"jared-lindsay-clark-and-makia-sharp-at-cuac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/jared-lindsay-clark-and-makia-sharp-at-cuac\/","title":{"rendered":"Jared Lindsay Clark and Makia Sharp at CUAC"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The nature of perception, the artist\u2019s vision and viewer responsiveness is a topic that concerns all of art, in every facet, from every place and time, from every artist, and from every viewer. \u00a0From a visitor to a gallery or museum in Salt Lake City to a pedestrian standing in front of a public sculpture in a piazza in Torino, Italy.\u00a0 The subject is one that is currently brought to the fore at Salt Lake\u2019s CUAC with Jared Lindsay Clark\u2019s and Makia Sharp\u2019s individual shows\u00a0Seer Screens<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Passing:<\/em>\u00a0both question the notion of making and looking, and the transportation that is art\u2019s reality known as \u201cresponse.\u201d\u00a0 The evocative art objects in both shows are such that they cause the viewer to pause and to look, to then consider what they are looking at, and in the event that they are sensibly connected to the piece, the phenomenon of transporting we call \u201cresponsiveness\u201d is the result.<\/p>\n

Clark, a recent Utah Arts & Museums Fellowship winner, is an artist familiar to most in the region who are knowledgeable of the most forward or \u201con the cusp\u201d contemporary artists.\u00a0 He is an artist who satisfies his audience on many levels, most significantly the conceptual, intellectual and the sensory. Sharp recently graduated from BYU with a BFA in painting, and her work, much of which was on display at BYU earlier this year, will be a pleasing and a welcome experience for those who desire the most forward or \u201con the cusp\u201d of contemporary artists.\u00a0 As it happens, although their works are different in formal content and conceptual approaches, the pairing of the two is a pleasing one, their outer regions of philosophical leanings being in tandem, and one finds a synergy between the two after thoughtful investigation.<\/p>\n

Sharp\u2019s installation requires less of a penetrative effort, and one might glean from her work this philosophical outer crust without too much effort and much pleasure.\u00a0 One of the most enjoyable of the show\u2019s installed pieces is \u201cUntitled.\u201d\u00a0 A closer look at what initially appears to be a pile of stone rubble, reveals beautifully smooth and polished cast-cement, gem-shaped structures of various sizes and dimensions.\u00a0 Already, the viewer, in an act of looking and considering, has been transported.\u00a0 A pile of rubble has been seen, and then a closer examination reveals what it actually is.\u00a0 After this looking and consideration, for the viewer to see the beauty and find artistic appreciation in a pile of concrete, is a sensible responsive act of transportation on various individual levels.<\/p>\n

Above this piece is \u201cHaze,\u201d a hazy yet transparent sheet of Mylar, behind which one sees a seemingly floating rectangle of lavender. A slit in the Mylar sheet reveals that the rectangle is a gradation from white, at the top, to pure lavender at the bottom. Here again, the viewer has looked, considered, and has been transported. It is no incredible feat of perception, but a serene and beautiful symbol of the act of the elemental processes of viewer perception and responsiveness. The same can be said of all acts of perception throughout the installation, which varies from video installations to framed sheets of concrete.<\/p>\n

As there is so much difference in each of Sharp\u2019s installments, the task is a more apparent one.\u00a0 With Clark, and a room of objects that transcend the boundaries of painting and sculpture into one, the dynamics are different, and fantastic. Each of his \u201cSeer Screens\u201d is a Styrofoam box with a glassy plane of lucidly-colored, transparent epoxy silicon resin.\u00a0 In the case of the polyptych \u201cPrimary Boise Sunset Set,\u201d there are a set of four similar boxes, but the glassy resin is distinct in each.\u00a0 Here, one can see how Clark achieves the most extraordinary color effects in resin as majestic as stained glass windows, yet without context, and purer.\u00a0 Here hues melt into each other in various schemes that cause an immediate connectivity with the viewer and the primordial human sensibility that thirsts for color.<\/p>\n