{"id":28329,"date":"2015-03-17T21:56:58","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T03:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=28329"},"modified":"2018-10-10T10:40:57","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T16:40:57","slug":"surviving-suburbia-justin-wheatley-at-15th-street-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/surviving-suburbia-justin-wheatley-at-15th-street-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"Surviving Suburbia: Justin Wheatley at 15th Street Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-28329 gallery-columns-4 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/curtis-olsons-mandalas\/thegreatwalloffriendlygrove\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"290\" height=\"290\" src=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/thegreatwalloffriendlygrove-1-290x290.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/thegreatwalloffriendlygrove-1-290x290.jpg 290w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/thegreatwalloffriendlygrove-1-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/thegreatwalloffriendlygrove-1-120x120.jpg 120w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/thegreatwalloffriendlygrove-1-360x360.jpg 360w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/thegreatwalloffriendlygrove-1.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/curtis-olsons-mandalas\/somtheingaboutthemoderncommunity\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"290\" height=\"290\" src=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/somtheingaboutthemoderncommunity-1-290x290.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/somtheingaboutthemoderncommunity-1-290x290.jpg 290w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/somtheingaboutthemoderncommunity-1-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/somtheingaboutthemoderncommunity-1-120x120.jpg 120w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/somtheingaboutthemoderncommunity-1-360x360.jpg 360w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/somtheingaboutthemoderncommunity-1.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/curtis-olsons-mandalas\/itsallafacade-2\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"290\" height=\"290\" src=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/itsallafacade-2-290x290.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/itsallafacade-2-290x290.jpg 290w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/itsallafacade-2-120x120.jpg 120w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/itsallafacade-2-360x360.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/curtis-olsons-mandalas\/deconstructingdaybreak\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"290\" height=\"290\" src=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/deconstructingdaybreak-1-290x290.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/deconstructingdaybreak-1-290x290.jpg 290w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/deconstructingdaybreak-1-120x120.jpg 120w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/deconstructingdaybreak-1-360x360.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s about suburbia,\u201d says Justin Wheatley of his newest work, on view beginning this week at Salt Lake\u2019s 15th Street Gallery. \u201cSuburbia is loaded with kitsch, we\u2019re all living in this kitschy world where we try to make things look nice or beautiful or wonderful, but in reality, a lot of the times, its fake.\u00a0 It\u2019s not always fake, but a lot of the times it\u2019s just a facade. A stucco facade.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In previous works, Wheatley focused mostly on individual buildings, and usually in a sympathetic manner; but this new work is about the collective and the critique is more acute, the insinuations more astute. A repeating pattern of nondescript roofs, like we see in \u201cIt\u2019s all a fa\u00e7ade,\u201d is a motif that appears in many of these works. \u201cThe Great Wall of Friendly Grove\u201d is the kind of scene one can see driving any major thoroughfare in Utah (and in so many other places just like it across the United States): a tall wall blocks the view of everything but the ever-repeating slopes of roofs in a planned community. But one must question, are the walls here meant to protect, or to hide?<\/p>\n<p>The claustrophobia of \u00a0\u201cHuddling Within Walls,\u201d is an obvious reference to the disharmony that may occur within the well-intentioned harmony of the master-planned community on many levels, be they social, environmental, economic, political, or religious.\u00a0 It can be a jungle out there in these pre-fabricated living environments, according to Wheatley.<\/p>\n<p>Even the more chic communities come under his brush\u2019s scrutiny. \u201cIt\u2019s a mess,\u201d he says of Salt Lake Valley\u2019s Daybreak community, built on top of a tailings pond from Kennecott Copper Mine.\u00a0 \u201cFirst of all, it\u2019s all stucco, but it\u2019s all villages, one is supposed to be a Cape Cod architecture, and then there\u2019s little cottages, and then there\u2019s horrible condos, and they\u2019re all brought together in this big mess, and it\u2019s like the Truman Show.\u201d In \u201cDeconstructing Daybreak,\u201d large structures in the sky are about to be dropped, with no rhyme or reason, on top of a large surface, this amounting to the rationality of Daybreak, for Wheatley.<\/p>\n<p>But Wheatley is no activist and says, \u201cI\u2019m just as much a part of it. Maybe I would live in Daybreak if I had the opportunity to buy a house there. I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s like making fun of myself. It\u2019s making fun of our society, while at the same time being a little ashamed of it. How long can we sustain it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps his answer is found in \u201cSomething About the Modern Community,\u201d an amalgamation of clean modernist homes floating in the sky. But this 20th-century utopia is more an ironic than any kind of literal statement for him.\u00a0 The castle- in-the-sky mentality may be a lingering dream for some, but perhaps the best part of Wheatley is found in his down-to-earth honesty and willingness to accept his role in his own reality, and to not remove himself when questioning and opening minds, while always being open about his personal supporting role in the absurdity of it all.\u00a0 For assuredly, as soon as the laughter stops, then the battle is lost.<\/p>\n<p><em>Justin Wheatley&#8217;s newest work will appear in a three-person show with Lelsie Graff and Trenton Higley at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.15thstreetgallery.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">15th Street Gallery<\/a> (1519 S. 1500 E. Salt Lake City) that opens March 20, 6-9 pm and continues through April 10.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIt\u2019s about suburbia,\u201d says Justin Wheatley of his newest work, on view beginning this week at Salt Lake\u2019s 15th Street Gallery. \u201cSuburbia is loaded with kitsch, we\u2019re all living in this kitschy world where we try to make things look nice or beautiful or wonderful, but in reality, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":850,"featured_media":28357,"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":[979,1025],"class_list":["post-28329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts","tag-15th-street-gallery","tag-justin-wheatly"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/itsallafacade.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 12:28:00","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\/28329","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\/850"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28329"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39494,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28329\/revisions\/39494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}