{"id":28943,"date":"2015-06-03T23:56:45","date_gmt":"2015-06-04T05:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=28943"},"modified":"2025-11-09T22:31:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T05:31:36","slug":"bountiful-now-howa-gallery-adds-a-new-exhibition-space-to-salt-lakes-neighbor-to-the-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/bountiful-now-howa-gallery-adds-a-new-exhibition-space-to-salt-lakes-neighbor-to-the-north\/","title":{"rendered":"Bountiful Now: Howa Gallery adds a new exhibition space to Salt Lake’s neighbor to the north"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Thomas J. Howa\u2019s recently opened gallery is intimate, eclectic and a lot of fun.\u00a0 That\u2019s not to say he doesn\u2019t have a roster of some of Utah\u2019s most well-respected artists. And he\u2019s tossed in several lesser-known painters, like Sierra Dickey and Tyler Swain, graduates from USU with bachelor\u2019s degrees in fine arts. \u201cBoth are technically good and needed an opportunity,\u201d says Howa. \u201cCordell Taylor gave me a chance in 1998 at his gallery on 2nd South [he sold out the show], and I think it\u2019s important to pay it forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a wide variety of genres spread over three rooms \u2013 making a visit to this gallery at 390 N. 500 West in Bountiful more than interesting \u2013 Howa will feature his own excellent work in an unusual way: by having a studio in the back with an opening cut in the wall so passersby can watch him paint. \u201cI\u2019ll show my work there, too, so I don\u2019t take away gallery space from my artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howa says, \u201cI understand what it is to be an artist; now I\u2019m trying to understand what it is to run a gallery. I was an artist before I was a gallery owner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be a different kind of gallery. But be enough the same to achieve the success of the other galleries. I want things to happen now. And I realize that\u2019s not going to happen.\u00a0 But it doesn\u2019t mean I can\u2019t have that attitude: because that\u2019s what has made me successful \u2013 the \u2018I want it now\u2019 attitude. \u201c<\/p>\n

He gives his artists a better split on commissions than most galleries and has tried to select the best artists he could find in the state: for example glass artist Sarinda Jones sits as a board member of the Salt Lake City Arts Council; watercolorist Nancy Maxfield has served as president of the Utah Watercolor Society; found-art sculptor Frank McEntire, former art critic for The Salt Lake Tribune and Salt Lake Magazine, author and former Executive Director of the Utah Arts Council was selected by Mayor Ralph Becker for an award for Service to the Arts; Cordell Taylor who\u2019s also received a Mayor\u2019s Award in the Arts as well as an NEA grant, and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraffic\u2019s picking up,\u201d says Howa. \u201cWe\u2019ve got jewelry and clothing, too, and that\u2019s drawing people in the door. The biggest problem I\u2019ve got now is convincing people in Salt Lake that it\u2019s worth taking a 15-minute drive to see some good art. Bountiful is not Alaska,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n