{"id":38243,"date":"2017-04-03T09:27:24","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T15:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=38243"},"modified":"2025-11-12T08:17:55","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T15:17:55","slug":"painting-arcadia-the-great-good-place-at-alice-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/painting-arcadia-the-great-good-place-at-alice-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"Painting Arcadia: The Great Good Place at Alice Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cIn Arcadia\u201d by Madeline Rupard, acrylic on panel, 2017<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I<\/span>n ancient Greek mythology, Arcas, the son of Zeus and Callisto, ruled over Arcadia, a utopian paradise that later housed the god Pan. Arcadia eventually eclipsed its namesake to become a symbol for a mythical and unblemished landscape, a visage much revered by Renaissance artists. Now, a group of emerging Utah artists seeks to grapple with this longstanding art historical trope in their group exhibition,\u00a0The Great Good Place<\/em>, on view at the Alice gallery until May 5th<\/sup>.<\/h4>\n

A recent graduate of BYU, Madeline Rupard organized the group exhibition featuring fellow classmates Lim Kheng Saik, Aloe Corry, Pearl Corry, David Raleigh and Greg Caldwell. In addition to investigating the implications of the two-dimensional image, the show explores how artists discover their own escape and peace.<\/h4>\n

The press release provides further context for the quest for the \u201cgreat good place,\u201d noting, \u201cwhether the composed parlor paintings of the 19th<\/sup>\u00a0century, the wild urgency of expressionism, or the intentional grittiness and mundanity of modern and post-modern painting, we observe that this pull never evades artists, even if the symbols and shapes surrounding it may change.\u201d For Rupard, the act of painting is a notable trend in contemporary art, and one she sees as a welcomed return.<\/h4>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a lot more we as artists can say with two-dimensional space, [because] in a way you don\u2019t have to follow the laws of gravity,\u201d she says. \u201cI think we\u2019re seeing a new sincerity movement, and the influence comes out of a need for stability.\u201d For some, painting \u2014 at once art\u2019s most revered and well-known medium \u2014 has never gone out of style. Conversely, post-modern critics have shunned painting\u2019s traditionalism, favoring instead the radical trends of three-dimensional art or even more radically, those art movements that reject material mediums entirely. The once-revolutionary movements such as performance art are now over 50 years old and have lost their countercultural muster. It\u2019s no wonder that in the 1980s, painting had seemed to make its triumphant return; only to once again get eclipsed by the nontraditional trends of a fast-paced art economy.<\/h4>\n

For Rupart, painting\u2019s so-called \u201cstability\u201d isn\u2019t pejorative. Instead, stability can be an optimal basis by which to explore surprisingly contemporary themes. Rupart\u2019s large-scale \u201cIn Arcadia,\u201d acrylic on panel, (2017) depicts an open picnic view replete with tall trees, figures, animals, and furniture. Evoking Manet, Rupart\u2019s landscape combines the lush with the mundane, allowing viewers to visually feast upon the disparate details and images she has included. She describes her work as a \u201csearch for a paradise within the bounds of the contemporary,\u201d a recipe which combines the past pastoral landscape tradition with contemporary Internet images. Rupart is fascinated with the idea of the \u201cobjective correlative,\u201d which T.S. Eliot coined to describe \u201ca set of objects, a situation, a chain of events that shall be the formula of that particular emotion.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Indeed this idea of space and the interconnectedness of objects and people within such space are present not just in Rupart\u2019s work, but that of Greg Caldwell, Aloe Corey, and Pearl Corey as well. Caldwell\u2019s charming illustrations comprised of crisp vertical lines and bright colors depict cartoonish figures with text boxes denoting mundane actions and thoughts. Aloe Corey uses acrylic, whiteout and ink to devise four small, yet vibrant interior spaces ripe with geometric illusion. Adjacently, Pearl Corey\u2019s \u201cVarious Ills,\u201d a huge oil and chalk on canvas, is a cacophony of pink, purple and yellow forms made sharp and geometric by the impression of dark charcoal lines guiding, then thwarting, one\u2019s gaze in a variety of directions.<\/h4>\n
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\u201cInterlude I\u201d by Aloe Corry<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
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\u201cVarious Ills\u201d by Pearl Corry<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
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\u201cLet\u2019s Get Some Food\u201d by Greg Caldwell<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
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\u201cGhostery Shopping\u201d by David Raleigh<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Seemingly distinct from the other artists are David Raleigh and Lim Kheng Saik, whose pieces would better have been suited for their own show. Raliegh\u2019s paintings depict garish figures whose features appear disturbingly reductive and disfigured by layers of paint. As the antithesis to arcadia, Raleigh\u2019s works evoke a sense of alienation and decay. Lim Khen Saik\u2019s abstract paintings, \u201cSpace Portal,\u201d and \u201cLandscape 1,\u201d are dreamily enticing, each showcasing the ease with which an artist and viewer can become \u201clost\u201d in layers of paint. \u201cSpace Portal\u201d frames painterly layers of brushstrokes with a multicolored archway within the frame. Saik\u2019s abstract \u201cInto the Woods,\u201d however feels out of place both in comparison to his other works and compared to the exhibition as a whole. An amalgamation of green, the painting fails to visually resonate with the exhibition\u2019s shared narrative.<\/h4>\n

Viewers and curators frequently discount the critical role of artistic collaboration as a motivating force behind the creation of one\u2019s artistic vision. For Rupart, collaboration is critical. \u201cI like having a bit of space in between works and content, it\u2019s not about a literal heaven or paradise or a physical reality\u2026it was more about us talking with each other, this idea of trying to find something that feels justified\u2026a place with all the imperfections and absurdities of life,\u201d she says.<\/h4>\n

\u201cThe Great Good Place,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>various artists,\u00a0Alice Gallery<\/a>, Salt Lake City, through May 5, Gallery Stroll reception April 21, 6-9 p.m. heritage.utah.gov.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn Arcadia\u201d by Madeline Rupard, acrylic on panel, 2017 In ancient Greek mythology, Arcas, the son of Zeus and Callisto, ruled over Arcadia, a utopian paradise that later housed the god Pan. Arcadia eventually eclipsed its namesake to become a symbol for a mythical and unblemished landscape, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":38244,"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":[],"class_list":["post-38243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Inarcadia-930x691.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-15 13:46:38","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\/38243","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\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38243"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98506,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38243\/revisions\/98506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}