{"id":87541,"date":"2024-10-07T11:44:01","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T18:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=87541"},"modified":"2024-10-09T09:04:33","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T16:04:33","slug":"elevating-its-walls-forseys-fine-furniture-embraces-local-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/elevating-its-walls-forseys-fine-furniture-embraces-local-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Elevating Its Walls, Forsey\u2019s Fine Furniture Embraces Local Art"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Work by Darryl Erdmann, left, and Emily Brooks Edmunds, center, are part of Forsey’s new initiative to hang original work by local artists in their showroom.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Diana Alberghini told her bosses it was time to get rid of the prints. \u201cWe have really elevated furniture in here, so we need elevated art,\u201d she told them. And that\u2019s how Forsey\u2019s Fine Furniture, a family-owned business that\u2019s been around since 1951, became a gallery space.<\/h4>\n

Forsey\u2019s operates two adjacent showrooms on Highland Drive, halfway between Salt Lake City\u2019s Sugar House neighborhood and the new Millcreek city center\u2014an area that has been a furniture and interior design center for the Intermountain West for more than a century. Three generations of Forseys have operated the business, which features more than 40 brands, \u201cwith a focus on American, Canadian and European home furnishings.\u201d Alberghini, a native Rhode Islander who wields an unabashed East-coast directness, is a more recent transplant. She moved west to Los Angeles to work in art galleries, but \u201chated it, because everybody in the LA art world is awful.\u201d Next she tried the Pacific Northwest, where she worked in furniture sales and interior design for six years. Two years ago, she followed her partner to Salt Lake City.<\/h4>\n

The idea to transform Forsey\u2019s into a gallery space was hatched with co-worker Austin Lindsey<\/a>, a designer and artist. (\u201cThe boss knows nothing about art,\u201d Alberghini says.) Earlier this year, they began pushing to replace generic prints with original work by local artists. \u201cIt\u2019s a win-win,\u201d says Alberghini. \u201cWe beautify our walls and we give artists a space to show.\u201d<\/h4>\n

This summer they began hanging work by Lindsey, Emily Brooks Edmunds, Sant Mengucek and Lizzie Wagner. They held a reception for the artists in June to announce the shift and plan to hold quarterly receptions for a rotating group of artists. More than three-quarters of their space now features original art, and on Thursday, Oct. 11, they\u2019ll host a reception for four of their newest artists: Luke Anderson, Darryl Erdmann, Sarabeth Clevenger and Arden Tesch.<\/h4>\n
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Emily Brooks Edmunds combines oxidized metal, metal texturing and painting to create her abstract work.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Work by Austin Lindsey, who with Diana Alberghini, has spearheaded the furniture store’s new initiative.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s a mix of established, mid-career and emerging artists. Clevenger has been making work for more than 70 years and will be represented by both landscapes and abstract work. Darryl Erdmann is a regular on the Utah scene (and 20 years ago he did something similar to Forsey\u2019s initiative, hanging local art with mid-century furniture in his Retro gallery). Anderson shows in galleries Montana and Santa Fe and hanging at Forseys will give him the opportunity to experiment outside the niche of regular gallery work. Tesch is an emerging artist and is showing one of her first series. “She’s been honing it and we\u2019re interested to see where she goes with it,” Alberghini says. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those perfect examples of giving a little jumping off point for a younger artist.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Wend your way through sofas and end tables and you\u2019ll find work by more Utah artists: Janell James has been showing here for several years; Ryan Moffett, Lindsey\u2019s former teacher, is represented by both functional ceramics and sculptures. Alberghini says their process of finding artists has been \u201cloosey goosey\u201d: they\u2019ve invited artists they know, others that they\u2019ve found online; a client might mention an artist friend and they\u2019ve been happy to take a look and see if it\u2019s a good fit. Interested artists are welcome to contact Alberghini and begin a discussion.<\/h4>\n
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A sculpture by Ryan Moffett in front of works by Sarabeth Clevenger.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Works by Arden Tesch’s figurative work have been hung next to a wall of upholstery swatches.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

When Utah\u2019s private gallery scene first emerged in the 1950s, it was birthed in hybrid spaces like Forseys: furniture and clothing stores that also hung local art. With such spaces you lose the opportunity to see art in the way we have become accustomed to: in a white-cube, almost sacral space with no distractions; but some patrons like to see the art as it might appear over a couch. And hybrid spaces help overcome some of the hurdles of starting a gallery: you\u2019ve already got walls, foot traffic and a paid staff.<\/h4>\n

Forsey\u2019s is looking to expand their Utah art hang into their additional showroom, which features more traditional furniture and will require a different sort of art. Also, more of it: the space is almost 5600 square feet. Overall, though, the process has proceeded faster than Alberghini and Lindsey had imagined. \u201cWe were like, oh, in two years, hopefully we’ll have converted the space. And at this rate, it’ll be much less than that.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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On the floor, paintings by Luke Anderson (left) and a sculpture by Ryan Moffett (right) and paintings by Darryl Erdmann above.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Local Art Exhibit<\/em>, Forsey\u2019s Fine Furniture<\/a>, 2977 S Highland Drive, Salt Lake City, Oct. 10 (reception 5 pm to 8 pm) – Nov.1.\u00a0 For information call or text 801.487.0777.<\/p>\n

All images courtesy of the author.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diana Alberghini told her bosses it was time to get rid of the prints. \u201cWe have really elevated furniture in here, so we need elevated art,\u201d she told them. And that\u2019s how Forsey\u2019s Fine Furniture, a family-owned business that\u2019s been around since 1951, became a gallery space. Forsey\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87550,"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":[18,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gallery_spotlights","category-visual_arts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_6161-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-15 06:46:26","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\/87541","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87541"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87582,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87541\/revisions\/87582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}