{"id":97580,"date":"2025-11-03T09:37:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T16:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=97580"},"modified":"2026-05-31T09:04:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T16:04:23","slug":"modern-wests-act-three-keeps-a-local-base-while-looking-nationally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/modern-wests-act-three-keeps-a-local-base-while-looking-nationally\/","title":{"rendered":"Modern West’s Third Act Keeps a Local Base While Looking Nationally"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Branding on the glass: the new street-facing facade signals Modern West\u2019s Act III. Image by Steve Coray.<\/p><\/div>\n

Shalee Cooper had already begun to pack. A few paintings were boxed, ready to be shipped back to the Mandelman\/Ribak Foundation, which the gallery had been working with since 2018. After six years at the Bogue Foundry, Modern West\u2019s lease would be up in December. In a changed art market, the future of the Salt Lake City gallery felt ambiguous: there was a real scenario in which the physical space would shutter and Modern West would exist online only. Cooper was packaging the first works to be sent back when founder Diane Stewart called and said: Wait.<\/h4>\n

Across the country, from mega-galleries to co-ops, the art world is doing this same kind of reassessment. A surprising number of large galleries have closed their physical locations outright, or opted for private appointment-only spaces, or gone fully digital. Modern West found themselves at that same fork in the road. The two floors they occupied at the Foundry were unnecessary for the way they actually functioned in 2025. The question was: find a new space, go fully online, or close entirely. It looked like they were headed toward the second option when Stewart found something.<\/h4>\n

On the 200 East block of South Temple\u2014where Victorian mansions on the north side face a run of mid-century and late-20th-century commercial buildings on the south\u2014a space just east of Price Realty became available. The site had been a tuxedo shop for decades, then Mod A-Go-Go, and the ground floor is essentially a glass pavilion: a fully glazed, street-facing showroom, with additional square footage and offices upstairs. \u201cI love the mid-century vibe and architecture,\u201d Stewart says. \u201cI\u2019ve always thought it would make a great gallery space.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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The new Modern West space on South Temple offers street visibility and a fully glass-enclosed ground-floor showroom. Image by Steve Coray.<\/p><\/div>\n

As Modern West prepares its cross-town move, from the industrial west side under the freeway to the historic, visible corridor along South Temple, it\u2019s contemplating a change of address, yes, but also a shift in model.<\/h4>\n

Stewart first opened Modern West Fine Art<\/a> in 2014 with the idea that Utah should be part of the larger Western art conversation. Their location on 2nd & 2nd was in a walkable downtown cluster next to CUAC, across from Guthrie Studios, blocks from Phillips Gallery and Anthony\u2019s Antiques. But it was also a place in transition, with adjacent structures razed and rising. And rents quickly followed.<\/h4>\n

When they moved to the historic Bogue Foundry<\/a> in 2019, it was a scaling of ambition that matched a rebranding already underway: 10,000 square feet, moveable walls, a sculpture garden, a Taschen alcove, all matched Modern West\u2019s desire to fully lean into the a contemporary West identity, with opportunities to show new work, develop collaborations, and work with a broader swath of artists. Bogue provided an art campus, with FFKR Architects, Saltgrass Printmakers and more than a dozen artist studios, though its isolated location in the shadow of I-15 made it a destination. Originally, the plan was to occupy the ground floor, while the second floor\u2014connected by an interior stair but with its own entrance\u2014would operate independently as a co-working space. That sounded right in 2019. Not so much in pandemic-shuttered 2020.<\/h4>\n

Cooper\u2019s husband, Tyler Bloomquist, joined the team to help manage the second floor space in the wake of the pandemic. They tried various options: a workshop venue, an artist residency platform<\/a>, an event venue, and as they did so, Cooper says they were shifting closer to a non-profit model.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe expanded our team to manage all the programming,\u201d Cooper says, \u201cand it didn\u2019t necessarily connect back to our original goal.\u201d In the wake of these attempts, the gallery took stock and found the data confirmed what they already suspected: their audience was not local. \u201cAbout 70 percent of our sales were online, and outside Utah,\u201d Cooper says. \u201cWe would get a Mike Whiting sculpture in that\u2019s a flamingo, and someone in Sweden wants to buy it\u2014and will pay for the shipping.\u201d<\/h4>\n

So as the lease approached its end, Modern West genuinely considered a radical turn: go online, focus on museum partnerships and corporate collections, place artists in shows in other cities, and abandon the physical gallery entirely. \u201cWe were really leaning toward maybe going online,\u201d Cooper says now. \u201cI thought: if we go online, I\u2019ll have more time to travel and build relationships with curators and organizations outside the brick-and-mortar.\u201d<\/h4>\n

But then there was the question of art itself: if a gallery is only online, what happens to the physical experience? What happens to scale? \u201cIf you only show images online, the work becomes diminished,\u201d Cooper says. \u201cIt loses scale, it loses relationship. And we’ve always felt it’s important to be part of our community.”<\/h4>\n

The new space at 242 South Temple is what changed that calculus. “The new building is visible,\u201d Cooper says. \u201cIt\u2019s in the heart of downtown Salt Lake. It has parking. It\u2019s big enough and intimate enough.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Programming will become more deliberate, with fewer rotating shows. The roster will adjust: fewer artists represented deeply; more artists worked with flexibly, based on what museums and private clients are actually seeking. \u201cWe\u2019re reimagining the way we work with artists,\u201d Cooper says.<\/h4>\n

“I\u2019m excited about new directions the gallery is moving towards,” says Stewart. “More collaboration with museums and art centers, and more opportunity to curate commercial spaces. We want to continue to explore how to best bring world class art to SLC, while supporting local artists and the great art scene in our city and state.”<\/h4>\n
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Modern West\u2019s Diane Stewart (front), with Tyler Bloomquist and Shalee Cooper in front of the gallery\u2019s new downtown address, 242 South Temple. Image by Steve Coray.<\/p><\/div>\n

Modern West<\/a> has extended their exhibition Fidalis Buehler: Stories from the Bone Box<\/em> through November 26 (see our review here<\/a>). A final celebration of the Bogue Foundry space will take place on Friday, November 21 from 6\u20138 PM during Salt Lake Gallery Stroll, and the gallery will be available by appointment only throughout its move in December and early January.<\/p>\n

15 Bytes photographer Steve Coray stepped in to the gallery for one last look at the space before the move.<\/p>\n