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RETRO FURNITURE CHANGES COLOR

GALLERY SPOTLIGHT: CHROMA GALLERY

"In Utah you've got to do things slow. If things change they change slowly." So says long-time Utah artist Darryl Erdmann as he sips a pepsi in his Sugarhouse studio. Erdmann should know. A native of Brigham City, he has been working in the Utah art world for a number of years. Either as gallery owner or artist, Erdmann has been witness to Utah's slow adaptation to change.
In the late eighties Erdmann ran the Salt Lake Contemporary Gallery in downtown Salt Lake where he showed minimalist and colorfield art at a time when "Mark Rothko wasn't a household word." Reception to the gallery was not overwhelming and it eventually closed down. Since that time, abstract art has failed to achieve a pervasive presence in Utah. The Salt Lake Art Center has had more and more exhibits highlighting contemporary art and Phillips Gallery has survived showing abstract work, but few other venues for abstract art have proven viable.
But Erdmann is trying one more time with a gallery. In the past six months he has slowly changed his Retro Furnishings, which specialized in original sixties era furniture, into the Chroma Gallery. The furniture store always had his pieces hanging on the wall. Now, however, as the furniture has, piece by piece, gone into the homes of collectors, the paintings have become the dominant elements. Erdmann has added works by other artists to the gallery space, taken down the Retro Furnishings sign, and stenciled his new gallery logo on the outside windows..
"I would have never thought to do this," explains Erdmann," but Salt Lake has changed in the past five or six years." Erdmann says that a shift in demographics and a robust econcomy has helped make marketing contemporary abstract art more feasible. More people in Utah are able to consider buying art and as more and more people move into the state the number of those interested in abstract art has increased. Erdmann has also found success with clients outside of the state. The Olympics has already brought him a few customers and he says he sells both art and furniture to collectors from coast to coast.
The evolution which has created the Chroma Gallery began a few years ago when Erdmann was operating a furniture store in the Holladay area. One day, while customer Dave Johnson was purchasing a chair, he mentioned to Erdmann that he was planning to transform the recently vacated Rockwood Furniture building in Sugarhouse into artist studios. Erdmann said he was definitely interested.
His interest became delight when Johnson returned months later and said, "I saved you the front windows." The windows came with a 25' x 25' gallery space, now vibrant with Erdmann's abstract work, as well as a 15' x 25' studio space.

The Chroma Gallery presently features the fascinating sculpture of young Utah artist, Andrew Smith. At age 22, Smith has made a dramatic entrance into the Utah artworld. One of his most ambitious works to date, "The Bearing See," received the Directors Award at the 2001 Spring Salon show at the Springville Museum of Art. Art director Vern Swanson says of Smith's work, "I find myself returning to look at it again and again. His work is not just interesting, it's riveting."
Smith has attended a few art classes at Utah Valley State College, but his true training came by fortunate pedigree -- his father is Dennis Smith , well-known sculptor and painter. The father's influence is definitely present in the fanciful amalgamations that are Smiths work, but the younger sculptor has convincingly managed to forge his own presence with the use of tracks, ball bearings, wheels and even fishbowls.
A few of the works in Chroma have the feeling of having come out of the laboratory of some mad scientist. Water rises, balls roll and machinery creaks and grinds. "I like to incorporate moving elements into my sculptures, something that will draw people in and make them wonder how it works. I want to encourage people to step into a new frame of mind where they can see forms and shapes in places they normally wouldn't," says Smith. His father describes the work as a "celebration of curiousity."
Smith has recently been approached for commissions, and his work may soon be placed in a children's hospital, an appropriate site to celebrate curiosity.

2001 HELPER ARTS FESTIVAL Organizers for the 2001 Helper Arts Festival, which took place August 18th and 19th, were extremely pleased with this year's event. During the festival, the historic mining town of Helper, Utah in Carbon County hosted close to sixty booths, including forty-two artists. The festival had approximately 8,000 people attend, a large portion of whom came from other areas, including the Wasatch Front, Southern Idaho, and the Western Slope of Colorado. A unique portion of the festival was the plein-air competition in which over sixty artists participated.

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A recent collaborative exhibition at the Salt Lake City Library's Atrium Gallery (In and Out of Habit July 7 - August 18) provides me with the perfect opportunity to vent.
To rant, really; to rant and rave, at least for a few lines, about what is wrong in the art world these days.
Or at least the education process that is producing so many of our artists.

But before the ranting a few disclaimers:
1. Since from what I can tell all the artists in this collaboration are still students (at Brigham Young University) they should not be held completely responsible for their sins - - their teachers are to blame
2. This is not an invective against post-modern thought. Some of my best friends are post-modernists:)

Let me start off by saying that the paintings in the exhibit are for the most part striking. They are interesting. Strong color designs with layered paint applications make the paintings interesting enough to stop and look at. To consider.
But that's where the trouble begins.
Because if we consider them long enough, we might swivel our head about, searching for any extras that might help us to consider more.
And voila, we're not disappointed. For extras there are.
A small stack of them perched atop a stand between the two elevators.
The artists have been kind enough to provide us with a prospectus/artists' statement/thesis proposal/confessional about the collaborative effort we have been considering.
And oh, here it goes, let the ranting begin . . .

During the month of September, Salt Lake City Public Library's Atrium Gallery features the photographs of Craig Denton, professor of communications at the University of Utah.