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Art Professional Profile: Salt Lake
City
Kent Rigby
by Shawn Rossiter
Kent Rigby's life is busy.
Real busy.
Rigby is a local sculptor and ceramic artist who works a day
job as a licensed architect. In addition, he has served for over ten
years as President of the Salt Lake Gallery Association, has been a driving
force behind Left Bank Gallery and will continue his efforts at the Gallery's
space on 2nd West as the Curator for New Visions Gallery (see article
page 1).
Rigby has worked in the architecture profession
for over thirty years. "It's a fast paced, often high stress environment,"
he says. "Every job has a deadline and budget. My current position with
AJC Architects is quality control plan checking, detail design, and specifications
writing. I look at every project several times before it goes out the
door. I'm also doing some construction administration work. Never a dull
moment."
His attention to detail and project management come in handy with
his work at New Visions Gallery. After having served as Director and Public
Relations Director for Left Bank Gallery, he now assumes the role of Curator
for New Visions. Though the exact nature of his position is evolving,
he will be in charge of long range gallery planning and shorter range exhibition
coordination as well as organizing the logistics of each show.
In his "free time" Rigby has also served faithfully as the Salt
Lake Gallery Association's President for over a decade. Rigby's
greatest challenge in this position has been a condition he knows all
too well. "Everyone is so busy these days, it is hard to get a high level
of participation from gallery owners. This is a problem with our information
age society, not just gallery owners. Everything is going way too fast."
Rigby himself, however, does not seem to run out of steam. During
his time with the SLGA he has managed, among other things, to implement
a sponsorship program which involves local businesses in supporting Gallery
Stroll.
With such a hectic life, one might think that Rigby's artistic pursuits
could easily get derailed. But not so with the Rigby express. When Rigby
lost his studio space a year and a half ago he merely changed the nature
of his work
“I lost my studio space about a year and a half ago and have not
been able to do the kind of work I am recognized for. Rather than stop
producing all together, I decided to do some stuff out in the back
yard."
The ‘paintings’he produced are currently on display at New Visions
Gallery. The exhibit is called "It's Only Paint After All," a reference
to something Rigby heard Tony Smith say when he studied with him at the
University of Utah. "He was referring to the idea that students (artists)
shouldn’t be too attached to their work or be afraid to experiment,"
Rigby explains, "because ‘its only paint after all’. This has helped
me through out the years maintain emotional distance to my work, whether
hand-built or wheel thrown ceramics, sculpture, or mixed media what-ever.”
In 2001 Rigby was recognized for his work in the visual arts
by receiving the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Award for Visual Art.
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Left Bank's New Vision . . . from page 1
Visions for Learning
may not be a household name yet in Utah's visual arts community, but
many will remember one of its more recent projects -- the outstanding exhibit,
Utah Arts 2002, held during the Olympic Winter Games. Utah Arts 2002 exhibit
catalog sales and donors provided the funding to start the Utah Arts Scholarship
Fund which has also been supported by two years of Salt Lake Arts Council
grants. This fund provides scholarships for under served high school
art students, which provide one-on-one mentoring with local professional
artists. It is clear, based on accomplishments such as these, that Visions
for Learning has the experience and expertise needed to make a success
of this new gallery venture.
Like the Left Bank Gallery, New
Visions Gallery is still an artists’ cooperative, but with a very
different mission. It will act as a laboratory where semi-professional,
serious and committed artists can experiment with new ideas and diverse
media to advance their work in a non-commercial setting. Performing artists,
installation artists, and anyone creating challenging or exemplary work
will be encouraged to join.
New Visions Gallery
will continue in the Left Bank space in the heart of downtown Salt Lake
City - a midpoint on the monthly gallery stroll. Because expenses are
paid by sponsors instead of relying on commercial sales, New Visions Gallery
can present unusual exhibits that visitors might not see in a privately owned
gallery.
Gallery Director Jim Frazer says
"We are trying to create a context in Salt Lake for artists who do
alternative, experimental work, thereby enriching the art community
and the cultural life of the city as a whole."
As a Visions for Learning Program, New Visions Gallery plans to connect
with the community’s artists by offering regularly scheduled artist-run
critiques, discussions and collaborations. Opportunities for outside
exhibits featuring local and national artists will be a regular focus
in the yearly show schedule. The first will be the second annual Show
us your Stuff II in January featuring all university and graduate student
work followed by A Season for NonViolence, a juried exhibition focusing
on the theme of Non-Violence sponsored by the local chapter of the M.
K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence (call for entries for both exhibits
can be found in the AoU Forum.)
This is an opportunity for local
artists to become part of a sustainable artistic community independent
of the traditional commercial gallery system. New Visions is looking
for serious and committed artists who want to be a part of this new
project and adventure.
Currently showing at the New Visions
Gallery is an exhibit by Kent Rigby entitled, "It's Only Paint After
All. Admission to the gallery
is free and the public is always welcome. Off street parking is available
in front of the gallery.
New Visions Gallery is a member of the Salt Lake Gallery
Association and participates in the monthly gallery strolls, the
3rd Friday of each month (1st Friday in December).
New Visions Gallery is located at 242 South 200 We.st 84101 (801)
539-0343 Wed-Sat 5-9
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Information for the news nibbles section
can be sent to:
artistsofutah@netzero.net
The deadline for the next issue is January
15th.
For continuing announcements from Utah's visual
arts community, visit
AoU's Daily
Calendar
of Events and the
AoU Forum
.
-- Sen.
Robert Bennett (R-UT) has been appointed to the National Council on the Arts,
replacing Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL). The other Congressional
ex-officio members to the National Council on the Arts remain
Sen. Michael
DeWine (R-OH), Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), Rep. Cass Balenger (R-NC),
Rep. Betty McCullom (D-MN), and Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA).
Utah Cultural Alliance
recommends cultural advocactes take a moment to congratulate Senator Bennett
on this appointment.
Senator Bennett's Salt Lake
office:
125 South State Street, Suite 4225
SLC, UT 84138
801 524-5933 phone
801 524-5730 fax
Jan Bennett, cultural liaison
janet_bennett@
bennett.senate.gov
The Utah Arts Council announces that applications are now available
for the Visual Arts Fellowship Award. All artists working in painting,
sculpture, mixed media, photography and craft are welcome to apply. Juror
for the event will be Mario Naves, New York City artist and columnist.
Application deadline is Feb. 20, 2004. For more information call 533-3581.
(Download application at
www.arts.utah.gov/
visarts/visfellows.html
.)
--A gallery, located in Holladay,
will be moving later this Spring. The new gallery's location will be in
the Foothill area of Salt Lake City.
The Utah Museum Association
has awarded Iola Wagner of Roy the Volunteer of the Year Award. Wagner has
been a volunteer at Treehouse Children's Museum of Utah since 1998, and
has donated more than 2,100 hours of service to children and families at
the museum.
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