BRIGHAM CITY
Brigham City Museum-Gallery: UP: Men of Biblical Proportion, 51 Art Quilts by national male artists November 3rd through December 1st. The Brigham City Museum-Gallery's exhibit this month turns the tables on gender-traditional artforms when 50 male American artists show what they can do with the traditionally feminine practice of quilt-making. These artists, whose styles range from realism to the abstract and whose techniques encompass traditional and nontraditional materials, tools and processes, have all selected a man from the Bible to portray in their 22 inch square quilts.

Some of the figures portrayed in this exhibit, such as "Goliath" by Mark Lipinski, an Emmy Award nominated talk show producer and program executive from New Jersey, will be familiar to just about anyone, regardless of their religious background. Others, like Nat Thomas's "Naaman the Leper," are less known, even to the artists themselves. "I know nothing about the Bible, particularly the Old Testament," says Thomas, of Margaretville, New York. "All I needed to hear was 'Naaman the Leper,' and I knew I had my man. I've always been attracted to people on the edge of society, and in spite of Naaman's skills as a general, his disease placed him on that edge...."

Like Thomas, Joe Cunningham was attracted most by the descriptive titles of the character. When he looked at the list of personages sent to him by the curators of the exhibit, his preference was Achan because next to the name was written "troublemaker." Cunningham says, "Only when I read his passages in Joshua did I learn that Achan had been stoned, along with his sons and daughters, for taking plunder from Jericho, a crime that would have been legal if he would have waited until the next town...." In "Methusalah," a white birthday cake decorated with three lit candles, Indianan Todd Price alludes to his chosen subject's status as the oldest living man in the Bible. "I thought this might get others to wonder why the Bible mentions the oldest living man and not much more about him," says of his first quilt.

Men of Biblical Proportion is sponsored by the Brigham City Museum and the Brigham City Library. Library Director Sue Hill scheduled and funded the show. It was organized by Ruth Harris of Hinton and daughter Chantelle Cory of Broken Arrow, both in Oklahoma. The exhibit debuted at the Houston, Texas, International Quilt Market in 2005 and will continue to travel the United States through December 2007.

OGDEN AREA (First Friday Street Stroll November 3rd, 6 to 9 pm)
Eccles Community Art Center UP: In the Main Gallery, recent paintings by David W. Jackson of Mountain Green, and in the Carriage House Gallery paintings by Wendy Chidester of Draper. An opening reception for the artists is planned for Friday, November 3rd from 6 to 9 p.m. in association with Ogden’s First Friday Street Stroll.

David W. Jackson is proficient in a variety of art media. A native of Ogden, he received his B.S. Degree from Weber State University and M.F.A. from Utah State University. He was an art teacher at Bonneville High School for 27 years and retired in 2000 to devote more time professionally to art. Currently, his energies are focused on watercolor, oil and bronze. He has crafted bronze sculptures for Weber State University, Fremont High School, Skyview High School and a number of private businesses.

Wendy Chidester, exhibiting in the Carriage House Gallery, is a professional artist and teacher. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Utah with an emphasis in drawing and painting. Her work is characterized by bold brush strokes and strong vibrant color.

Gallery at the Station UPCOMING: Paintings by Brandon Cook and painted gourds by Carma Hart Fuller through November. Opening reception Friday November 3 from 6-8.

Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery UP: Society for Photographic Educators Southwest Region through November 22, 2006. This exhibition highlights the work of members of the southwest region of the Society for Photographic Educators. Members are faculty at universities and colleges throughout Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Universe City (2556 Washington Blvd 458-8959): UP: In conjunction with the First Friday Art Stroll and Weber State University Department of Visual Arts, Universe City will feature the photographs of Tracy Longley-Cook and Tomiko Jones, two award recipients for the Society of Photographic Educators (SPE) southwest regional conference, hosted by Weber State University Department of Visual Arts. Universe City is featuring the student component of a two-part photography exhibit sponsored by WSU and SPE. A conference reception for this exhibit is scheduled for November 10th, 5:00-8:00, but is not limited to conference attendees as the public is invited.

Tracy Longley-Cook is currently completing her M.F.A. degree in photography at Arizona State University. She received her B.F.A. in photography at the University of Washington in 1997, and also spent a year studying at the Maine Photographic Workshops, 1994-95. As an educator, Longley-Cook taught photography at the Waterford School in Sandy, UT for two years before becoming a graduate teaching assistant at ASU in 2003. On her selection of photos on exhibit, Bearing Still, Longley-Cook says "These images represent a psychological investigation, where an elusive threshold between what is perceptible and what is unknown exists. Acting as both participant and examiner in these obscure settings, I reflect on themes of memory, desire, personal inquiry, and transformation. I am interested in how we perceive and process experience, either real or imagined."

Tomiko Jones, of Seattle, Washington, is a Master of Fine Arts candidate at the University of Arizona, Tucson. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology/Studio Art in 1994 from Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington. She has also been a visiting artist at universities in the United States, Mexico, Japan and Spain. In Memory and Identity Explored Through the Narrative Story, Tomiko explores narrative and memory. " My work focuses succinctly on the individual: uncovering the psychological nature of losing one’s identity and thus being forced to rediscover or reinvent a new identity," she says. "It is deeply personal. . . I use myself as subject. I strongly feel the direct relationship between the artist's intention and the creation of an image does not lose a "generation" in the articulation from artist to model. I use the self-portrait in two ways: telling a story as an illustration for a universal story that is accessible to the individual memory and identity of the viewer's experience; secondly, as a vessel for a larger representation of "woman" or "object" or "Other." Through this anonymity I aspire to reach the viewer from another angle, by allowing the representation to become personal."

The exhibit will run through November 18th, Fridays, 5-8pm; Saturdays, from noon-8 pm. Private appointments to view the exhibit individually or as a group tour can be made by calling 458-8959.

LOGAN
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art UP: Deadly Sins/Measured Virtues: Recent Work of Alice Leora Briggs. Briggs' work is part of the contemporary revival of figurative realism in American art. Combining art historical references, medical illustrations, candid photographs and drawings, Briggs uses a method of incising a material called clayboard with India ink to create richly detailed drawings and mixed media installations. Among the exhibited works are scraffito drawings, a series of mixed-media tableaux of the seven deadly sins, and "Purgatorio" -- a room-size installation that uses aluminum recovered from soda cans and offset printing plates that are obsessively attached with thousands of tacks to create a machine-like environment. The interior of the installation is papered with stock exchange tallies. It contains a chamber and an elevated reservoir -- filled with trompe l'oeil turquoise water -- and the Altar of the (L)apse, featuring a decapitated version of Andrea Mantegna's "Dead Christ" undergoing open heart surgery.

BOUNTIFUL
BDAC UPCOMING: November 17 - December 23 BDAC Annual Holiday Show and Sale.