PARK CITY
Meyer Gallery UP: Douglas Aagard, through December 23. Aagard is primarily a self-taught artist. Aside from constant painting, his best education has come from association with successful artists, among whom Gary Ernest Smith has had the greatest influence. For many years he had dabbled in art as time permitted and had some success as a watercolorist. For nearly three years, while remodeling one home and building himself a new one, he didn’t pick up a brush. Being away from painting for that long made him realize he was miserable without it. He now has a fire of determination to be a great artist that will never fade. A great milestone for Aagard was achieved in 2003, when he quit his job of many years as a carpenter, and devoted his whole time to painting. He lives in Rural Utah with his wife and three children in a 19th century pioneer home he has restored. Aagard is featured in the November issue of Western Art Collector Magazine in a six-page spread. UPCOMING: Two-person exhibition featuring new works by George Allen and Rich Bowman begins Friday, December 28.

Julie Nester Gallery UP: Roadside Attraction, an exhibition of twelve new paintings by Tom Judd, through December 26. Judd's artwork is a series of collages and fragmentations of surfaces, imagery and metaphor. He combines landscape, still life, patterns and figures to imitate the eclectic nature of our memories. He uses everything from wallpaper samples to vintage botanical prints, maps and sewing patterns. Judd says the exhibition's title "reflects my love of the American dream, left by the side of the road. It speaks about the old highways of America strewn with the hopes and dreams of an adventurous and maybe a little desperate people. It is about the pre -shopping mall America, when the roadside was a place of creativity, humor and a homegrown entrepreneurial spirit." The topics of some of the paintings are more literally tied to the title Roadside Attraction. Other paintings will include wildlife and carry a direct relevance to Utah history. One painting, "Tabernacle," portrays a grey heron painted on top of a historical image of the Tabernacle while it was being built in the 1860's.

Kimball Art Center UP: Ginny Ruffner: Aesthetic Engineering through January 6, 2008. Internationally renowned artist, Ginny Ruffner, has brought her bronze, steel and glass sculpture to the Kimball Art Center for Utah residents and tourists. There are ten pieces, some up to 6 feet tall. Seriously injured in a car accident in 1999, Ruffner defied her doctors by continuing her artwork and striving to achieve such incredible success. Although she was told she couldn’t continue to be an artist, she did. Ruffner's exhibition, Aesthetic Engineering, is open to the public and admission is free thanks to a special sponsorship provided by Geneva Rock and generous donors. Washington School Inn and the Miners Club provided lodging for the exhibition.

AND: The Kimball Holiday Glass Ornament Display in the Garage Gallery through January 7.

ALSO: Award-winning photographer, Carolyn Guild displays her black and white images at the Kimball Art Center in the Badami Gallery through January 10, 2008.

Phoenix Gallery UP: 2nd Annual Miniature Show, featuring small work by gallery artists like Holly Mae Pendergast, Curtis Olsen, Carole Wade and Greg Ragland. UPCOMING: Language Fields, new Works by Curtis Olson. In his new show, Olson continues to explore his vision of a contemporary Western esthetic. These mixed media works use texture, photography, symbols, metal and an architectural division of space to evoke memories of the wind rustling in long grasses, the way constellations travel across the sky, the vernacular of pioneer architectue, and the lyrical nature of weather patterns on rust. The show features a new series of simple symbols, a more literal depiction of a ‘language’ to help define the western esthetic that is the dominant theme of his artwork. Reception December 28 6-9 pm.