Exhibition Spotlight: Bountiful
On Poetry and Art
An affinity has always existed between art and poetry. Many who call one their primary vocation have been known to dally with the other: Michelangelo wrote sonnets: Elizabeth Bishop was a talented watercolorist. Poets have frequently made great art critics. Charles Baudelaire and Guillaume Appollinaire were both influential critics during the rise of modernism. In our own time, poets like John Ashberry and Derke Walcott have written influential art criticism.
Utah has been no stranger to the cross pollinization of the muses. Early Utah artist Alfred Lambourne eventually gave up painting for poetry. His fellow artist and friend H.L.A. Culmer was a dramatist and tried his hand at literary criticism. Look at today's publications and you'll find that Salt Lake Weekly art critic Brian Staker writes poetry, and Melissa Bond, the visual arts editor for the Wasatch Journal, is an accomplished poet.
Even when one is strictly loyal to their muse they may still find inspiration in the works of those faithful to another. For instance, Utah County poet, Lance Larsen, and his wife, artist Jacqui Larsen, have been exploring a collaborative project in which each uses a poem or painting by the other as a launching point for their own creative endeavors. Something similar, on a grander if less intimate scale, is happening this month at the Bountiful Davis Art Center.
The 9 Muses, an interdisciplinary exhibit featuring the art and poetry of 18 Utah poets and artists, opens Friday, Jan. 9, 2009, from 7 - –9 p.m. at the Bountiful/Davis Art Center (BDAC). The exhibit brings a contemporary interpretation to the age-old theme of the muses, the nine Greek goddesses presiding over the arts and sciences. The poets began the project, each writing nine poems, one per muse. Each artist then received nine poems — one from each poet and one on each muse — with the assignment to create a visual response to each of the poems. The classical has become contemporary as each of the poets and artists interpreted the theme of each muse on a personal level. The interpretations run the gamut, from traditional to non-objective. The final exhibit consists of the 81 poems and 81 corresponding artworks.
The above video clip contains readings of some of the poems by the poets, with the accompanying art work. Poets participating in the project are Lynne Benson, Brian Gray, Lisa Gustavson, Ethan Higbee, Darlene Johnson, David Knowlton, Eileen MacCabe, Shawn Stradley and Ashley Walton. Artists are Tom Aaron, Namon Bills, Linnie Brown, Sandy Brunvand, Chad Crane, Denise Gasser, Steph Johnsen, Steven Stradley and Justin Wheatley.
Up and Upcoming: To The North
Exhibition Listings in Northern Utah
BOUNTIFUL
BDAC UP: The 9 Muses, an interdisciplinary exhibit featuring the art and poetry of 18 Utah poets and artists. (see article top of this page).
OGDEN AREA
Universe City (2556 Washington Blvd, Ogden 458-8959) UP: Basin and Range IV, the fourth annual artistic response to issues regarding the beautiful mountains that overlook the City of Ogden. Featuring: paintings by LeRoy Jennings focusing on the local landscape in geological detail; Dan Schroeder's photographic essay on Malan's Basin, documenting the clear cut swath now visible from Ogden City as well as other activities on the watershed above Ogden City; poetry and photographs by Justina Parsons-Berstein inspired by the “office” where she works as Director, The Great Salt Lake Nature Center at Farmington Bay Wildlife Management Area. Through January 17.
Eccles Community Art Center UP: Works by the members of the Palette Club of Ogden in the Main Gallery, and the paintings of Felecia Christiansen in the Carriage House Gallery.
Gallery at the Station UP: Saltgrass Printmakers: Joey Behrens, Dave Boogert, Erik Brunvand, Sandy Brunvand, Jim Despain, Stephanie Dykes, Michael Gaffney, Tyler Hackett, Kathe Liuzzi, Catherine Mataisz, Deborah McDemott, Jared Nielson, Chad Tolley, Carrie Wardle. Through February 2.
Shaw Gallery at Weber State UP: Department of Visual Arts Student Exhibition, through January 23. Reception and awards, Thursday, Janurary 15, 2009 7-9 pm.
Grounds for Coffee (25th Street location) UP: Kim Seward.
Ogden Arts UP:Darlene Hamblin, Kurt Jones and Open Invitational.
BRIGHAM CITY
Brigham City Museum UP: The Shoshone Experience: Life on the Washakie Indian Farm, a photography exhibition presented in conjunction with the Brigham City Library’s Lewis and Clark exhibit. With over 45 photographs of the Shoshones living and working on the Washakie Indian Farm, 35 miles northwest of Brigham City, from 1880 to the mid 1970s, the exhibit presents Shoshone Chieftain Sagwitch and his band of Northwestern Indians determination to integrate themselves socially as well as economically into the white society. Through January 24.
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LOGAN
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art UP: Women's Work, featuring the work of contemporary women printmakers from the collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his family foundation. Included in the exhibition are 56 prints by a number of contemporary women artists, including Anni Albers, Louise Nevelson, Louise Bourgeois, Barbara Kruger, Bridget Riley, Kiki Smith, Judy Pfaff, Pat Steir and Kara Walker, among others. Through March 1, 2009.
PARK CITY
The next Park City Gallery Stroll is Friday, January 30, from 6 to 9 pm.
Meyer Gallery UP: Mixed Matter, mixed media landscape works by Cary Henrie using plaster, stencil, oil and acrylic on canvas. |1| Through January 29. UPCOMING: Various Forces, thirty new works by contemporary figurative painter Brian Kershisnik beginning Friday, January 30th. Thirty new works by this master of contemporary figurative art. 6 to 9pm.
Kimball Art Center UP: For much of January the Kimball Art Center will be occupied by participants in the Sundance Film Festival. UPCOMING: Diane Tuft: Salt Lake Reconsidered, in the Main Gallery, January 31 – March 15. In her most recent body of work, New York based photographer Diane Tuft recorded the results of ultraviolet light on the Great Salt Lake of Utah. Since the Great Salt Lake attracts an unusual amount of ultraviolet light, these images reveal the vivid colors that exist beyond one’s vision. The photographs are completely natural with no alterations in color. AND: Lloyd Platt: Abstractions of Nature, in the Garage Gallery, January 31 – March 15. At the age of sixty-five, Lloyd Platt retired from his career as a notable Salt Lake architect to pursue his passion for painting. In the past eight years, Platt has created a prolific body of work. His paintings are bold in color and contrast, conveying an abstract perception of nature. ALSO: Sandy Brunvand: Trail Explorations, in the Badami Gallery, January 31 - March 15. Salt Lake artist Sandy Brunvand’s new series combines drawings, etchings, wood engravings, wood cuts and relief prints that focus on an obsession with lines and marks. The images relate to natural forms found in and around the hills of Utah, but are abstracted and layered allowing for multiple interpretations.
Phoenix Gallery UP: Horizons, Totems and Artefacts, works by Curtis Olson and Elaine Joli. Olson translates his interest in nature, structures, materials, travel, and photography to panels which are more construction than paint, more of an object than a flat image. |2| He continues to explore a Japanese concept called 'wabi-sabi'; appreciation for the beauty and imperfection that comes with age and for this show has created several free-standing totems in his distinctive style. Joli's found object sculptures are her largest and most elaborate constructions yet; intriguing collections of thought-provoking objects assembled in a beautiful whole that become more than the sum of their parts. She has also created large steel panels that shimmer with energetic patterns ground into their finish. To their subtle surfaces she has created a story by attaching sculptural elements taken from other dis-assembled objects.
Julie Nester Gallery UP: Simultaneous exhibitions by Philip Buller |3| and Tor Archer. |4| Philip Buller is known for his figurative paintings and unique surface texture. His representational paintings transcend literal narratives through their ambiguity of historic time, suggestion of universal themes and an overriding intensity of feeling. The current body of work is titled “North” and draws on imagery from the rugged lifestyle that was found in the northern states in the early 20th century. Tor Archer has created a series of figurative sculptures that are based on the standing female form. Archer says, “I choose the female form as a representation of the life-giving, nurturing, and eternal forces of Nature. I am inspired by direct observations from Nature; the structure of branches, looking up through a canopy of trees, the way vines intertwine, the weaving of nests, layering of sedimentary rock, erosion of cliffs, crystalline structure, the general way the natural world is formed.”
Coda Gallery UP: New work by landscape artist Aaron Fritz and sculpture by Michael Begue.
UPCOMING: Paintings and mixed media works by James Beckner, Brian McGuffey and Leif Holland. Opening Friday, January 30.
Terzian Galleries UP: Opposing Perspectives, a sculpture exhibit with works by Anthony Hansen and Tyler Meadows Davis. Hansen creates heart-shaped sculptures, using recycled metal from cars & license plates. Davis uses steel, wood, and glass for his graceful works. January 9 - 23..
Gallery MAR UPCOMING: As Nature Unfolds, new works by Brooks Yates |0| and Sharon Jackman. Reception Friday, January 30th, 2009 from 6 to 9 p.m. Through February 9.
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