UNOFFICIAL GOLD: UtahArt
2002 Local artists and art enthusiasts
took matters into their own hands, creating UtahArt2002, a juried exhibition
of Utah artists which opened February 1st in Salt Lake City.
In the fall of 2001, a call for entries
for the exhibition was sent to Utah artists. Michael Quick, former
curator of American Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, jurored
the show. Quick noticed representational art as a dominant theme
in the entries submitted. As he writes in the exhibition catalog,
"I was impressed by the considerable variety of images and range of expression
that these artists had achieved within this framework of representational
art. The work in the exhibition ranges from the almost literally
realistic tot he wildly fanciful, and from the tightly painted to the boldly
executed."
continued on page
4
Vying for attention with the mammoth
Olympic banners covering buildings in Salt Lake City, the official glass
blowings of Dale Chihuly and, oh yes, the games themselves, Utah's visual
arts community, in all its varied forms, has blanketed Salt Lake City and
Utah alike Galleries from Provo to Ogden are featuring hundreds
of Utah artists in a variety of group shows easily accessible to the huge
influx of Olympic visitors. The far corners of the state are not
to be forgotten, however. Visual art activity is blossoming as far
away as Springdale and Logan.
In February's Olympic edition of
15 BYTES you'll find articles on a wide variety of exhibitions, events,
and initiatives all making Utah a great place to be visual.
Artists
of Utah's gold medal goes to UtahArt 2002, the "unofficial" exhibition
of Utah artists in the heart of Salt Lake City. When Utah County's
Springville Museum of Art was announced as the site for the Olympics official
exhibition of Utah art, many local artists were upset that what they felt
as world class work would be relegated to a venue far from the center of
activity.
print
market; it can produce reproductions over many separate runs, large
or small, which are identical to each other; and it can open up whole new
audiences to artists and galleries.
In the past few years, giclée printing has achieved greater acceptance in the international art world and Salt Lake City’s art community is no exception. Thanks to the work of local printers like photographer Mark Weiler, giclée printing has become more popular among Utah artists. Al Rounds, Denis Phillips, Roger Newbold, Willamarie Huelskamp and Susan Swartz have all printed with Mark.
Besides being a technically outstanding printer, Mark is a passionate, talented artist, concentrating much of his own work in photography, but also working with sculpture and other art forms.
Describing his approach to his own work and the benefit of giclee printing, Mark says, “Art is emotion. Personally, as an artist, I'd rather sell a hundred pieces inexpensively than one piece really expensively, because more people are going to enjoy it. The thrill for an artist is for someone to come in and buy your work because they truly like it, not because it is an investment.”
 |
Zion at St. George Art Museum | page 2 |
 |
Utah artists go to Italy | page 2 |
 |
Utah Artist Hands of SLC | page 3 |
 |
Artist Co-Op in Springdale | |
 |
Oasis Cafe |