The works that enter public collections carry a particular kind of weight. More than purchases, they are selections, each one a small argument about what matters, what endures, and who belongs in the story of a community’s artistic life. Once acquired, these works take on a life that […]
On the way to a creative life, many eager students are given advice approximately based on their interests. An avid reader might be urged to become a writer, though in truth there are numerous perfectly good and potentially more appropriate vocations for readers. One who draws compulsively may […]
In the midst of our rapidly evolving, instant-gratification society with constant distractions, I believe we’ve lost our way. —Nina Miller These days, when so much public commentary is clearly calculated to avoid offending our litigious oligarchs, we may well find ourselves searching the national conversation for evidence such […]
On a river trip, Bianca Velasquez used the solitary quiet of the desert float as a meditation on her current show’s topic. The water bugs caught her attention and a fellow mate on the trip—unbeknownst to her at the time, a wildlife biologist specializing in bears, well-versed in […]
If you know what to look for, they are not hard to find. In the Daughters of Utah Pioneer museums scattered across the state, you’ll discover them tucked among quilts and furniture and other artifacts of domestic life. They may fool you at first glance. This is a […]
Just a few chapters into the book I realized I was spending more time annotating and thinking about what I had read rather than actually reading words. I believe it’s a good thing. Thinking. Especially if you’re thinking about words written by Terry Tempest Williams. “I hear my […]
Few people stop at Cisco, Utah. Cyclists pedaling the long haul from Moab to Loma, Colorado pass through it. River runners cut straight across it on their way to the Cisco boat launch to start the three-to-four day float back to Moab. In its heyday, near the turn […]
In the foreground of a tall, slender watercolor a luminous yellow oval on the roof of a wet-looking car identifies it as a Taxi. This spot of color is echoed by the light from four narrow windows in the somber, gray structure that lines the street behind it. […]
Sometimes a gallery shows two artists simply because that’s who they have. There’s nothing wrong with that. Or they may have discovered an unknown pair: two deep excavators, say, who are mining the same subject matter. Some artists prefer to show with their friends. Again, nothing wrong there. […]
When Ann Poore wrote about Clubhouse on South Temple for 15 Bytes in early 2017, the ink was barely dry on the deed. Dave Brewer and Jessie Jude Gilmore, then co-owners of Photo Collective Studios, had purchased the historic Ladies’ Literary Club building had purchased the historic Ladies’ […]
Modern West Fine Arts has had three successive locations in Salt Lake City, which is an unusual number for a gallery. For those who fondly remember the days when critics told us what was good and what was bad about things, here are some relevant opinions. The first […]
When David Walker and his wife first imagined Art on Main, they were thinking about a street, not just a show. The two had run Brigham City’s Main Street Program for years and watched what the annual St. George Art Festival had done for that community—how the arts […]
Twenty years ago, 15 Bytes paid a visit to what we called one of the most unique sculpture gardens you’ll find “well, anywhere.” The Gilgal Sculpture Garden, tucked behind houses and businesses at 749 East 500 South in Salt Lake City’s Central City neighborhood, hasn’t moved. Many Salt […]
Envisioned as a 5-year long exhibition that updates the permanent American Art collection galleries, BYU Museum of Art’s latest iteration is a significant re-conceptualization not just of the collection, but of the way the institution views historical perspectives and artists’ roles in history. But instead of presenting a […]
The most commanding work at Polarized America, in the Gallery on 6th at Utah Valley University, might be Kristina Lenzi’s “Pantsuit Pattern.” Essentially an actual American flag hung on a back wall, its brilliant red, white, and blue make it strikingly visible from throughout the room, while the […]
There is a persistent myth about what it means to be a serious artist — that the work is everything, that the studio is the whole world, and that attention paid to anything outside it is a kind of compromise. Ask anyone who advises working artists about how […]
A father’s wishes for his son can be a dangerous thing. Arash Shoveiri’s father was an art lover. “He always told me: you have to grow in your art and be successful. This is my wish for you.” But he also stressed that as an artist, you must […]
THE NOMAD’s Issue 4, “Breakthroughs,” is more about the through than the break. There are few explosive moments, not many trumpet blasts. Instead, the issue gathers fiction, memoir, lyric essay, prose poem, and poetry—fifty-four pieces by twenty-seven writers—around breakthrough as passage, as a moving through. The variety of […]
Mimi Chen Ting believed movement could be made visible. In paintings filled with looping lines, rhythmic geometries, and figures that seem to pulse across the canvas, the artist transformed dance, migration, memory, and music into visual form. In a downstairs gallery at the BYU Museum of Art, Make […]
Stewart Seidman creates expressive acrylic works on canvas and with recycled FedEx envelopes that once served as his paint palettes, transforming everyday materials into compelling contemporary art.
To discover more artists, visit our Utah Artists Directory
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