The founder of Artists of Utah and editor of its online magazine, 15 Bytes, Shawn Rossiter has undergraduate degrees in English, French and Italian Literature and studied Comparative Literature in graduate school before pursuing a career in art.
[dropcap]Almost[/dropcap] from the beginning, Diane Stewart’s Modern West Fine Art has been evolving away from the cowboys, American Indians and Western landscapes — however jazzed up or modernized — that threatened to define it at its inception. Gradual at first, the process has picked up steam in recent […]
[dropcap]Their[/dropcap] current exhibit, Utah Utah, is another visual treat from Mark Knudsen and Leslie Thomas, the pair of painters who, for the past decade, have been carpooling to work — call it Paint the Badlands, Inc. — before heading off to their individual departments for research and development. […]
Early on in our relationship, Tom Alder had to convince me on an important point: a lack of evidence should not get in the way of a good story. Evidence should be sought, Tom conceded, arguments for plausibility laid out, but ultimately, if nothing disproved a story or […]
It’s always easier to tell a story when it’s over, when you’ve arrived at a place recognizable as a destination, to have things tidily wrapped up despite whatever struggle or confusion might have preceded it, to know what it was all about, what it means. This isn’t one […]
Staying relevant can be difficult for a museum gallery. Exhibitions of a certain caliber take time to put together and the original impetus for a show may become, if not history, at least yesterday’s news by the time the wine and cheese are brought out for the artist’s […]
In 2013, Paul Davis was selected by 200 of his peers as one of “Utah’s 15 most influential artists.” The following profile appeared in Utah’s 15: The State’s Most Influential Artists, published by Artists of Utah in 2014. Photo by Zoe and Robert Rodriguez. Paul Davis likes his studio […]
Brian Kershisnik is one of Utah’s best-loved and most-respected artists, and his paintings, whether mural size or off the easel, are in private and public collections from Logan to St. George. He was given the Governor’s Mansion Award in 2010, was selected in 2014 as one of the […]
Because things went bad in China, Utah gets Luminaria. Brainchild of David Hyams and Christine Baczek, the state’s first alternative photography studio opened in Salt Lake City in February, after what one could call research and development work in mainland China. “We are a one-stop shop for all […]
If you want to put Denis Phillips in a box, make sure it’s a big box — to quote singer/songwriter Dan Bern — “with lots of windows, and a door to walk through.” Call that box, if you will, “one of Utah’s most talented abstract painters,” as Bob […]
Artists make art for rich people. Well, maybe not for them, but it’s the well-to-do and the institutions they govern who buy art. If that statement is an oversimplification, there’s a basic economic truth at its core: most of the people artists know can’t afford their work (for that matter, […]
“Metallic Dream,” Lee Deffebach, 1986. Once they were our Young Turks, upending the establishment, smashing the windows of a staid and conservative artistic world with new styles, techniques and ideas. Because they found a home in Phillips Gallery, they thrived, determining the tastes of a generation of Utah […]
In Tyler Swain’s paintings, a peach or apple will receive the same devoted gaze as one might find in the portrait of a loved one. Whether single pieces of fruit, or pairs and trios of produce, his still-life paintings raise these simple natural objects into icons of visual […]
“We were changed.” It’s a phrase Zvi Gotheiner says repeatedly as we discuss his new work, “Dancing the Bears Ears,” being performed this week at Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT). It becomes almost a mantra. A rhythmic punctuation mark to pace his thoughts. It’s something he said repeatedly along […]
A few boxes remain to be unpacked in the entryway to Saltgrass’s new home. In anticipation of a grand reopening party on Saturday, Sept. 16., members, friends and volunteers are putting the finishing touches to Saltgrass Printmakers’ new space this week. Gentrification pushed the nonprofit out of its […]
Pam Bowman came to installation later in life, but over the past dozen years she has been making up for lost time, with numerous exhibitions here and abroad that have garnered respect and recognition, as well as a Utah Arts Council Visual Art Fellowship. Her most recent installation […]
Still from Isabel Rocamora’s “Body of War” Depending on when you enter the gallery your hearing may be assaulted or soothed. The soundtrack for “Body of War,” one of two films by Isabel Rocamora now screening at Weber State University’s Shaw Gallery as part of the exhibit Ecstatic Solitudes, […]
Work by BASHA. There’s no doubt graffiti can be a nuisance, for the personal property owner whose trashcan or mailbox becomes defaced with an indecipherable signature or the business owners who find themselves repeatedly repainting an exterior wall. But equally indisputable is that graffiti is an art form. […]
In Sticks Laid In Patterns and Other Mundane Oracles, her upcoming exhibit at the Alice Gallery in Salt Lake City, Wren Ross mines the symbologies of oral storytelling traditions to explore the contemporary need for new myths and new heroes. As she says in this video interview, recorded as […]
