Kent Rigby’s life is busy.
Real busy.

Rigby is a local sculptor and ceramic artist who works a day job as a licensed architect. In addition, he has served for over ten years as President of the Salt Lake Gallery Association, has been a driving force behind Left Bank Gallery and will continue his efforts at the Gallery’s space on 2nd West as the Curator for New Visions Gallery (see article page 1).

Rigby has worked in the architecture profession for over thirty years. “It’s a fast paced, often high stress environment,” he says. “Every job has a deadline and budget. My current position with AJC Architects is quality control plan checking, detail design, and specifications writing. I look at every project several times before it goes out the door. I’m also doing some construction administration work. Never a dull moment.”

His attention to detail and project management come in handy with his work at New Visions Gallery. After having served as Director and Public Relations Director for Left Bank Gallery, he now assumes the role of Curator for New Visions. Though the exact nature of his position is evolving, he will be in charge of long range gallery planning and shorter range exhibition coordination as well as organizing the logistics of each show.

In his “free time” Rigby has also served faithfully as the Salt Lake Gallery Association’s President for over a decade. Rigby’s greatest challenge in this position has been a condition he knows all too well. “Everyone is so busy these days, it is hard to get a high level of participation from gallery owners. This is a problem with our information age society, not just gallery owners. Everything is going way too fast.”

Rigby himself, however, does not seem to run out of steam. During his time with the SLGA he has managed, among other things, to implement a sponsorship program which involves local businesses in supporting Gallery Stroll.

With such a hectic life, one might think that Rigby’s artistic pursuits could easily get derailed. But not so with the Rigby express. When Rigby lost his studio space a year and a half ago he merely changed the nature of his work

“I lost my studio space about a year and a half ago and have not been able to do the kind of work I am recognized for. Rather than stop producing all together, I decided to do some stuff out in the back yard.”

The ‘paintings’he produced are currently on display at New Visions Gallery. The exhibit is called “It’s Only Paint After All,” a reference to something Rigby heard Tony Smith say when he studied with him at the University of Utah. “He was referring to the idea that students (artists) shouldn’t be too attached to their work or be afraid to experiment,” Rigby explains, “because ‘its only paint after all’. This has helped me through out the years maintain emotional distance to my work, whether hand-built or wheel thrown ceramics, sculpture, or mixed media what-ever.”

In 2001 Rigby was recognized for his work in the visual arts by receiving the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Award for Visual Art.

Shawn Rossiter

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.