Museum

Early summer roundup at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art: Ariel C. Wilson and Matt Kowal: from where the sun is, to wherever you are; Out Loud: 10th anniversary, 2026 Gala Art Auction

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Early summer is always special at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA). The Utah Review looks at some of the latest exhibitions, including the 10th anniversary edition of Out Loud (2026) and the works by 44 Utah artists that are available in the 2026 Gala Art Auction. Another is the fascinating and ingeniously conceived … Read more

Harmonizing the visual language of two artists: Liminal Spaces at Material excels as serendipitous collaboration

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Demonstrating another dimension of collaboration in the wake of its critically acclaimed Grief Work multidisciplinary show, Material Art Gallery’s Colour Maisch and Jorge Rojas have curated Liminal Spaces, an absorbing paragon of harmonizing the visual arts languages of two artists, which— when combined— reside in a threshold between the worlds each artist has envisioned.  It is … Read more

Impressively harmonious artistic manifesto propels Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation exhibition at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts

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In recent years, a continuous string of major exhibitions at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) has augmented their visual brilliance with overarching themes that speak potently to the evolving gateway role of museums. These exhibitions exemplify an unprecedented degree of sensitivity about the intersecting  spheres of the artist as a messenger of enlightenment … Read more

Material Art Gallery’s Grief Work is most ambitious exhibition in its young history: a paragon of collaborative multidisciplinary excellence

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In her 2015 master of fine arts’ thesis, Molly Heller wrote about her formative development as a dancer. performer, choreographer and teacher. “It is in the act of being witnessed and witnessing that I feel my existence. I believe that we are all part of the same mystery and collectively we search for meaning. On … Read more

Spiritual exuberance in Utah’s diverse ecosystem: Liberty Blake’s abstract collages at Phillips Gallery

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Visiting Liberty Blake’s studio is like stepping into a portal that gives the fortunate visitor a glimpse into the muses and the spiritual journey which the artist traverses. Her workplace and what she surrounds herself with allow us as visitors to appreciate the foundations of her visual expressive language in the body of abstract collages … Read more

salt 17 at Utah Museum of Fine Arts: Adama Delphine Fawundu’s cross-continental creative dynamics bring poetic harmony to a museum collection’s living archives

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The most significant takeaway from the Utah Museum of Fine Arts ongoing salt exhibition series, has been demonstrating the diasporic knowledge of culture as so spiritually, socially, ethically and epistemologically potent that its most meaningful and historically accurate expressions emerge not through the neutral space of conventional categorization, but rather by honoring the diasporic origins … Read more

Preserving life’s footprint as meaningful legacy: Material Art Gallery’s first 2026 show is Karen Andrews— Into the Light of Day

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When Karen Andrews died on the last day of 2022, her 80-word obituary was a pithy plainspoken account of the award-winning Utah painter’s life. The bulk of it read: She had a magnetic personality & was honest & kind to a fault! She loved God, painting, making jewelry, candles, pottery, the artist Mark Rothko, the … Read more

Fearless, fierce and indomitable in human spirit: The Utah Review’s Top Ten Moments of the Utah Enlightenment in 2025

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This year’s selections in The Utah Review for the top ten moments of the Utah Enlightenment in 2025, the eleventh annual edition, stood out for being fearless, fierce and indomitable in human spirit. Wholly liberated, art ensures nothing is erased, censored or compromised. Reiterating the core premise of the Utah Enlightenment: In Utah, there are … Read more

Utah Museum of Fine Arts’ Relative Truths, University of Utah art faculty show, intellectually invigorating, acutely timed exploration

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It would be a very easy task to find examples that counter the assertion of the existence of one truth. In the history of civilization, it often has been assumed that how we inscribe, connote or annotate every experience will lead to a single correct definition or interpretation, thereby negating every other possibility. For instance, … Read more

Intelligent, subdued spiritual feel in The Blue of Distance, show of Madeline Rupard, Drew Rane at Material art gallery

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For many years, I have been moved by the blue at the far edge of what can be seen, that color of horizons, of remote mountain ranges, of anything far away. The color of that distance is the color of an emotion, the color of solitude and of desire, the color of there seen from … Read more