Sundance 2024: Frida is sumptuous tribute to Kahlo, highlighting her durable status as a major cultural icon

Seventy years after her death at the age of 47, Frida Kahlo remains as popular as ever in contemporary culture, with a durability that matches or even surpasses that of prominent artists of her time such as Georgia O’Keeffe.  The recipient of the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2024 … Read more

Courage, creative fire, innovation, enterprise: The Utah Review’s Top 10 Moments of the Utah Enlightenment in 2023

This year’s selections in The Utah Review of the top ten moments of the Utah Enlightenment in 2023, the ninth annual edition, were the easiest to curate in the nine years of publishing this annual list. Likewise, selecting the top moment among the ten was just as easy. In Utah, there are creative producers in … Read more

Mesmerizing portrayals of auras, energies of individual, place in Chie Fueki’s Doctorow Prize show at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art

In Chie Fueki’s portraits, the auras and energies emanating from the individuals are mesmerizing, a fantastic probe of a deeper understanding of one’s self as an aggregate of their environment, interests, identities and their interactions with a physical world. Personality tests, zodiac charts and quizzes about being introverted or extroverted might be revealing to some … Read more

Utah Museum of Fine Arts’ Tatau: Marks of Polynesia meticulously documents everlasting cultural resilience of Samoan tattoo masters

To illustrate the everlasting cultural resilience of tatau, among the greatest art forms to emerge in Oceania, the story of Chris Lemuelu is potent in its lucidity. He is a Samoan who lives in Australia and is, as writer Fareed Kaviani has explained, “a soga’imiti, a man who has completed the full pe’a.” As Tatau: … Read more

Taiwanese artist Lu Wei makes her first solo American show in Salt Lake City’s Material art gallery

Now in Utah, Lu Wei’s first solo exhibition in the U.S., My Sole Desires comprises ink paintings, handmade art books and scrolls. Quickly, the viewer is drawn to how the Taiwanese artist exquisitely explores the vicissitudes of time and space in the female gaze. She captures with gentle elegance in warm hues the boundary layers … Read more

Five exhibitions at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art make excellent case for breadth, depth of contemporary works by Utah artists

Five current shows at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) cumulatively paint an impressive portrait of the breadth and depth of contemporary works by Utah artists. The Utah Review summarizes the quintet of exhibitions in this roundup. A Greater Utah To those outside of Utah and, frankly, to many in the Beehive State, perceptions … Read more

Backstage at the Utah Arts Festival 2023: Awards announced for Fear No Film, Artist Marketplace, Poetry Slam Competitions, Wasatch IronPen

Awards in visual arts, film and literary have been announced for the 47th Utah Arts Festival.  FEAR NO FILM Twelve awards were announced today in the 20th annual Fear No Film portion of the Utah Arts Festival, including a Grand Jury Prize, two Utah Short Film of The Year honors, Fearless Filmmaker Award, three honorable … Read more

Backstage at the Utah Arts Festival 2023: The luminescent meditative sensations of Bala Thiagarajan‘s art

Bala Thiagarajan (Booth 104, Arvada, Colorado) may be a newcomer to the Utah Arts Festival but her portfolio is extensive with awards, gallery and solo exhibitions, juried art fairs, self-published books, workshops, live demonstrations and art lectures. More than 800 of her original artworks are in collections in the U.S., India, Germany, Hong Kong, Mexico, … Read more

Backstage at the Utah Arts Festival 2023: With six Utah artists, Circles of Influence to be featured City Library exhibition

For the 47th Utah Arts Festival, The Gallery at Library Square on the fourth floor of The City Library will feature Circles of Influence with works by six female artists (Sheryl Gillilan, Jaye Rieser, Kandace Steadman, Camille Wheatley, Virginia Catherall and Rebecca Klundt) who explore the natural world’s ubiquitous presence of circles in many forms. … Read more

Late spring blooms at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art: Out Loud: Stop and Smell the Roses, Razorbacks by Mitchell Barton, 2023 Gala Art Auction

Late spring is in full bloom at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA). The Utah Review looks at three of the latest exhibitions, including Out Loud: Stop and Smell the Roses, Razorbacks by Mitchell Barton and the works by Utah artists that are available in the 2023 Gala Art Auction. OUT LOUD: STOP AND … Read more