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
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
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
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
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
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
The layout of the space in the Gittins Gallery at the University of the Utah is perfect for Jorge Rojas’ Coyotek exhibition which mows down the physical and cognitive borders we conventionally imagine. Despite efforts to the contrary to dampen or counter the kinetics of the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, the fact is … Read more
When many arts organizations turned to video during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns as a means of staying visible and demonstrating that fresh forms of creative expression could still thrive, many artists found ways to merge cinematography with their media and disciplines. In contemporary dance, as an example, video primarily had been used for archiving and … Read more
When we are astutely reading a novel, watching dance or theater, listening to a recital or concert, or visiting a gallery exhibition, at some point, we inevitably discern and appreciate the crucial role of place as the bearer of memories. This significant bit of comprehension connects us to understanding the artist’s own sense of the … Read more
Five excellent exhibitions, including an outdoor public art installation, are currently on view at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA). The Utah Review highlights each one below. Something from Everything (through Jan. 3, 2026) With works curated from 19 artists which incorporate mundane, discarded, routine, and overlooked materials and objects, Something From Everything is … Read more