EDITOR’S NOTE: For preview coverage of the 50th Utah Arts Festival, which runs June 18-21, The Utah Review is presenting individual or group profiles of artists, performers, entertainers and some newcomers to the event. The curtain raiser highlights the history of the Festival which is marking its golden anniversary. BANDALOOP, among the most prominent pioneers of vertical dance, returns to UAF for the fourth time, having appeared in 2005. 2013 and 2018. Once again, the Oakland-based arts company will perform on the 240-foot-high curving glass façade of the City Library, as part of a June tour in four cities featuring a work with ecological roots that will resonate with collective concerns about the Great Salt Lake’s ecological crisis, as the dance artists perform FLOCK while integrating company repertoire pieces including Downstream and its new creation, life || lines, all with an original score featuring music by four composers. Salt Lake Acting Company will appear for the second time at the festival, offering a sample from its upcoming summer show, The Gaslight Zone. Make-and-take opportunities will be among the most extensive in history, with Make Salt Lake as well as Secondhand Salamander which is bringing back the classic Mad Hatter project, and, of course, the Kids’ Art Yard. Urban Arts is offering its largest live graffiti mural installation featuring eight artists in four Festival campus locations, while a row of several other artists will be demonstrating their creative process in real time. Holdman Studios, based in Lehi with an international portfolio of commissions to create stained glass in religious and civic buildings, including a recent update to the Utah State Capitol rotunda, is offering an unprecedented series of free workshops for participants to create their own stained glass artwork. The City Library auditorium will be the home to the 23rd edition of the international Fear No Film program, with 84 short films on a slate of 15 programs, the second largest in the event’s history. Of course, dance, who wears the empress jewels in performing arts, will be represented by Repertory Dance Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Sock Opera Dance, and, of course, the ever-popular 1520 Arts, which will feature Trash Panda Drum Group and competitions featuring Sol Tribe as part of the Salt Open Styles Battle along with the Red Bull Dance Your Style battle and a collaboration with Utah Valley University’s ESPRIT in Rep Your Set Choreo Competition, with choreographers who specialize variously in hip hop, contemporary, salsa, reggaeton, afro, popping. Headliners this year include Digable Planets, well known among jazz musicians as well as hip hop artists (June 18); Yola, six-time Grammy-nominated artist, songwriter, and actor (June 19); Austin-based musician Alejandro Rose-Garcia, better known as Shakey Graves, who has been cited for creating new musical experiences tailored to each fan, ranging from Bandcamp-exclusive releases to hosting interactive scavenger hunts while on tour (June 20) and Rubblebucket, a band well known for its hybrid genre blend of psychedelia and electronic dance music (June 21). For tickets and more information, see the Utah Arts Festival website.
NIKI J. SANDS
A contemporary artist from Las Vegas with Cubist influences who is making her first appearance in the Festival’s Artist Marketplace, Niki J. Sands bridges the line between realism and abstraction, inviting viewers into a world shaped by intuitive brushwork and deep emotions amplified by building and editing surfaces through color manipulation.
TUR: How have you used art media forms in helping to create an holistic body of artistic work that searches for a more complete expression of your own innermost and most powerful states of emotion, inspiration, contemplation, and self-identity?
NS: Through recurring figures, layered textures and intuitive color, my work becomes a visual search for identity, connection, reflection and inner truth. I create to express what is felt beneath the surface: inspiration, contemplation, vulnerability, family and the evolving spirit of who I am.
TUR:What is your training as an artist? Who do you consider your most significant influences and inspirations? Do these influences shift as you progress both in your work and life?
NS: My training as an artist has been shaped through years of practice, observation, experimentation and a deep personal commitment to painting. I have learned by following my instincts, studying form, color, emotion, and composition and allowing each body of work to teach me something new.
My influences come from many places: cubism, surrealism, abstract expression, human connection, family, memory and the emotional presence of family in my life. I am especially inspired by the figure, by relationships and by the quiet stories people carry within them.
These influences continue to shift as I grow. As my life changes, my work changes with it. What remains constant is my desire to create art that feels honest, intuitive, emotional, and deeply connected to my identity.
TUR: Do you work full-time exclusively as an artist? Or, how do you augment your work as an artist?
NS: The challenge to keep experimenting and creating is what motivates me to move forward and not fear the blank canvas. Even in my senior years—whatever that truly means—I feel there is always another corner to turn, another discovery to make and another way to reinvent the wheel. As long as I am able, I will continue to explore, evolve and create with curiosity, courage and an open heart.
TUR: Do you find it easy or difficult to start new work? And, typically, how do you prepare yourself to handle both the creative and physical demands of creating your art?
NS: The only difficulty I find in creating or beginning new work is making sure I do not lose the joy or free spirit that brings the work to life. When the process becomes too structured I feel disconnected from my soul and from the instinctive energy that guides me.
For me painting must leave room for surprise, emotion and freedom. That is where I find my most honest expression.
TUR: With regard to participating in the Utah Arts Festival, please share your feelings about being a part of this enterprise? Have you been in other festivals and do you plan to explore other festival venues?
NS: I am honored to participate in the Utah Arts Festival, this being my first time, I am excited and looking forward to meeting other artists and patrons of the arts. Being part of an event that brings the community together feels inspiring and meaningful to me. I have participated in other festivals throughout the years, my favorite was KAABOO in Del Mar that was both music and arts.
