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Blogs / Lounge Act / August 2008 / Tale of two shows

Tale of two shows

Butting in on brother Dan's blog:

Finally catching up with some of the art around town, I went to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts to peruse the Monet to Picasso show and dropped in Salt Lake Art Center to catch Present Tense, the post-337 exhibit. I was happy to see how crowded the parking lot at UMFA was, meaning that lotsa people were taking in the show, and the galleries were full of folks with heads cocked in listening position, with their taped tour guides held to their ears. It’s fantastic that this traveling world-class show of all-time greats came to Utah, and to see that Utah is supporting it enthusiastically.  I hope that means there will be more to come.

But for sheer thrills and chills, the show at SLAC took my breath away. The photographic history, and the documentary of its creation and demolition (Afterimage: The Art of 337, produced by The Dada Factory), remind you that 337 was a daring and innovative community art project—and would have been so in New York or London. That it happened here is a credit to the energy of the Salt Lake art scene. The power of this exhibit at SLAC is proof of the amazing ability of our local artists. Curator Dr. Campbell Gray chose 22 works by 25 artists, all inspired by the 337 project. Some of the pieces are specifically reminiscent of the project, like Lenka Konopasek’s painted environment, The Perpetual Painter. Others, like Trent Alvey’s Urban Artifacts, a slightly macabre three-sided "pantry" of shelves filled with canning jars stuffed with broken dolls, dirt, and other tchotchkes, reflect the eloquence of juxtaposition that 337 represented.

Don’t miss this show. It is—like 337 was—one of the most artistically exciting things I’ve seen in Salt Lake City.  Mary Malouf