The Gallery at Library Square welcomes two new artists into its folds. Through the end of this year and into next year, Fun with Stuff and Geometry from Public Space will invite the public to view these material-inspired works and explore the subjects of form and area. The opening reception for the exhibits will be held Saturday, November 19 at 4 p.m. in the Gallery at Library Square.
Fun with Stuff: Found Object Assemblages, was created by Phoebe Berrey who combines textual layers with the psychological in a form of storytelling. “In my complex processes of appropriation and transformation, I apply artisanal, even anachronistic methods, integrating them into a contemporary context, Berrey said. “The process manifests itself in my sculptures where the obvious and the unconscious smoothly float in and out of each other, and where constituent object, meanings and ideas, can be guessed at but remain continuously elusive.”
Classically-trained at the Corcoran Museum of Art in Washington, D.C., Berrey boasts an impressive career as a multi-faceted artist. Ranging from Marvel and DC Comics, to her own gallery in Jackson Hole, to art shown in the White House, Berrey’s career has culminated in assemblages as her favorite expression of creativity.
Presented by artist Lewis J. Crawford, Geometry from Public Space is an exploration in layers, texture, depth, urban landscapes and interconnectivity. He documents and manipulates his images to emphasize the marks people make as they pass through certain spaces. “Everyone leaves marks, both physically and emotionally. The ones that interest me the most are overlooked marks: a random strip of duct tape, a buffed out graffiti tag, or a crack in an unused public square,” Crawford said. “None of these marks would be there unless someone made the landscape for them to inhabit.”
Lewis J. Crawford is an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah in the Art and Art History Department. With several accomplishments under his belt, including a Purchase Award, several solo exhibitions in galleries in Utah and Arizona and a permanent installation at the Leonardo in Salt Lake City, Crawford defines his work as “Marktitious Imagery—a semiotic examination into the reassignment of marks found in a human-made landscape.”
-Brieanna Olds
