salt 1 @ UMFA (SLC: May 6 - Sept 26)

salt 1: Adriana Lara

Salt Lake City, UT – This spring, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts will inaugurate salt, a series of semiannual exhibitions showcasing innovative contemporary art from around the world. salt aims to reflect the international impact of contemporary art today, forging local connections to the global, and bringing new and diverse artwork to the city that shares the program’s name.

Organized by Dr. Jill Dawsey, UMFA Acting Chief Curator/Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, the first presentation of salt will debut on May 6 and remain on view through September 26, 2010. salt 1 features the work of Mexico City-based artist Adriana Lara, who works in a range of formats and mediums, creating playful, concept-driven installations. Lara’s provocative work often explores the relationship between art-making and other more commonplace forms of production, questioning the boundaries that separate “high art” from everyday objects.

Lara has had solo exhibitions at Artpace San Antonio in San Antonio, Texas (2009); Gaga Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City (2008); Galeria Comercial in San Juan, Puerto Rico (2007); Air de Paris in Paris, France (2007); and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France (2003). Her work was recently featured in The Generational: Younger than Jesus at the New Museum in New York City and she has been included in group exhibitions in Berlin, San Juan, New York City, and Paris. Lara is part of numerous collective art projects, such as Pazmaker, a free-distribution quarterly publication for which she is the chief editor, Lasser Moderna, experimental music band, and “Perros Negros,” an “art production office” that proposes new platforms for discussion and art-making.

salt 1: Adriana Lara will be presented in conjunction with the exhibition Las Artes de México, on view in the UMFA’s first floor galleries during the summer of 2010. On loan from the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Las Artes de México explores the art, history, and culture of Mexico through an array of artworks, from ancient Mesoamerican artifacts to twentieth century masterworks by Diego Rivera and others. salt 1: Adriana Lara will be on view in a gallery situated at the conclusion of Las Artes de México, allowing viewers to fast-forward to the present moment and experience the cutting-edge art being created in Mexico today.

The UMFA’s salt series will affirm the Museum’s commitment to the art of today and tomorrow, demonstrating that contemporary art is vital, dynamic, and socially relevant.

Programming

Artist Talk: A Conversation with Artist Adriana Lara
May 6, 2010 at 7 pm
Join Dr. Jill Dawsey, UMFA Acting Chief Curator/Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, for a conversation with salt 1 artist, Adriana Lara. Learn about Lara’s artistic practice and philosophy in this free public program, and be among the first to experience salt 1.