Jim Jones Exhibit @ OC Tanner Store, Presented by SUU (SLC: Aug 2 - 21)

“Jim Jones: Recent Paintings”
Limited Showing in Salt Lake City at OC Tanner Store

(Southern Utah University, Cedar City, UT) Recent paintings by celebrated landscape artist, Jim Jones, will be on display in the newly renovated O.C. Tanner building at 15 South State Street in Salt Lake City. The exhibition, “Jim Jones: Recent Paintings,” will open on Monday, August 2, 2010 and will remain through Saturday, August 21, 2010. Store hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibit, sponsored by Zions Bank, O.C. Tanner and Southern Utah University, is free and open to the public.

Jim Jones has captured the essence of the American West and red rock country through his paintings of Zion Canyon and the Grand Canyon. Jones grew up in Cedar City and received his education from the University of Utah after studying at the Art Center in Los Angeles and UCLA. He then focused his work primarily on figure and portrait painting and for 15 years spent his winters in Mexico creating images that celebrated the local people.

After working as a winter caretaker at the Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Jones found his passion in the solitude and focus required of landscape painting and began painting the Southern Utah vistas he’d explored since childhood. Armed with no more than a canvas, brushes and paint, and crammed into the cab of his pick-up truck, Jones captured millions of years of sedimentary formations, volcanic intrusions and vegetation in more than 1,300 original paintings.

Fourteen of the eighteen pieces that will be on display during this exhibition are a gift from Jones to Southern Utah University’s permanent art collection. Plans are underway to build the Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA) on the SUU campus. This museum will become the permanent repository for work by Jones.

For more information about this exhibit, call the Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery at (435) 586-5432 or visit www.suu.edu/pva/artgallery. The Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery’s mission is to exhibit, collect and preserve historic and contemporary works of art significant to the interior American West. In addition, the museum hosts art exhibitions that represent the principal artistic styles and periods of world cultures.

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Image Caption: Cathedral Mountain by Jim Jones

ABOUT THE COLLEGE

The Southern Utah University College of Performing and Visual Arts is comprised of the departments of Art and Design, Music, Theatre Arts and Dance, as well as a graduate program in Arts Administration. The College offers 16 different degree areas, including liberal arts Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees; professional Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Fine Arts in art and theatre degrees; and a Master of Fine Arts in Arts Administration degree. The departments of Art and Design, Music and Dance are nationally accredited.

More than 60 full- and part-time faculty and staff are engaged in teaching and mentoring over 550 majors in the College. Over 1100 students enroll each year in over 195 arts classes on the SUU campus. The College presents 100 performances, lectures, presentations, and exhibitions each year.

The College’s affiliate organizations include the Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery, American Folk Ballet, Utah Shakespearean Festival, the performance group Acclamation, and the SUU Ballroom Dance Company. For more information abou