PRESS RELEASE
September 21, 2010
For more information contact:
Jenny Klekas, executive assistant, 801-328-4201, jenniferk@slartcenter.org
www.slartcenter.org
Go West opens at Salt Lake Art Center on October 8
A new exhibition organized by guest curator Jill Dawsey
Salt Lake City, Utah –Salt Lake Art Center presents Go West, an exhibition that brings together twenty contemporary artists who are engaged in unearthing myths of the American West. The exhibition is organized by Jill Dawsey, acting chief curator, Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Go West will run October 8th – January 9th, 2011 at Salt Lake Art Center. Public programs on opening night include square dancing, from 7-9 pm, as well as a live original performance by artist Chris Coy with a bow and arrow, at 8 pm.
Working in a range of media (including painting, works on paper, sculpture, photography, and video), the artists in Go West offer reflections on the West as both destination and destiny. The exhibition considers the varied reasons people came west over the years: some, like the Cherokee Indians, were forcibly moved west, while others, like the Mormons, sought exile here; some came in search of fame and fortune, while others staked their claim to a separatist space, away from mainstream society.
Art Center Executive Director Adam Price shares his excitement for the new exhibition. “We are thrilled to be able to offer new insights into the most important stories that we tell ourselves as Westerners—particularly those narratives that explain how we came to be in this place, which some regard as home and others as a way station on the road to fame, fortune, love, or a fresh start. We are also excited to be collaborating with, and wish to thank, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts as personified by our guest curator, Jill Dawsey.”
Dawsey explains that Go West explores how past opinions of the Old West are still part of our cultural understanding of the American West. “For many Americans, the West was once thought to be a kind of blank slate--a place without a past. Go West suggests the ways in which the past always informs the present, and how this idea of the West as place of latent possibilities continues to figure in our cultural imagination.”
Artists whose work is exhibited in Go West include: Myranda Bair, David Berezin, Jeremy Blake, Margarita Cabrera, Chris Coy, Zoe Crosher, Cara Despain, Angela Ellsworth, Andrea Geyer/Simon J. Ortiz, Colter Jacobsen, Olga Koumoundouros, Jessica Minckley, Shaun O’Dell, Alison Pebworth, Mai-Thu Perret, Brion Nuda Rosch, Martha Rosler, Jared Steffensen, and Mungo Thomson.
Additional programming will include two lectures by Go West artists Zoe Crosher and Shaun O’Dell. Zoe Crosher’s lecture is on Saturday, October 9 at 2pm and Shaun O'Dell’s lecture is on Friday, October 29 at 7pm. Both lectures are free and open to the public. The exhibition and all accompanying programs are free and open to the public.
Jill Dawsey is Acting Chief Curator and Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. She was previously Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from 2003 to 2006. Dawsey has taught curatorial practice at the California College of the Arts and art history at the University of Utah, San Francisco Art Institute, UC Irvine, and Stanford University, where she completed her doctorate in art history. Her writing has appeared in Afterall, Art Journal, Art Papers, artforum.com, and The Exhibitionist. Dawsey is currently organizing The Smithson Effect, an exhibition exploring Robert Smithson’s influence on contemporary artists since the 1990s, opening at the UMFA in March 2011.
Exhibition inquiries:
Jenny Klekas, Executive Assistant, jenniferk@slartcenter.org, 801.328.4201
Interview requests for Jill Dawsey, guest curator:
Shelbey Peterson, shelbey.peterson@umfa.utah.edu 801.585.1306
About Salt Lake Art Center
Founded in 1931 and located just steps from Temple Square, award-winning Salt Lake Art Center is one of the region’s hidden gems, sporting three gallery spaces, an outdoor sculpture patio, screening room/lecture hall, resource library, and classroom spaces. Throughout its history, Salt Lake Art Center has exhibited works by leading artists ranging from local favorites LeConte Stewart, Alvin Gittins, and Anna Campbell Bliss to internationally known artists such as Diego Rivera, Andy Warhol, Gary Hill and Sophie Matisse. Exhibiting the best contemporary visual art from around the world, the Art Center provides its visitors with an opportunity to explore the human experience in ways that are both exciting to the senses and deeply thought-provoking. The Art Center rounds out its offerings with a lively mix of community presentations, film screenings, educational classes, and events celebrating the vibrant local art scene. 337 Project is a program of Salt Lake Art Center.
Art Center Location, Hours, and Parking
Salt Lake Art Center is located at 20 South West Temple at the corner of 100 South on West Temple between Abravanel Hall and Salt Palace Convention Center. Telephone (801) 328-4201. Hours are Tuesday through Thursday, 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, Friday 11:00 am to 9:00 pm, Saturday 11:00 am to 6:00 pm. Closed Sunday, Mondays and Holidays. Free parking for members available in the Marriott Hotel parking garage across the street. Admission is always free.
Current Exhibition
In the Street Level Gallery, experience the dreams and expectations of girlhood through the eyes of photographer Melissa Ann Pinney in Girl Ascending, through October 30.
Upcoming Exhibition
Honeymoon features the work of two Los Angeles based painters, Kristin Calabrese and Joshua Aster. Both internationally recognized painters, Calabrese and Aster are also recently married. This exhibition exemplifies a harmonious marriage of opposites, as Calabrese's paintings are virtuosic examples of illusionistic, figurative painting while Aster's works are studiously formal explorations of abstraction. November 5, 2010 – January 15, 2011.
Thank You to Our Sponsors for Making it Possible
Salt Lake Art Center is generously supported by Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts & Parks, Utah Arts Council, George S. & Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation, Kanter Family Foundation, American Express, Lawrence T. & Janet T. Dee Foundation, and Sam and Diane Stewart Foundation.
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Emily Brunt
Director of Communications
Salt Lake Art Center
20 South West Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
801.328.4201 x115 m: 801.232.7362
emilyb@slartcenter.org www.slartcenter.org
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