The art scene in Salt Lake City is always a hot topic of conversation, with some galleries opening up with big plans and others closing their doors. We check in with three gallery owners who are opening new spaces and one who is shutting up shop.
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The lorem ipsum co-op art gallery will be the first of it's kind in the south valley, with the grand opening reception on Friday, Feb. 17, for gallery stroll.
As a co-op, lorem ipsum is staffed and funded by artists. They will work together to run the gallery, produce events and promote each other's work. The plan is to rotate the artwork monthly, with a reception on gallery stroll night. lorem ipsum is also home to the city of South Jordan's resident on display program, highlighting a local artist each month at the gallery and also at the Gale Center. Artists showing this month will include Autumn Morton, Lee Wuchner, Dan Toone, Joshua Toone, Scott Stanley and Casey Kawaguchi.
Curator David Born is an artist himself, and his work will be on display for the opening exhibit. He also has a day job at a tomato packing plant, and works as arts and diversity chairperson for the LiveDAYBREAK Community Council, public arts and cultural development board member for the City of South Jordan, designer for F1ND Skateboards, art director for Vellum Artzine in Brooklyn and founder and program director of Artshare International, which provides schools with an opportunity to raise funds for arts programs.
Born says the opening of the gallery was inspired by last year's third successful Daybreak Artwalk, an annual event that highlights local talent and hosts a charity auction. "One day, some of the artists said 'Wouldn't it be great to have this all the time?,'" he says. "Then, the LiveDAYBREAK Community Council gained the support of the City of South Jordan and Kennecott, who offered space in the flourishing SoDa Row village center, and a gallery suddenly fell from the sky and landed in the hands of local artists."
He says it is exciting to be a part of such an endeavor, and encouraging to see such support from the artists and the community. "I wish it were easier to find eager emerging artists interested in being a part of a collective effort," he says. "Since time is money and money is money too, paying to hang your work and having to work to sell it isn't appealing to most artists. But to those who see the potential and have the drive to push their work to the next level, this is pure gold."
You Should Go:
"Lorem Ipsum"
When • Opens Friday, Feb. 17
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The art scene in Salt Lake City is always a hot topic of conversation, with some galleries opening up with big plans and others closing their doors. We check in with three gallery owners who are opening new spaces and one who is shutting up shop.
lorem ipsum
The lorem ipsum co-op art gallery will be the first of it's kind in the south valley, with the grand opening reception on Friday, Feb. 17, for gallery stroll.
As a co-op, lorem ipsum is staffed and funded by artists. They will work together to run the gallery, produce events and promote each other's work. The plan is to rotate the artwork monthly, with a reception on gallery stroll night. lorem ipsum is also home to the city of South Jordan's resident on display program, highlighting a local artist each month at the gallery and also at the Gale Center. Artists showing this month will include Autumn Morton, Lee Wuchner, Dan Toone, Joshua Toone, Scott Stanley and Casey Kawaguchi.
Curator David Born is an artist himself, and his work will be on display for the opening exhibit. He also has a day job at a tomato packing plant, and works as arts and diversity chairperson for the LiveDAYBREAK Community Council, public arts and cultural development board member for the City of South Jordan, designer for F1ND Skateboards, art director for Vellum Artzine in Brooklyn and founder and program director of Artshare International, which provides schools with an opportunity to raise funds for arts programs.
Born says the opening of the gallery was inspired by last year's third successful Daybreak Artwalk, an annual event that highlights local talent and hosts a charity auction. "One day, some of the artists said 'Wouldn't it be great to have this all the time?,'" he says. "Then, the LiveDAYBREAK Community Council gained the support of the City of South Jordan and Kennecott, who offered space in the flourishing SoDa Row village center, and a gallery suddenly fell from the sky and landed in the hands of local artists."
He says it is exciting to be a part of such an endeavor, and encouraging to see such support from the artists and the community. "I wish it were easier to find eager emerging artists interested in being a part of a collective effort," he says. "Since time is money and money is money too, paying to hang your work and having to work to sell it isn't appealing to most artists. But to those who see the potential and have the drive to push their work to the next level, this is pure gold."
You Should Go:
"Lorem Ipsum"
When • Opens Friday, Feb. 17
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Where • 11274 Kestral Rise Rd., South Jordan
More info • loremipsumdaybreak.com
Mandate Press
The Mandate Press is a modern letterpress shop that specializes in high end business cards, invitations and other printed ephemera. The grand opening of the gallery features a show called Apocalyptikiss, which opens Monday, Feb. 27.
Marketing director and artist Danielle Marriott says they have been in their current warehouse space for almost a year and have finally gotten comfortable with wanting to show it off. "It's going to be so cool to have people drop by for a birthday card or a sketchbook and be able to see what it is we do," she says. "Letterpress is such a hard thing to describe and this way people will become more and more aware of the process and why it's such a cool art form."
The Mandate Press was opened by Ben Webster and has been in operation since 2004. "It started when he got a wild hair to be his own boss and follow his passion. Soon enough, he hired his first employee and the business has been growing ever since," Marriott says. "The mission of the Mandate Press is to deliver exceptional and professional letterpress to our clients. We take quality very seriously. Our doors have always been open to the public, but our presence has been a bit of a secret to the local Salt Lake community, which is what we want to change. A large amount of our business comes from all around the world and we would love for more local people and businesses to know that we are here."
She says the Mandate Press fits perfectly into the Salt Lake scene in the fact it cherishes that DIY sensibility that the city loves. "Everything we do we put our heart into and just like the principles this city was founded upon, we love working hard and we love the reward that follows," she says. "Especially in this era of waste we're all tangled in, we're focused on delivering a product that people don't want to throw away, and that is so important to us. We love wrangling these archaic machines and the contrast between heavy steel machinery and the delicate and intricate product that comes from it.
"We also love to support the local artists in Salt Lake which is why we will have a group show, Apocalyptikiss, on display though March. It will host some of Salt Lake's most notorious talent. We've also got a show lined up for April with local photographer, Stan Evans. We're all about letting artists and designers be aware that letterpress could be a great medium for their visions as well. Letterpress proliferated on ships and was notoriously associated with the surliest of characters and as Thomas Moore said, 'Though an angel should write, still 'tis devils must print.' We like to maintain that edge around the shop."
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You Should Go:
"Apocalyptikiss"
When • Opens Monday, Feb. 27
Where •1077 S. Main St.
More info • themandatepress.com
The Hive Gallery at Layton Hills Mall
The Hive Gallery in Trolley Square has built it's reputation over the past couple of years on the mission statement 'art without boundaries.' The gallery opened a second location at Layton Hills Mall on Monday, Feb. 6. Owner Emily Brooks Edmunds says since they have been working from the beginning to help nurture and raise awareness of the local art scene, the opening of a second gallery fits in perfectly with that intent.
"We were very surprised at the public's response to local art in a mall setting," she says. "Over a short period of time we realized that our customer base stretched far beyond downtown Salt Lake and well into Utah and Davis Counties. A store in Layton Hills Mall provides an opportunity to connect with more customers and more artists north of our Trolley Square location. Their proximity between Ogden and downtown Salt Lake will give us a great potential to reach as many people as possible with local arts."
Edmunds says the new gallery will offer prints, posters, jewelry and most of the boutique items the Hive is known for.
"The new space will be smaller," she says "So we'll continue to use our Trolley location as the event space and the Layton space will feature a spotlight artist each month with original works and prints available to the public." Some of the featured artists include Jonathon B Baker, Travis Bone, Bacee Bedard, Jared Knight, Jeff Hale and Ryan Muirhead.
Edmunds says that in the past two years, the Hive has grown from a modest gallery to hosting fashion shows, live music events and displaying art in restaurants such as Stoneground and Meditrina. "If our Layton Hills Mall location helps us further these goals then we will consider it a success," she says.
You Should Go:
"Hive Gallery 2"
When • Now open
Where •1076 Layton Hills Mall, Layton
More info • The Hive Gallery at Facebook.com
Stolen & Escaped
The basement gallery below Frosty Darling and Kayo Gallery (177 E. Broadway) was started two years ago to showcase and promote experimental art. The last show for Stolen & Escaped will be the current one, by Danielle Mariott. Marriott also headlined the gallery's grand opening in June 2010 with an exhibit of paintings and drawings.
Owner Amanda Hurtado says she opened the gallery to have a voice in the local art scene, regardless of how well-known the artist, or how marketable the art might be. "Closing the gallery is a decision that I waffled back and forth on for a while," she says. "In the end, S&E was never intended to be a money-making venture but as such, it really can't go on forever. It was a great ride and I loved it all the way through."
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Hurtado says the Salt Lake art market seems to be experiencing an awkward phase. "The target audience for many contemporary artists and small galleries like S&E is a young audience, 20 and 30-somethings, who by and large have not graduated from spectator to collector yet. The difficulty is getting that audience, who are the vast majority of monthly gallery-strollers, to buy anything. Those few who are buying, are mostly buying screen prints. A screen print makes more sense to a young lifestyle than say, an oil painting or a sculpture. I think this picture will change as the new generation of Utah art collectors develops but until that happens, small contemporary galleries are going to have a tough time surviving."
Hurtado, who is also an artist, says she plans to dedicate some time to a few art projects of her own. "I'd also like to continue to collaborate with other local artists and maybe do some guest curating," she says. "I'll be contributing a sound piece to a group show for The Mandate Press grand opening." She says that if people want to see the blossoming of the gallery scene rather than galleries closing up shop, the best step is to buy art. "If you like something you see at a gallery, take the next step and buy it. It's never, ever a mistake to buy a piece of art."
You Should Go:
"Stolen & Escaped"
When • Through Saturday, Feb. 11
Where •177 E. Broadway, below Frosty Darling
More info • stolenandescaped.wordpress.com
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