Exhibition Dates: February 10 – April 6
Opening Reception: February 10, 7-10pm
CUAC Annex-The Pizza Gallery

Participating artists:
Clarissa Lewis Anderson
Maura German
Alex Jameson

Clarissa Lewis Anderson:

My work explores what is important to me as a woman and wife. Living in Provo, Utah, I feel surrounded by an image of the ideal wife; but also pressured to be what society says a woman must be. I’m searching to reconcile these contrasting values as I discover who I am.

Maura German:

My work has developed from images I imagined at two separate times. The first image was a dark tunnel that expanded into a light opening. The second image contained a huge wooden frame that had countless black threads strung vertically and tied at both ends; I knew I had tied each thread as I watched myself cutting them as I walked by. I have been drawn back to these images over and over, trying to understand what they mean. My work is informed by that search. It is about reaching again and again, drawing meaning from what I have seen.

Alex Jameson:

I can’t help but be aware of our relationship to the universe. I find myself caught up in its beauty, largeness, and mystery. So much of my time is devoted to wondering about its vastness and wishing to be a part of it outside the limits of our earth. This leads me to think a proper self-portrait of myself would be my face covered in stars. I’m also playing with the idea that we are literally made from the remnants of stars and that in our universe everything is interconnected. I’m interested in the repetition and re-imaging of the universe. I like to imagine and be playful with interpretation of what it might look like to view a nebula from a close proximity. There is so much we don’t know about the universe; so much of it, though governed by laws, is theory. This unknown gives me a subject matter to explore and create my own ideas of what it could look like.

Please join us for an opening reception for the 2012 Utah Ties Juried Art Exhibit this Friday, February 10 from 7-10pm. Max Presneill, Head Curator for the Torrance Art Museum, has made his selections and will be attending the reception. He will be announcing the award winners for the show at 8:00pm.

CUAC Mission Statement:

The purpose of the CUAC is to educate Utahns about Contemporary Art through exhibitions of artists from three categories:
1. Sanpete artists who demonstrate a high level of professionalism in their art;
2. Utah artists who make art in a Contemporary genre who are emerging or well established;
3. and artists who are exemplary of important trends in Contemporary Art worldwide.

The CUAC maintains that good education about art starts with strong exhibitions of Contemporary Art that have relevance in content or image to our community.

Education also includes outreach to the community in the form of classes for adults and children, lectures and critical dialogue about art, and an inviting, friendly environment that welcomes visitors and encourages questions and strives to provide answers.

Thank you to everyone who applied to the show this year. There were a record number of applicants, making the selection process very exciting and very difficult for the Juror.

Congratulations to the following artists:

Trent Alvey

Daniel Barney

John Bell

Trent Call

Bruce Case

Matthew Choberka

Brian Christensen

Noah Coleman

Taren Devereux

Julie Dunker

Tom Dunn

Daniel Everett

Peter Everett

Carey Ann Francis

Mckenzie Garey

Jonathan Gibson

Holly Jarvis

Brooklyn Johnson

Steven Larson

Holly Lyons

Jason Moffat

Jenny Morgan

Jeremias Paul

Anna Peterson

Andrew Rice

Michael Richards

Mary Toscano

Laura Sharp Wilson

For Immediate Release:

CONTACT: Morgan Edwards

Central Utah Art Center

86 North Main

Ephraim, UT 84627

435-283-5110

www.cuartcenter.org

*******Due to technical difficulties THE DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL THURSDAY, JANUARY 26.*******

If you are having technical difficulties, or special requests, please email Mo at art@cuartcenter.org.

2012 Utah Ties Juried Exhibit 
The Central Utah Art Center is pleased to announce it’s 8th Annual Utah Ties Juried Art Exhibition. Artists with ties to Utah, as well as all Utah residents, are welcome to submit work.

The Utah Ties Exhibition, which has become a yearly tradition at the Central Utah Art Center, began as a way to showcase the work of exceptional artists in and around the state. The Art Center has been very careful to select jurors with world-class qualifications, and the Utah Ties exhibit becomes a valuable way to connect them with local artists at a critical level.

This year’s juror is Max Presneill, Head Curator for the Torrance Art Museum in Los Angeles, as well as Director of ARTRA Curatorial(www.artrala.org).

The Utah Ties exhibit is always a strong show full of interesting and innovative work from artists working in Utah and artists that are tied to the state. Last year’s winners were Vanessa Gromek, Morgan Wakefield and Chris Coy.

Artsts are encouraged to apply online.  All media will be accepted.

Important Dates: 
Submission Deadline: January 26, 2012
Artist Notification February 4, 2012

Opening Reception: February 10th at 7 p.m

Delivery of accepted work: February 6, 2012

Pick up of exhibited work: April 7, 2012

Other Information 
Entry Fee: $20 for 3 images and $5 per each additional image

Prizes: 1st $500/$200/$100

Juror’s Bio

Max Presneill is a Los Angeles based artist and curator, originally from London, UK.

As an artist he has shown throughout the world including New York, London, Amsterdam, Istanbul, Sydney and Tokyo and is represented by Durden & Ray, Los Angeles, as well as the Garboushian Gallery, Beverly Hills.

Currently he is the Head Curator for the Torrance Art Museum as well as Director of ARTRA Curatorial, an independent curatorial projects management team, who organized the CO/LAB art fair, 2011. He has extensive experience internationally as a curator having organized exhibitions for museums, institutes and galleries in the US and UK, the Netherlands, Japan, Mexico, Turkey, Australia, and more.

He was the Founder and former Director of Raid Projects (1998 – 2009 – an artists initiative space with global reach – www.raidprojects) and Director of the Mark Moore Gallery (2005-8). He was the co-founder of BLOC Studios in the UK in 1996 and the founder of the Ntopia Group (an artists international collective).

Besides giving regular lectures on professional practices at universities and other venues he has also sat on the panels for the American Association of Museums Annual Conference 2010 for ‘On the Road: Ephemeral Exhibits and The Visitor Experience’, the Contemporary Art Roundtable, organized by CERA, at Pasadena Museum of California Art in 2010 and the City of Los Angeles Public Art Selection Panel for the Metro system, for the same year. He has worked briefly as an art critic, still writes essays occasionally for artist’s catalogs as well as for each TAM exhibition catalog and was previously Professor of Fine Art at several universities in the UK and the US – he holds 4 degrees, 3 of which are advanced degrees – teaching on various Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts courses. He has also sat on the Selection Committee’s for NOVA Young Art Fair (Chicago), PULSE Art Fair (New York/Miami/London), the PILOT program and publication (London), and for the McColl Center’s Artist-in-Residence Program, North Carolina amongst others.  He has lived in Los Angeles since 2001.

Website: www.maxpresneill.com

CUAC Main Gallery
Central Utah Art Center
86 South Main
Ephraim, UT 84627
(435) 283-5110
www.cuartcenter.org

Exhibition Dates: June 10 – August 5, 2011
Opening Reception: June 10, 2011 7-10pm

CUAC is pleased to announce an exhibition of work from Scott Allred, Amy Jorgensen, Adam Larsen, and Brad Taggart. This exhibit explores the relationship between colleagues and the what role location and proximity plays in the creation of art.
Each artist is a full-time professor at Snow College. Working individually they set out to create work that is both personal and also communicates a sense of place through media and concept.

Scott Allred

Scott Allred is interested in formal aesthetic relationships. In the drawing process shape is what makes the subject recognizable and value execution makes the subject believable. His work consists primarily of figure studies, portraits, and large biblical narratives in the tradition of historic masterpieces. It is his desire to revisit this imagery in his drawings and paintings.

Amy Jorgensen

Amy Jorgensen’s work began as an inquiry into the practices and aesthetics of historical criminal photography and associated assumptions of the photograph as a document of the moment, or a representation of truth – what Walter Benjamin describes as evidence of an occurrence. Traditional notions of the body in art, the figure as object on view, are set aside to consider the body as an active participant in artistic process. She incorporates performance and photography with a willingness to use her own body as both test subject and subject matter in an investigation of personal and cultural assumptions linked to our artistic and scientific expectations of photographic practice. Jorgensen explores the body as both repository and author of information. The resulting photographs are the striking visual residue of her experience: traces of body fluid, clothing, skin prints, and the fine edges of body hair are evidence of her occurrence. Jorgensen states, “My body is an archive, my skin the surface through which I experience the world.”

Adam Larsen

Adam Larsen is a passionate artist and teacher of the visual language. His philosophy of art and teaching embraces the idea that art occurs when craft and concept homogenize. He is dedicated to promoting the practice of fundamental visual and dextral skills in a variety of artistic disciplines. His work cannot be categorized completely by one artistic medium but instead exists in varied forms of drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, and artists’ books. This mixed-media affiliation allows him freedom as an artist to produce work in any combination of material and process, informing and enhancing his particular concept. His current work can be characterized as a visual reflection of his life as he attempts to translate commonplace occurrences into intimate visual dialogs utilizing the visual and tactile container of the artists’ book. The work includes the use of toys and elements of childhood play, metaphorically creating a reciprocal relationship between early memories and adulthood.

Brad Taggart

He is a maker of objects. As a sculptor Brad Taggart modifies materials and space to suit the body of work. He is a traditional sculptor in the sense that he places emphasis on the quality of the object even when the nature of the object is driven by conceptual concerns. He believes that a high-minded idea, in the absence of a finely crafted object, is philosophy mixed with theatre. He considers himself a contemporary sculptor and subscribes to the notion that he can work in any tradition, material, technology, or style that suits him. He is a figure sculptor, but also an installation artist. He embraces realism, yet is equally at home with abstraction. He uses age-old processes to create his work, but is willing to accept new technologies that allow him to be more efficient. He relishes the freedom to say what he needs to say when he needs to say it using whatever means necessary to get his message across. In the end Taggart’s message will always take a material form because he believes that as a sculptor he is a maker of objects.

Master Mahan Fyling Before Jehovah’s Curse (After Cormon) / Jason Metcalf / 2010

curated by Jason Metcalf

Central Utah Art Center

86 South Main

Ephraim, UT 84627

(435) 283-5110

www.cuartcenter.org

Exhibition Dates: June 10 – August 5, 2011

Opening Reception: June 10, 2011 7-10pm

CUAC is pleased to announce the two part exhibition, Sanpete is for Lovers, where Jason Metcalf acts as curator-artist-folklorist in an investigation into superstitions specific to the locale of the Sanpete Valley. In half of the exhibition, Metcalf has conducted research into and gathered evidence of a Sanpete Valley sighting of the forever-traveling figure of Master Mahan – the wandering Biblical Cain who has been cursed to roam the earth until the end of days.  The other half of the exhibition examines the formal and theoretical affinities that are had with quilt barn paintings and Modernist geometric abstraction. Metcalf has placed quilt barn paintings within the galleries of CUAC, while simultaneously displaying examples of the latter on the original grain storage building which is situated on the historic pioneer complex of the art center, as well as throughout the Sanpete Valley.  Quilt barn paintings are believed to have genesis with Amish hex paintings, which some folklorists think were placed on barns to ward off or hex evil from the lives and property of a given group.

Jason Metcalf is an artist and curator based in Sundance, Utah. He has exhibited his work nationally and locally throughout Utah in venues including the Scope International Art Fair in NY and Miami, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Mesa Arts Center, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibits, Kayo Gallery, and the Rio Gallery among others. He attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and completed a BFA at Brigham Young University.  Metcalf co-founded and directed the former Sego Art Center, which was located in Provo, Utah. Additional work can be found at jasonmetcalf.com.

Design for All Hallows Quilt Block Painting Number 1 / Jason Metcalf / 2011

This exhibition is one of many at the CUAC that features highly acclaimed artists from around the United States and Utah. A review of our programming has recently been included in the highly influential international Flash Art magazine published in Milan, Italy. Artists who have shown at the CUAC over the last four years have been included in the Whitney Biennial, the Venice Biennial, collected by Charles Saatchi; they have been exhibited in the Getty Museum, Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Saatchi Gallery, major museums in Switzerland, Germany, Iceland, Korea, and Spain; They have shown in Deitch Projects, Mary Boone Gallery, Freight and Volume Gallery, the Drawing Center, and many other important New York, Los Angeles, and international venues.

CUAC Mission Statement:

The purpose of the CUAC is to educate Utahns about Contemporary Art through exhibitions of artists from three categories:

1. Sanpete artists who demonstrate a high level of professionalism in their art;
2. Utah artists who make art in a Contemporary genre who are emerging or well established;
3. and artists who are exemplary of important trends in Contemporary Art worldwide.

The CUAC maintains that good education about art starts with strong exhibitions of Contemporary Art that have relevance in content or image to our community. Education also includes outreach to the community in the form of classes for adults and children, lectures and critical dialogue about art, and an inviting, friendly environment that welcomes visitors and encourages questions and strives to provide answers.

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Photography courtesy of Jason Metcalf

Raw Melissa will be providing free vegan macaroons for pARTy Bus riders.  Raw Melissa is committed to LIFE and LOVE – Living and Loving.

Hi! I own a company called Raw Melissa that sells extraordinary healthy gourmet desserts and offers nutrition coaching and education. Our products at Raw Melissa are made from only fresh fruits and vegetables, raw nuts and seeds, cold pressed healthy oils and natural sweeteners. We recycle all we can, we use very small amounts of electricity and almost all our packaging is made from materials that are so biodegradable, they can be composted. We strive to buy locally as often as possible and lastly and most importantly, we don’t sell anything that doesn’t taste absolutely delicious. I’m also lucky enough to have been a doula (birth assistant) and childbirth educator for over a decade, having helped several hundred couples during pregnancy and childbirth and am also one of two DONA Approved Doula Trainers in Utah.

More About Raw Melissa

website: rawmelissa.com

food twitter: twitter.com/rawmelissa
food blog: rawmelissa.blogspot.com
birth twitter: twitter.com/doulamelissa
birth blog: doulamelissa.blogspot.com

About the Original pARTy Bus

This 50 passenger bus will not only be providing transportation, but a full art experience. The bus picks up at 5:50pm every second Friday of the month at GARFO, located 1800 South 1500 East, with another pick up along the way in Provo at 1st West and 1st North. On the bus, patrons will enjoy free drinks as well as video art by local, national or international artists for the ride to the show.  This way, the bus itself, serves as a sort of mobile art exhibition. Upon arrival, they will enjoy the art show opening (free to the public) as well as a free concert. CUAC pARTy bus is sponsored in-part by the Pizza Gallery across the street from CUAC in Ephraim.  The Pizza Gallery often hosts live music events and art exhibitions in collaboration with CUAC.

Get Your pARTy Bus Tickets

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