Sytemic Profiles: four Utah artists discuss their work
Four Utah artists whose unique exhibit at College of Eastern Utah’s Gallery East will be on campus Friday, Dec. 4 from 6:30 – 8 p.m. for a gallery talk and reception which is open to the public. The exhibit, Systemic Profiles, features a diverse use of artist’s media, including oil paint, paper maché, photography, sound, and fabricated materials.
This archived article was written by: staff
Four Utah artists whose unique exhibit at College of Eastern Utah’s Gallery East will be on campus Friday, Dec. 4 from 6:30 – 8 p.m. for a gallery talk and reception which is open to the public. The exhibit, Systemic Profiles, features a diverse use of artist’s media, including oil paint, paper maché, photography, sound, and fabricated materials.
Steven Stradley, an emerging artist working in Salt Lake City, organized the show and says the concept behind the exhibit is based on interplay between structured systems. “Color and mark making play an important role in defining the types of systems and change based on other forces,” says Stradley. As the gallery visitor passes through the space, they see four visual interpretations of various systems
Stradley, received a BFA from Utah State University and teaches art at Mountain Ridge Middle School in Highland, He is engaged in the process of creating art as an expression of concept and the materialism of paint.
Another artist, Carrie Wardle, who received her degree in art from USU, recently moved from Sandy to pursue an MFA at the State University of New York, at New Paltz.
Wardle says that her travel experiences in England, Germany, Italy and the Dominican Republic allowed her to see and understand new cultures, languages and art forms. Inspired by nature, travel and the world around her, she pulls objects from everyday life and manipulates them.
Pleasant Grove artist, Randal Marsh, teaches with Stradley at Mountain Ridge Junior High, received his BFA from Brigham Young University and works out of his home-based studio.
“The purpose of my work,” he says, “is to comment on contemporary society through symbolic means while creating formally successful art objects. The symbols represent various aspects of civilization such as language, location, textile, and commerce. For example, I use predictive text and networked lines as a representation of an economy based on gift exchanges. It is my hope that experiencing these works in an installation will create a unified visual and auditory experience that can let the viewer feel temporarily displaced from their world in a manner similar to film or literature.”
Spanish Fork artist, Barbara Frazier, received her BFA from Utah Valley University and is a lecturer in UVU’s Art Department.
Frazier, a photographer, uses innovative combinations of materials, figurative elements and self-reflective imagery in her work. Her creative process is often inspired by “beautiful words, words that are kind and gentle” and seem to linger in her mind for a long time.
She describes her installation as a body of work “born from a journal entry filled with single words in a column, sweet morsels given to me throughout one particular day. My art making process always begins with a question,” she says, “which leads me to imagery and continues with research and a study of materials.”
The community is invited to attend the gallery talk.
Gallery East is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The gallery is closed Fridays, weekends and holidays. The exhibit is free and open to the public. For more information, call 435-613-5327; Noel Carmack 435-613-5241 or e-mail [email protected].
