| 2006 EXHIBITS ARCHIVE |
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Bruce Smith 
Robert Marshall Stepping Stones Oil on Canvas 
Downy Doxey Flowery Tongue Pigmented ink, embroidery thread on linen
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Bruce Smith • Robert Marshall • Downy Doxey October 13, 2006 - January 6, 2007 When one considers the development of the arts in Utah, and more particularly in Utah County, an account would be incomplete without acknowledging the imprint of Robert L. Marshall and Bruce H. Smith. Since the late 1960s, these two artists have been prominent forces for aesthetic investigation in the arts at Brigham Young University. Smith recently retired, and Marshall contemplates a not so distant departure from the pedagogical pursuits that have contoured his life for several decades. Retirement is perhaps the wrong term inasmuch as each is still, and plans to remain, vitally active in the studio. Downy Doxey is an emerging artist of growing reputation and, coincidentally, daughter-in-law to Marshall. For Robert Marshall, past involvement with still life subjects exploring formal possibilities of arranged pieces of cloth viewed from high angles shifted to subjects in nature – most commonly ¬intimate close-ups of wetlands. Using both still life and views of nature for their formal properties, Marshall carefully constructs his compositions to examine physical beauty but also as an extension of inner sensibilities. “Awareness of the intrinsic (and I believe lasting) beauty of a particular location,” postures Marshall, “is always intensified through private rather than collective discovery. Quiet hikes into the landscape intensify our connection with the land in a way that standing on the periphery and observing the obvious can never accomplish.” “These are the inner landscapes of the heart, the landscapes that include the self as an active participant, the landscapes that connect us back to ourselves.” The process is one of initial perception and selection of location, but “all stimuli must then be filtered through a peculiar aesthetic need to modify and amplify.” Marshall freely interprets color and form to reflect these inward impressions. Bruce Smith is best known for his contributions to figurative painting and composition innovations while maintaining a pointed concern for sound craftsmanship. Using time tested materials of the Old Masters, Smith labors for realization of his unique vision without sacrificing permanence of unproven material fads. The results yield a beauty of surface and material that is uncommon. Smith often strives for transcendence of time in works that defy common placement. The paintings feature recognizable objects or figures, but placed at times in a space those folds and expands upon and within it. The three dimensionality of an object is challenged as it flirts with fully rounded illusion in representation only to be contradicted by its own dissolution into the abstract surface, or its interruption by other seemingly decorative elements. But the visual questions push beyond mere formal play and are truly based upon concrete concerns in metaphysics. They thus become for Smith an excursion into felt philosophical possibilities. In painting, suggests Smith, “The offering is a multifaceted menu of man’s/woman’s spiritual qualities (spiritual in the sense that they are not physical, but mental – mental thoughts, attitudes, concepts, feelings, emotions and intuitions).” “ The spiritual entities rely on the embodiment for an external presence, and the embodiment requires the spiritual entities to give it life; the body without the spirit is dead.” “My works are clothes of memories.” This succinct declaration prefaces Downy Doxey’s introduction to her works of “tightly knit abstract iconography.” For Doxey, the interplay between image and material provide a context within which to “re-handle” a theme in a fresh manner. Domestic genre works date back several hundred years and serve here as progenitors to these works. However, innovations in contemporary print methods enable Doxey to manipulate photographic images through a digital ink transfer process producing a distinctly modern effect. These canvases are then further modified with treatments of needlework and collage. The first impression of many of the works is a somehow familiar image of home life – yet there is an immediate realization that there is an curious complexity to the surface. One soon becomes aware of the tactile elements – the seductive beauty and spatial dislocation encouraged by the threads, sequins, rhinestones, and other surface embellishments in these “exotic juxtapositions.” “Threads and fabrics are familiar, setting the stage for deeper connections to memory, a feeling of ‘being right at home’. Reflections from nostalgic photographs and images of domestic genres have provided me a way to explore the world closest to me, that of being a mother of four children, and an artist that works from the home.” -Marcus Alan Vincent Director Download the Exhibit catalog here. |
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Jeffery Hein |
Woodbury Invitational 2006 August 4, 2006 - September 30, 2006 A large and diverse collection of works from several Utah and regional artists. The exhibit features works by Gary Smith, Brian Kershisnik, William Whitaker, Alvin Gittins, David Linn, Ron Richmond, Jeffery Hein, Bruce Brainard, Clay Wagstaff, Connie Borup, Patrick Devonas, and David Dornan.
Download the exhibit student supplement here. |
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Adam Reeder Ego Co-Rivalry Bronze |
Annual Student Art Exhibition April 7 - 28, 2006 The Woodbury Art Museum at Utah Valley University hosts the Annual Student Art Exhibition every year in the month of April. This show serves as an opportunity for student artworks to be seen and for the students to learn the rigors of exhibition faced as a professional artist. Each year’s exhibit has its own unique feel as what is exhibited depends greatly on what the students enter and the judges’ aesthetic. In conjunction with the Student Exhibition there will be a number of graduating Bachelor of Fine Art personal exhibits. These works represent each BFA student’s long journey to find their unique voice and refine there own style. |
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Hyunmee Lee Chunji Changjo 23 Acrylic on Canvas |
AVC Faculty Show February 7 - March 24, 2006 Under the leadership of Department Chair Doug Anderson, the Art & Visual Communications department at UVU has grown from a two year program to a fully accredited four year program. The 2005-2006 academic year represents the second year that the program has offered a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (BFA) in addition to BA, BS, and AA degrees. In order to serve the needs of this dynamic and growing program, the department has added new faculty members Simon Blundell in photography and Marcus Alan Vincent in painting/drawing. Vincent is also the director of the Woodbury Art Museum. Each member of the faculty, both full time and adjunct, are dedicated artists and educators as will be evinced by the art and design works presented in this exhibition. Among the works featured in this exhibition will be large scale paintings by Hyunmee Lee, Catherine Downing, and Marcus Alan Vincent as well as ceramic works by Mark Talbert. Perry Stewart, Bob DeWitt and Jeff Bushman will exhibit illustrations of high caliber. Simon Blundell’s recent work exposes his excursions into photographic and mixed media works. Other explorations in photography, installation and graphic design will be offered by Jim Godfrey and Travis Lovell. Steve Bule will present volumes of his scholarly works in research as well as perform with his jazz combo at the opening reception. Susan Parkinson along with many of the adjunct instructors, including Lee Cowan, Kent Wing, Nancy Steele-Makasci, Jackie Brethen and Jane Bush will also exhibit recent works. The exhibition will present many forms, media and styles – too many to adequately outline in this short article. However, there will be a sufficiently wide range of ideas and perspectives expressed that each patron should find something engaging to them. Please join us and check out the “state-of-the-arts” at UVU. |
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Andy Warhol Marilyn Serigraph 
Roy Lichtenstein M-Maybe... Offset Lithograph |
Pop Art January 6 - February 4, 2006 To understand Pop Art you only need to be a part of popular culture. To more deeply appreciate Pop Art you should know the elitist world from which it evolved. Art in the late 1950's and early 60's was dominated by minimalism and abstraction in which the artistic object was more important than any meaning. They rejected representational imagery as being too confining, seeking creativity though visceral reactions and free gesture compositions. Artists and critics took seriously these idealistic theories, defending them as no other art movement had been defended before. Pop Art was a reaction to these and other established attitudes. Instead of a restricted art accessible to only a few, Pop was approachable by almost anyone. Turning to imagery, objects, and meanings already prevalent in to general public Pop did not require the viewer to be trained in some philosophical or religious iconography, only to have been exposed to the overwhelming mass media of American popular culture. Pop artists embraced not only the mundane everyday America of consumer products, but the contrived America of Hollywood. Pop has a quickly understandable surface, but it also has a host of deeper levels that can, if the viewer chooses, be explored and expanded. Ultimately Pop artist wanted the viewer to reconsider the themes of culture from a different perspective; embracing the mundane and celebrating life as it happens. There is no single style that is prevalent in Pop, but a subject-matter: mass media. The presentation of imagery is the style of Pop Art, allowing the artist to employ a wide verity of methods and mediums. They can use simple blocks of color or a cacophony of images, what matters is its connection to culture. The use and mixture of images becomes a way in which the artist can inspire viewers to change their perspectives.
My image is a statement of the symbols of the harsh, impersonal products and brash materialistic objects on which America is built today. It is a projection of everything that can be bought and sold, and the practical but impermanent symbols that sustain us.
~Andy Warhol Pop artist played with the American Dream, the perception of a good life played out in the media. But Pop artists seemed to understand that this dream was nothing but a myth revealing the contradiction in American culture and in ourselves. |
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| 2006 EXHIBITS ARCHIVE |
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