Upcoming Exhibits

SELECTIONS

permanent exhibition with rotating selections

This exhibition contains selections from the Woodbury Art Museum permanent collection, long term loans, and examples of significant art works borrowed from regional and national collections. One of the main features of this exhibit is the Dale and Teresa Neibaur Collection of paintings by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt. The Museum contains over 90 works by the Hildebrandt brothers from the Neibaur collection and slowly rotates these paintings in this exhibition throughout the year.

A special selection of works by Jeanne Clarke is presented in the main gallery featuring works from her mature period. A second gallery features works from the Hal Wing collection of early 20th century photographs. In a third gallery, we present a selection of western art pieces from our permanent collection by Gary Kapp and Bent F. Larsen as well as a loan of paintings from the Daniel J. Fairbanks collections including European paintings by J.B. Fairbanks, J. Leo Fairbanks, and regional works by G.W. Browning, and Jonathan Fairbanks.

National Invitational Postcard Exhibition

November 6, 2009 - January 15, 2010

Opening reception November 6, 6 - 8 p.m.

Through a network of artists, an artist from each of the fifty states was invited to make a postcard size (5" x 7") image dealing in some respect with the place in which they live. The curator of the exhibit is Jeanne Voltura, Director of the Bridge Gallery, City of Las Vegas, NV. The exhibition was exhibited at the Bridge Gallery from April - July of 2009. It is also traveling to these other venues as of this time: Woodbury Art Museum, Utah Valley University School of the Arts, Orem, UT; McCutchan Art Center, University of Southern Indiana; A.D. Gallery, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, Pembroke, NC; USCB Gallery, University of South Carolina, Beaufort SC. Other venues are under consideration.

The art pieces represent visual contexts and environments with diverse impetus and purpose. While the concept of postcard art is not new, this iteration of such an event presents serious works of art on a miniature scale, as opposed to simply images that has transited the country through the US mail. Many of the works on paper are two sided - and are installed in such a manner as to permit the patron to examine both surfaces.

Lewis Sorensen Dolls from the McCurdy Doll Museum

November 6, 2009 – January 15, 2010

Opening reception November 6, 6 - 8 p.m.

Shirley Paxman founded the McCurdy Doll Museum in 1978 in Provo, UT and named it for Laura Christensen McCurdy who provided more than 3,000 dolls. McCurdy, who was a teacher, collected and used the original dolls in her instructional programs. The museum’s dolls are grouped in such historical themes as women of the Bible, folk dresses of the world, Native American dolls, and first ladies of America. The museum was located in a restored 1893 carriage house until 2005. The museum closed that year and the dolls have not been seen publically since that time. For the first time in four years, a special selection of dolls will be on display at the Woodbury Art Museum (UVU School of the Arts).

The dolls in this exhibition represent a small selection of the works created by Lewis Sorensen. Born in 1910, Sorensen became one of America's premier creators of wax dolls – both life size figures and smaller doll size sculptures.  The subject of numerous newspaper articles, Sorensen gained a broad reputation for his life-size wax figures, and a general reputation as an outstanding sculptor. Appearing in this exhibit is a series of 12 “Father Christmas” dolls commissioned by Paxman representing traditions from a variety of nations. Sorensen developed a unique wax technique that he developed that is soft enough to carve, but firm enough to resist melting. The life-like, and individual characters of each ornately clothed figure adds charm to the stories of their origin.

Tawni Shuler: Ecotone

February 5 – March 12, 2010

Opening reception February 3, 6 - 8 p.m.

We are pleased to present the works of new visiting faculty member, Tawni Shuler, in this exhibition that exposes her works of the past few years along with works completed while at UVU. A graduate with a Master of Fine Arts degree from Arizona State University, and a native of Wyoming, Shuler brings a concern for connection with earth-place in her works. Having been raised with the rigors and unique experiences of farm life in Wyoming, Shuler combines her sense of aesthetic responsiveness with the life and death, dirt and skin experiences of her upbringing.  She chooses to call this exhibit Ecotone and offers this definition: Ecotone: the place where forest meets meadow, desert touches river.  It’s the frontier where communities of humankind and wild animals touch each other.  It’s that shaky space between who we are and who we appear to be, the gap between reality and mystery, the certain and the imagined.     - Joanne Smith from What Wildness is This.  Shuler's work ranges in size from small to enormous and will occupy two of the galleries in the museum. Her work carries a curious luminosity. While virtually non-objective, she nonetheless acknowledges Caravagio and Turner as sources of inspiration. Visit her website here.

UVU Student Art Show

March 29 - April 30, 2010

Opening reception March 29, 6 - 8 p.m.

Entries Due: March 10 - 11, 2010

Annual juried exhibition of the finest student work of the year. Applications and show conditions my be picked up at the museum. An outside juror will make selections and make awards to those works accepted in the exhibition. Since this exhibit will run concurrently with the BFA exhibition, competition will be stiff for the remaining space. Good Luck in your preparations. Please check with museum staff for clarification on framing and other requirements for entry to the exhibition.

UVU AVC BFA Final Project Competition

March 29 - April 30, 2010

Opening reception March 29, 6 - 8 p.m.

A small set of final project exhibitions from graduating Bachelor of Fine Arts candidates from the department of Art & Visual Communications. BFA candidates compete for inclusions in this prestigious exhibition. Applications may be picked up at the museum office, signed by the candidates' BFA mentor, and then submitted to Lee Cowan. All applications will be juried by a panel of non-UVU experts to make selection of participants in this exhibition.

From the Masses to the Masses: Art of the Yan'an Cave Artists Group

September 3 - December 17, 2010

Opening reception TBA

The exhibit includes the work of several artists known as the Cave Artists Group (Yaodong Huapai) who worked under the direction of Beijing based artist Jin Zhilin.  Jin, a student of Xu Beihong and later a contemporary of Constantine Maximov at the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts, was sent to Yan’an in the midst of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) where he recruited local artists such as Feng Shanyun, Chen Sanqiao, Song Ruxin, and others to study art at the Yan’an Masses Art Studio that he directed.

Yan’an was the Chinese Communists’ revolutionary capital in Shaanxi Province in northwestern China for thirteen years (1936-1949).  Although a remote and poor rural area, Yan’an has a strong folk art tradition.  However, Yan’an is unique because of its rich revolutionary traditions.  Following the Maoist dictum of “learning from the masses,” Jin Zhilin required his students to go to the countryside and study local folk art with peasant artists.  Jin’s students incorporated Shaanxi folk art influences, such as paper cutting, into their woodblock prints. The art in the collection reflects these elements of local folk art and the historical significance of the region.  Art was created using various mediums: woodcuts, watercolors (gouache) and oil.  Woodcuts and watercolors were more common because oil painting in the countryside at the time was less practical.

The collection includes Jin’s early work from the 1950s, which was heavily influenced by Soviet Social Realism, work produced during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) that towards the end was illustrative of the Revolutionary Romanticism engulfing the arts in China, and works from the post-Cultural Revolution period (late 1970s-early 1980s), reflecting more traditional themes and aspects of local culture that Jin encouraged his students to study. Geographic landmarks such as the Yan’an pagoda, traditional Shaanxi cave residences, the headdress worn by local Shaanxi men, and influences of local folk art are common characteristics of the works of the Cave Artist Group that emerged under Jin Zhilin’s influence.

The collection is original and was acquired in numerous trips to China between 1999-2008. The art of the exhibit was not originally created to be sold, as there was no commercial value to art at that time.  Instead, art was utilized for social and political purposes. In the case of the woodblocks, making only a few copies before shaving the block for a new woodcut was common. In most cases the artists were not even sure what happened to their work once it was turned over to local authorities to be reviewed and exhibited in support of domestic and even international policy initiatives.  As a result, nearly all of the pieces are the only known copies to exist.

Period photographs and two documentary films will be part of this exhibition.

This exhibition is the result of a collaboration with the UVU International Center director Danny Damron, the collection owner Dodge Billingsly (visit his film company web site COMBAT FILMS AND RESEARCH), and the UVU Woodbury Art Museum. It is anticipated that there will be many other accompanying events, symposia and lectures with participation from various quarters of the university.