-September is always an exciting month for the visual arts. Museums and galleries on college campuses greet the new school year with top-notch offerings. And gallery owners, back from much-deserved vacations, reopen their galleries and fill the walls with refreshing, new art.
-Dolores Chase reopened her gallery on Sept. 9 with an exhibit featuring innovative paintings, sculpture and prints by a dozen emerging artists. With the exception of two, these artists are college students or recent college graduates - and the majority of them are from Brigham Young University.Whenever student shows are on exhibit at the three largest universities in the state, Chase is there searching for future Pablo Picassos and Henry Moores. She has a knack for zeroing in on those art students who are the most creative and are well on their way in establishing their own styles.
Steve Bartholomew, William Carmine, Debbie Drennen, Steven Griffin, Brian Kershisnik, Randall Todd Stilson and Clay Wagstaff are all products of the BYU Art Department. So don't be surprised if you see imagery and styles reminiscent of Wulf Barsch and Doug Himes.
Other artists include Randy Burks from the University of Utah; Soheila Tvallaei from Utah State University; and two older, more seasoned artists - Gloria Montgomery and Evelyn West.
A number of the artists participating in this show were also involved in the BYU student art show last spring. Theodore Wolfe, art critic for The Christian Science Monitor, juried that show and said that although students often have a tendency to emulate the fashionable styles of particular regions, the BYU students had pursued a number of fresh, compelling directions.
Gallerygoers will be intrigued by Stilson's miniature paintings, Griffin's intaglio prints, Burks' ceramic vessels and Evelyn West's sculptured heads and torsos - to name a few.
"Introductions '89" continues at the Chase Gallery through September. Chase has planned the reception for Saturday, Sept. 16, from 1-3 p.m. At 2 p.m., Randy Burks will demonstrate the Japanese tea ceremony using his elegant ceramic vessels on exhibit. This reception is free and open to the public.
Dolores Chase Gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
-Practically flying off the walls of the Utah Designer Craftsmen Gallery are feathered masks by Candace Coyle of Park City.
But Coyle doesn't limit this exhibit to masks only. "It represents my interest in a broad range of crafts - weaving, dyeing, knitting and painting."
All of her creations in this show are a tribute to birds. Attached to many are real feathers. Other times, the bird imagery and color are woven into the work.
"I became interested in birds after receiving a yellow-naped Amazon parrot as a gift 13 years ago," she said. "Only after observing it from a close range did I realize how beautiful and different each feather was."
Sharing exhibition space with Coyle are the enigmatic sculptures of Suzanne Storer. Her abstract canyon landscapes suddenly explode, as human fingers and hands struggle to be freed from rock tombs.
"The physical and sometimes metaphysical attraction which I feel towards the southern Utah desert canyon landscape is the basis for these clay sculptures," Storer explains.
"Feathers & Clay" continues at the UDC Gallery, 38 W. 200 South, through Oct. 7. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and in the evenings during Capitol Theatre performances.
-Basil's, located on level three of Crossroads Plaza, is currently featuring the watercolors of Ian Ramsay.
Yes, this is the same Ian Ramsay who got his master's in architecture in 1972 and at the U. and worked as an architect for seven years after that. However, in 1979, Ramsay began to paint full time. Since then, he has attracted a number of enthusiastic followers.
When his show opened on Sept. 3, 30 of his works were on display. Following the afternoon reception, almost half of them had sold. When I was there last Tuesday, only 14 remained. Who knows what the count is now.
Ramsay calls his style self-taught. His techniques are pretty well-established by now. He combines areas of soft and hard edges in the sky areas; he creates atmospheric perspective by changing the value and chroma of more distant objects; he softens the edges and darkens the areas around the periphery of the work so the eye is forced to the central area where the focal point glistens in bright colors.
Many of the paintings in this show focus on harbors, boathouses and fishing boats. In contrast to that subject matter was his "Winter Landscape in Wanship, Utah" and "Francis, Utah."
Ramsay's works will continue at Basil's through Oct. 1. Hours are noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday; and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday.
-Soviet children surprise Utahns with their creative artworks in "Kids on the Bloc" in the Atrium Gallery and Children's Library of the Main Library.
Few Americans realize that for years, Russians have encouraged their children to approach art spontaneously. They have found that through art, creativity can be unfolded; that although children who paint spontaneously might never become artists, they can channel their creativity into other fields, such as chemistry, mathematics and engineering.
These are imaginative paintings, drawings, collages and fiber works by adolescents 12 to 14 years of age who attended the Children's School of Arts in Chernostsi, USSR. They reflect the Soviet youths' vision of the world around them, especially a peaceful world between Russia and the U.S. Some of the titles are "Sky to Peace," "Road to Peace" and "City of Future."
Many of the works are a refreshing change from much of the stereotyped art being taught in the many of our country's elementary schools.
The exhibit remains at the Salt Lake City Public Library through Sept. 26.