Beating out almost 200 other artists throughout the world, three artists have been chosen as winners of Visitors' Choice Awards in a competition sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Church History Museum.
The works of the museum's eighth International Art Competition, "Remembering the Great Things of God," are on display in the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City and were selected by the voting of nearly 13,000 exhibit visitors over the past five months.
Visitors' Choice Award winners include oil paintings by Al Young of Orem, "The Mother of All Living"; Greg Olsen of Provo, "No Greater Love"; and Joseph Franklin Brickey of Provo, "They Did Not Doubt."
The three works are the artist's personal portrayals of scriptural figures, but they vary in timing from the creation of the Earth to Book of Mormon times.
In Young's painting, an illuminated modern-day Eve is shown as a young mother seeking communication with God as she looks to the heavens.
Olsen's painting showcases the Savior's suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, a subject matter he has wanted to paint for 25 years. He said he has struggled with portraying this particular time in Christ's life. Finally taking on the challenge in this competition, Olsen's work shows Christ clenching a boulder as He atones for the sins of the world.
The third painting by Brickey depicts the Book of Mormon story of the stripling warriors, showing two young men hugging their mother goodbye before joining their fellow warriors for battle.
The winning paintings, along with four runners-up and the rest of the works, will be on display through Oct. 11, showing religious art interpretations from many cultures and perspectives.
"There is a huge variance (in the show); a wide range of objects and subject matters and the different ways of interpreting the theme," exhibit manager Ray Halls said. "There is not necessarily a preponderance of ideas. There's everything from landscapes to symbolic art, traditional paintings to nontraditional gourd carvings."
The exhibit will be closed for crowd-control purposes during general conference, Oct. 2-4, but will open again on Oct. 5. It is located in the Grand Atrium Foyer of the LDS Conference Center, 60 W. North Temple. Exhibit hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free.
After Oct. 11, photographs of art from the exhibit will be featured on the museum's Web site at www.lds.org/churchhistory/museum.
e-mail: bbrown@desnews.com