An art exhibition that has traveled from New York to California will now be opening in Salt Lake City on Friday, Jan. 16, according to a page on the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts’ website.
The exhibition — titled “Instrumentos de silencio” or “Instruments of Silence” in English — was first created in Argentina by Latter-day Saint artist Susana Silva and her artist brother Gonzalo Silva.
The two were awarded the 2023 Ariel Bybee Endowment prize by the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts for their proposal to create an exhibition that would explore how memory and music were used to capture and codify the changes of colonization in their home country of Argentina.
Through the prize, their joint exhibition has traveled from Sargent’s Daughters art gallery in New York City to the Graduate Theological Union Library in Berkeley, California, and will soon arrive in Utah at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art.
Working on this exhibition was “the first time we worked together,” Susana Silva told the Deseret News in August, as she recounted the many hours she and her younger brother spent researching, testing ideas and working to combine their distinct techniques to create one cohesive exhibition.
In the interview, Susana Silva shared that her technique was developed through faith and a stretching journey through motherhood. Her brother Gonzalo Silva added that — having grown up 15 years apart — the experience of working together on this exhibition helped strengthen their connection as artists and siblings.
“(Growing up) we really never had much time to connect,” he said, “so this became an opportunity to get to know each other better, too.”
About the exhibition’s opening
The Silvas’ exhibition will be available to view and visit at the upper level of the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art starting this Friday, Jan. 16. The exhibition will then remain open every Tuesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., until March 13.
Those interested in attending the exhibition’s opening night can do so at the museum — located at 20 S W Temple St in Salt Lake City — from 6-9 p.m. this Friday.
Previously, the exhibition was open in New York from Aug. 5-22, and in California from Oct. 10 to Dec. 17.
Meet and listen to the Silvas share their story at this artist panel
The Center for Latter-day Saint Arts has planned to hold an artist panel at the museum with the exhibition’s artists, Susana and Gonzalo Silva.
The panel is scheduled to take place Friday, Jan. 30, at 6 p.m. in the museum’s auditorium, and will include a presentation by the artists followed by a Q&A/panel discussion moderated by Deseret News’ Amy Ortiz.
Attendees will then be able to tour the exhibition and visit with the artists, who will fly from Argentina to Utah that week.
