The New West
Contemporary Western show
Modern West Fine Art in Salt Lake City has moved to new quarters with a refined name and mission. When Diane Stewart founded the gallery six years ago, her intention was “to reframe an understanding of ‘The West.’ Since its inception the gallery has continued to support that mission while also evolving in a more
contemporary direction, showing works that expand the definition ‘Art of the West.’” The inaugural exhibition in Modern West’s industrial space is New West, “intended to be an exhibition without curatorial limitations, an invitation to produce work with an element of personal discovery.”
Patrick Dean Hubbell’s Two Worlds, Same Stars, is from the Diné artist’s series That Which Makes Up Space. Describing the series, he says, “These paintings mimic and render the history of mark making that nature presents through the process of time, weathering and organic aging. Through this concept, the different elements, whether it be mental, physical, spiritual or emotional, are represented and depicted in the form of an equal sided cross making their presence known in the atmospheric environment.” He says, “My work is an investigation of identity. I am drawn to the subtle questioning of this examination. I find inspiration in everything and I use various themes rooted in the correlation and the conflict of both my Native American and contemporary mindset.”
Liberty Blake’s collage Sky High, although abstract, recalls the coast where cities push up against the sea. The Asian script on one of the scraps of paper of many sizes, shapes and textures also suggests its history. Blake
grew up in England, the daughter of two Pop artists of the 1960s, Sir Peter Blake and Jann Haworth. She was a figurative artist before moving to Utah in her late 20s when she began to paint landscapes which evolved into her abstract collages.
Ed Mell grew up in Arizona. After a brief, successful career in commercial art in New York City he took advantage of an opportunity to return to the West to teach on a Hopi reservation. The experience rekindled his love of the landscape and he began painting it in an architectural, abstract manner. Storm Dimensions is a composition of angular forms depicting the dynamic forces of nature.
New West continues through June 8 and features artists from the gallery’s stable as well as guest artists.