No event on the local art scene is more significant than the Salt Lake City Gallery Stroll.
For the uninitiated, the stroll is the visual arts’ equivalent of a potluck dinner. On the third Friday of every month, participants move through local galleries within downtown Salt Lake City to view the various exhibits that interest them. This month 23 galleries and businesses will open their doors to the public, who can view the exhibits and galleries free of charge.
The number of spectators and the amount of artwork on display make the Gallery Stroll an unparalleled opportunity for emerging local artists to gain exposure and acceptance within Salt Lake City’s art community.
A different gallery hosts the stroll each month. The Utah Arts Council, part of the Division of Arts and Museums within the Utah Department of Community and Culture, will present September’s stroll, which will feature the work of some of Utah’s strongest young artists, said Kristine Robb, president and executive director of Gallery Stroll.
Some of the most highly touted exhibits this month include the “A” Gallery’s exhibit of new sculptures by Washington artist Brian Berman; the Rio Gallery’s exhibit UT ’07: “Mixed Media and Works on Paper;” and the Salt Lake Pickle Company’s exhibit, “The Evolving West Side,” curated by local artists Jason Wheatley and Sri Whipple.
The “A” Gallery is one of Salt Lake City’s premier fine art galleries and displays abstract, landscape and figurative paintings by local, regional and international artists. In addition to the Berman exhibit, the “A” Gallery will host a retrospective of the paintings of mixed-media collage painter Michael Souter beginning Sept. 28.
The Rio Gallery is located in the former Rio Grande Railroad Depot next to the Gateway mall. The Rio Gallery’s exhibit of the Statewide Annual Competition for local artists who work in mixed media and paper opens Sept. 21, the day of the stroll.
The Pickle Company is a multidisciplinary art studio that provides opportunity, equipment, funding and exhibition, and performance space for ambitious local artists who specialize in artwork that deals with contemporary sociopolitical issues. In conjunction with the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, the Pickle Co.’s exhibit in this month’s gallery stroll features the work of young, up-and-coming west-side artists.
But these are just a few of the compelling exhibits that will constitute this month’s gallery stroll.
Others include Nobrow Coffee and Tea Company, a local coffeehouse that hosts the Free Form Film Festival, which will feature new work by Spencer Barton.
Horne Fine Art will display new additions to their “A Walk in the Park” exhibit of paintings of local neighborhoods, including street scenes, parks and restaurants.
The Salt Lake Art Center will open its doors to their ongoing exhibit “Life After Death: New Leipzig Paintings from the Rubell Family Collection.” This exhibit features the work of seven contemporary painters from Leipzig, Germany, a collection of broad interpretations of social-realist figure painting, which closes Sept. 29.
The first annual shoe show and benefit, “If The Shoe Fits,” held by the Evergreen Framing Co. and Gallery, Inc. will feature eight local artists’ interpretations of shoes. There will be a reception with live music on the evening of the gallery stroll. Partial proceeds from the event will go to The Shoe Fairy, a local non-profit that works with many schools in the Jordan, Salt Lake and Alpine school districts to provide shoes to children in need.
Modern8 is a brand design agency which contains a gallery that is currently host to the work of photographer-collagist Anthony Siciliano, Academic Mentor at Western Governors University and Adjunct Faculty Instructor at Westminster College and Salt Lake Community College, and Utah designer and collagist Mark Biddle, co-coordinator of the program in visual communication at Weber State University.
The Phillips Gallery, the oldest commercial gallery in the intermountain west, will participate in Friday’s stroll with two exhibits. The first, located in their main gallery, is titled “L’eau et La Femme,” paintings and drawings by Francis Zimbeaux. In the Dibble gallery works will be presented by emerging abstract painter and sculptor Dave Malone.
This month’s Gallery Stroll will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. the evening of Sept. 21 simultaneously at all participating galleries.
For more information on the Salt Lake Gallery Stroll and any of this month’s participating galleries, visit www.gallerystroll.org.
