All events begin Fri., Feb. 15
Gaylen Hansen: Three Decades of PaintingsThrough Tues., Feb. 26Salt Lake Art Center (20 S. West Temple) 6:30 p.m.Free
Now entering his mid-80s, Gaylen Hansen is a true testament to the power of paint. From humble roots on a Utah farm through the UCLA art program and 25 years of professorship at Washington State University, Hansen has developed a style that is as much farmland humility as high-art experimentation. Hansen’s works display an overpowering presence of the wild within modern civilization — crickets crush cars and humans ride enormous grasshoppers. If only this appreciation of nature could transcend the artistic world. Maybe, at Hansen’s hand, it will.
The New Orleans ProjectThrough March 14Art Access Gallery (230 S. 500 West, Suite 125)6 p.m. to 9 p.m.Free
After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2006, Utah poet Melissa Bond, photographer Alice McNamara and audiographer Beth Hoffman headed east to the disaster. The trio tore Sheetrock from flooded homes and searched for treasured belongings alongside displaced locals. But the three also found themselves immersed in an indestructible culture, dancing Zydeco and partaking in the South’s finest culinary comforts despite the destruction that surrounded them. The New Orleans Project was born of these experiences and utilizes photography, audio interview, music and performance poetry to reveal the undying nature of the human spirit.
The State Street Project: A Portrait of UtahThrough March 14Art Access II Gallery (230 S. 500 West, Suite 25)Free
Featuring eight artists and innumerable artistic media, The State Street Project coalesces the experiences and interpretations gleaned by its artists as they journeyed from the origin of U.S. Highway 89 in Idaho all the way down through Utah to its exit at the Arizona border. For a precious cross-section of Utah’s unique character — as well as its artistic community — The State Street Project is not to be missed.
All Blacked Out & Nowhere to Go: Bucky Sinister Reading and Book SigningKen Sanders Rare Books (268 S. 200 East) 7 p.m.Free
The San Francisco Chronicle has described rising poet/comedian Bucky Sinister as “a modern day Bukowski with blue hair.” Sinister has taken the stage alongside artists as diverse as The Dead Kennedy’s Jello Biafra and dead-sitcom star Drew Carey. Lofty comparisons and celeb supporters aside, Sinister’s comedic poetics are as honest as they come, born of a disaffected American youth to which many can relate.
Joan ZoneThe City Library (210 E. 400 South)6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Free
Presented by local art co-op, Art at the Main, the Salt Lake City Public Library’s Urban Room will host the works of local painter, Joan Zone. Zone employs vivid watercolors to illustrate the people, animals and landscape scenes she has observed in her far-reaching travels.