Tucked just below north campus on Finch Lane, the aptly named Finch Lane Gallery features the powerful work of artists Casey Lou Miller and Elpitha Tsoutsounakis in their respective solo exhibitions. While both shows appear vastly different in style and medium, both explore the unique connection between the body and Southern Utah.

Intrinsic Nature

Walking into the gallery you are greeted by Miller’s striking, large works hanging on the wall. Miller’s ‘’Intrinsic Nature’’ exhibition chronicles her journey and relationship with the alien flora of the Southern Utah desert. While each piece depicts different plant life, they are connected in their distinct color palette and blending of plant and human bodies.

The pieces and plants they depict become almost surrealist images through the use of color. Miller’s usage of bright pastels and vibrant gold leaf heightens the already alien-like forms, transporting the viewer onto another planet.

Miller grounds the pieces back to earth with her depiction of the body within each piece. In the gnarled form of the pieces, one can see figures reaching and spiraling out of flower petals and stems. The is also a distinct repetition of vaginal imagery in the pieces further connecting them together and to the body.

I was completely mesmerized by Miller’s work. The tension between alien and familiar in her work along with its literal connective tissue of the human body pulled me into her surrealist world. 

Unknown Prospect: Body, Pigment, Swatch

Tucked into the back gallery, Elpitha Tsoutsounakis’ “Unknown Prospect: Body, Pigment, Swatch” literally brings Utah’s southern desert into the space. It is quite jarring walking into the space — it is not what one would expect to find in an art gallery. Through a collection of raw Ochre samples and historic images painted with the processed mineral, Tsoutsounakis explores the relationship between the human body and its extension: the non-human body.

Tsoutsounakis’ work extends beyond the gallery and pieces she created. The exhibition’s tangible objects are the manifestation of not only Tsoutsounakis’ practice but also the central idea of the art itself. From raw minerals to processed Ochre pigments, the exhibition serves as almost a documentation of the interaction between the human body and the non-human body. 

Every part of the process is recorded in the space. Tsoutsounakis’ sustainable collection of Ochre samples, how she processes them into pigments, her research into the desert and the merging of these ideas into artworks. Tsoutsounakis beautifully captures these complex interactions and ideas in her exhibition. 

In Closing…

Both exhibitions artfully reconnect the human body with the natural world. Each artist’s distinct style offers the viewer two unique perspectives into the same landscape just south of us here in Salt Lake.

The show runs until Feb. 25. For more information about the exhibition and upcoming exhibitions check out the gallery’s website.

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@Drew_Reyno