Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Downtown Provo Gallery Stroll Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Downtown Provo Gallery Stroll
Friday, February 6, 2009, 6-9 PM
www.gallerystroll.blogspot.com



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On February 6 from 6-9pm 2009 the First Fridays Provo Gallery Stroll will be held in downtown Provo City. The event is free and open to the public. Several venues will be joining the event for the first time, along with more established participants. Most venues will provide light refreshments. The fire pits will once again be lit up, so come roast marshmallows, mingle with artists and art enthusiasts, and see tons of new shows. Also, be sure to check out the Gallery Stroll's blog at gallerystroll.blogspot.com.

New Shows for February:

Caleb Mitchell Photography (250 N University Ave, 734-9395) New Photographs.

Coal Umbrella (157 N University Ave, 369-4214) Soloist Boots to the Moon (Joscef Castor), and a group of local visual artists: Jason Metcalf, Ryan Neely, Gian Pierotti, and Chris Purdie, collaborate on a project which ultimately marries the productions of album recording and artistic creation. Castor has created original (there is not a single copy of any song) vinyl discs of individual songs, with one of the artists creating an adjoining artwork. The project thus becomes both a critique art and music world production structures, and an avenue for local artists to express a new sincerity in times of economic, political and social winter.

Coleman Gallery (117 N University Ave, 225-5766) To be announced.

Covey Center for the Arts (425 W Center St, 852-7013) Kaleidoscope: New works by Barbara Frazier. Frazier is a lecturer in the UVU department of Art and Visual Communications.

Legion (145 N University Ave, 718-3038) Street Art provided by local talent.

Maestro's (22 W Center, 691-5550) To be announced.

Mode Boutique (45 N University Ave, 377-1168) New drawings by St. Louis/ Utah artist Colin Tuis Nesbit.

Muse Music (151 N University Ave, 377-6873) To be announced.

Painted Temple / Low Brow? No How! (47 W 300 N, 356-8282) Mon Coeur Ne Bat Que Pour Toi! A group exhibition exploring the many interpretations of love. Featuring the work of Andrew Christensen, Oak Adams, Kelly Larsen, Daniel Walker, Andy Bean, Jess Smiley, Lunchbox, Randall Craig, Caleb Mitchell. Stop by and pick up a Valentine card featuring the works of these artists anytime between now and Valentines Day.

Pennyroyal Cafe (155 N University Ave, 341-0120) On 6 February 2009, the Pennyroyal Gallery and Cafe will open a solo show of portrait paintings by Utah based artist Julia Jones. Jones states that "beauty of the human form, as best I knew it, spoke to my soul and inspired my hands. As years passed, these forms took on the more tangible entities of the human anatomy; layers of eternal truth, the rendering of which facilitated my self-awareness. Soon the curvature and physiology of nature mirrored my personal outlook on the form. My paintings find their completeness beyond the realistic qualities of the figure and more in the psychology that the form adds."

Provo Community Church (175 N University Ave, 368-1180) New works by members of the congregation.

Sego Art Center (169 N University Ave, 599-0680) Roland Thompson, a local Utah based artist, will present a new body of abstract gestural drawings titled Twenty Four Seven, along with paintings. Thompson's work examines formalism in a fresh manner, yet echoing his progenitors such as the Minimalists and Post-Minimalists. Like James Sienna, his past mentor and fellow abstractionist, Thompson revels in laborious process to create stunning formal compositions. Also, in the Annex, Los Angeles Artist Carlton Christy will exhibit a massive pencil drawing depicting a Nascar stadium, explosion, and numbers from every Nascar racer who has ever died during races. Christy's work brings Nascar into the context of an art institution, analyzing and facilitating greater cultural and aesthetic inspection of this most popular sport.

Store Front Galleries (273 W Center St, 691-2301) Significant Forms, a group exhibit from the Brigham Young University Visual Arts Club.

The Gallery at Cats Cradle (168 W Center, 374-1832) To be announced

Terra Nova Gallery (41 W 300 N, 374-0016) Robert McKay: Indoors & Outdoors- Oil Paintings and Pastel Drawings.

Utah County Art Gallery (151 S University Ave, 754-0125) BYU Illustration Showcase. Featuring work from both current and former students of the BYU Illustration Department. This annual show is sure to amaze as members of the department show off their skills.

Window Box Gallery (62 W Center St, 377-4367) Featuring new work by James Christensen, Emily McPhie, Cassandra Barney, and others.


For more details, contact Jason Metcalf, Gallery Stroll Director: 801.599.0680, gallerystroll@gmail.com

Join our group on FACEBOOK – DOWNTOWN PROVO GALLERY STROLL, or visit our blog at GALLERYSTROLL.BLOGSPOT.COM

Downtown Provo Gallery Stroll is brought to you by the Downtown Alliance and participating galleries.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

News Update/Press Release for Febuary Gallery Stroll

PENNYROYAL GALLERY and cafe present:

Julia Jones

155 N University Ave. Provo UT www.pennyroyalcafe.com info@pennyroyalcafe.com 801.341.0120

On 6 February 2009, the Pennyroyal Gallery and Cafe will open Julia Jones, a solo show of portrait paintings by Utah based artist Julia Jones


An opening reception will be held for the artist from 6 – 9 pm that evening in association with the monthly Provo Gallery Stroll.

The show will remain open to the public through February 28 and will be viewable from 11 am-2am Monday through Saturday.

"Beauty of the human form, as best I knew it, spoke to my soul and inspired my hands. As years passed, these forms took on the more tangible entities of the human anatomy; layers of eternal truth, the rendering of which facilitated my self-awareness. Soon the curvature and physiology of nature mirrored my personal outlook on the form. My paintings find their completeness beyond the realistic qualities of the figure and more in the psychology that the form adds.


"The people of my paintings are my muses. Yet by the same token, they are my greatest fear. They embody the hopes and fears of my growing years and how they impact my life now. In retrospect, the art I produce has always been a reaction to how I feel people perceive me.


"Many people say that paintings are a window to the world. Mine, however, are keyholes—keyholes through which the viewer may be an excluded perpetrator. Beware, the scrutinized object gazes back to contemplate the viewer. As you view my work, remember that the portrait is looking out at you- making you the object. As much as you will objectify the painting, it will return the favor. Many times in life you stumble upon situations to which you were never invited, where you are an outsider looking in. These paintings are sharing a moment to which you are not privy.


"I work in multiple thin layers of oil paint on a prepared, hard surface. There is something tantalizing and rich in being able to see the gradual history of the form emerging from the brush. As I paint a body, there is a combination of effort and relaxation to allow the colors to form the shapes of the figure.


"I feel that my paintings judge me. They scrutinize me as only an intimate acquaintance can. I want you to feel this. I want to convey the feeling that the onlooker is similarly exposed and being dissected by my paintings."

Genesis

Okay so this blog is intended to cover everything arts in Provo. Naturally I neither have the resources or knowledge to accomplish that so it will be a project in process. I am interested in including posts by as much of the community as possible. That extends to the arts as well -music, visual art, poetry, theater, and dance etc.

As this is a beginning I will talk about what I have been up to. I recently finished a 8 foot by 12 foot painting of Mount Timpanogos, and it is currently, but not for long, up at Mode Boutique as part of the Provo gallery stroll.I have also been spending some quality time at Sego Art Center. If you aren't familiar with Sego, you should get acquainted. Sego is a 501 (c)(3) www.segoarts.org. Sego has been getting a lot of state wide recognition, and the center kicked off the end of last year with an amazing 940 people at the gallery stroll opening. The arts in Provo have come a long way and it is only getting better.
Most of my time however is put into working at the Downtown Business Alliance of Provo. We run gallery stroll -you probably didn't know that. There are a lot of things that we do in the form of activities and services for local business, and no one really knows that its us. People think that its Provo City, while we do get significant funding from the city we are a separate entity with the specific purpose of aiding the downtown Business, involving the local community, and beautifying the downtown area. Activities include things like: murals, sculpting civic pride sculptures, gallery stroll, storefront windows, kiosk artwork, flower beds and baskets, block captains/downtown cleaning, holiday activities and displays, like the shop hop, tricker treating, Christmas lights and decorations, crèche displays, candy windows... the list goes on. The most recent thing that we put out is the new gallery stroll card, designed by Jason Metcalf.