Earth

15 July - 30 September 2021 Modern West

Modern West is pleased to announce Earth, a group exhibition on through September 10th. In collaboration with the Southern Utah Museum of Art, Earth features a preview of their upcoming exhibition This Earth curated by local writer and art historian Hikmet Sidney Loe, and Founder of Montello Foundation, Stefan Hagen. Select works from the upcoming SUMA exhibition are presented alongside works by represented Modern West artists and select guest artists whose work emphasize an appreciation for the earthly world.

This collaborative exhibition centers around the artistic traditions and human interactions related to the natural world. Selecting works that thematically create discourse, the exhibited pieces explore our planet through natural observance, dialogue with nature, humanity’s interaction with nature and commentary on natural preservation.

Swarm, an installation piece by Lenka Konopasek, deftly creates an organic paper silhouette with semi-circles that imperfectly circle, surround and swallow each other. The artist takes observed and remembered natural elements and abstracts them. Inspired by the 2017 eclipse, the piece simultaneously references the choreography of aviary creatures. The movement in the piece is one of natural occurrence, recreating a cinematic day with shadows cast to the ground.

Tyler Beard, a previous Montello Foundation resident, is an artist based in Brooklyn, originally from Colorado. His graphic and sculptural multimedia piece, Turf & Tokens, combines the real and imagined. This dimensional piece pairs an expanse of green grass and azure sky with five shelves of ceramic objects. Beard’s artistic practice revolves around a habit of combing, collecting and reimagining found objects, small shapley treasures. His work speaks to the historic artistic conversation between the artist and the natural world.

Our earth and the natural world are the oldest thematic artistic concepts. The foundations of art, in regards to color, space, and shape, all developed from human perception of our earthly surroundings. In this exhibition, the selected artists continue this ancient analysis and reinvention, each in their contemporary way.

Exhibited artists include:

TYLER BEARD

SHONTO BEGAY

REBECCA CAMPBELL

DAY CHRISTENSEN

MICHAEL COLES

AL DENYER

NINA ELDER

PHIL EPP

ASH FERLITO

KIKI GAFFNEY

NATHAN FLORENCE