FIRST FRIDAY

DEC 7, 2012, 8:00 - 10:00 PM   

Please join us for our First Friday event, a monthly celebration of the contemporary art world with amazing exhibitions, music, food, and cash bar.  

December's First Friday features the opening of Of the Siren and the Sky with an Art Talk by curators Triple Candie at 7 PM, and music by DJ Harry Cross, Jr. More

ART TALK WITH JASON METCALF 

DEC 14, 2012, 7:00 PM    

Join us for an evening with local artist Jason Metcalf.  

Metcalf will discuss his latest exhibition ABRACADABRA, the power of the curse in our collective mind, and the implications of magic in the everyday. ABRACADABRA is on display now through DEC 21, 2012. More 

Of the Siren and the Sky is the first proper museum exhibition on the career of Siren Bliss, a Salt Lake City native who has made more than 80,000 artworks. Curated by Triple Candie, the presentation includes recreations of the artist's drawings and sculptures, posters containing statements by him, and photographs and objects related to his life story.  

An enigma to anyone but his closest associates, Siren Bliss has eschewed all involvement with the mainstream contemporary art world. This exhibition provides a glimpse of an epic career, focusing primarily on work made by the artist during stints in Salt Lake City.  

Of the Siren and the Sky addresses a series of 750 sculptures he made, under the nom de guerre Sky Jones, with the homeless in 1992-93 as part of a recycling project, as well as work from the Bankers Art Museum where he operates under multiple pseudonyms.

Triple Candie was founded as a nonprofit art gallery in Harlem in 2001. Today, it is a nomadic organization that makes exhibitions about art, but without actual art or the involvement of artists.  

Art Talk with Triple Candie, DEC 7, 7 PM. More  

Megan Geckler creates site-specific installations using
brightly colored construction flagging tape, mathematical calculations, and color theory. Geckler's installation at UMOCA, No chance to move backwards and see, transforms the gallery space, inviting the viewer to take an exploratory journey through chromatic examples of architecture, design, sculpture, and painting.

Drawing from geometric illusionism and principles of design, No chance to move backwards and see presents woven wall murals, a custom sculptural extension of architectural elements, several modular sculptural works, and nine tape 'paintings' that offer a Josef Albers-esque color study of the colors of the installation.

Geckler's installation incorporates the gallery walls and spaces to create optically dazzling, geometric forms and patterns in blue, orange, green, and yellow. Carefully designed to continue and echo the dynamic forms of her successive flagging tape configurations, the sightlines from each entrance to the gallery yield a different experience of the layered colors and patterns therein. More  

Battleground States brings together artists who critically engage with the discourse of visual culture and gender studies. Through video, sculpture, installation, and photography, these works explore ideas of how figuration and identity are connected.

The exhibition begins with Utah artist Trevor Southey as his process of self-realization has made him an art historical pivot when discussing gender politics within the culture of Utah. The narrative continues by presenting generations of artists across the globe, leading the viewer along a path of self-realization in which concepts of coupling or completing the self are represented as spiritual quests.

Battleground States analyzes the space between traditional gender duality by exploring alternative forms such as the third gender, a generally foreign concept in Western culture. In their non-Western roles, these alternative identities denote a space for possibility and transcendence. The exhibition moves towards notions of the "post-gender" as a way to better understand how our cultural diversities open up interpretations of a third space.

Battleground States is made possible in part through the generous support of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the B. W. Bastian Foundation and IASPIS: The Swedish Arts Grants Committee's International Programme for Visual Artists. More  

Knock on wood. Grab the lucky penny. Don't cross the black cat's path. Beware the number 13. Drive a rusty nail through a lime to avoid the evil eye.  

Superstition is one of the most uniting forces across cultures. Whether conscious or unconscious, with zeal, skepticism or denial, our behaviors, daily rhythms, architecture and design are determined by superstitions both arcane and contemporary.

Artist Jason Metcalf has painstakingly researched, re-enacted and refreshed languages of superstition long forgotten from day-to-day vernacular with provenance in places as far as Haiti and as near as the Sanpete Valley. Entities, obsessions, legends and lore from various cultures provide the sculptural and performative language displayed in his solo exhibition. More 

This year UMOCA inaugurated the Ambassadors Circle, a group of business and community leaders that support Utah's cultural and economic development by serving as advocates for the museum.

Ambassadors will enjoy exclusive benefits including behind-the-scenes at the museum, and assist us in our mission to present innovative exhibitions that showcase the very best in contemporary art practice from around the world, support talented Utah artists and pioneer new methods for engaging people of all ages and backgrounds in the arts.

Thank you to our 2012-2013 Ambassadors Circle members:

Jan Andrews, Val Antczak & Barbara Polich, Mary Bangerter, Laura Boardman, Helen Bero & Rick Van Wagoner, Elizabeth & Steve Burgess, Kent & Linda Christensen, Jim Dabakis, Paul & Terrell Dougan, Lucia & Michael Graham, Jim & Kathy Jensen, Brent Jespersen & Jill Perelson, Stephen Justesen, Josh & Catherine Kanter, Carl Laurella, Fraser Nelson & Harris Sondak, Vasilios Priskos, Jon Robertson, Shauna Robertson, Margo Silvester, Brian Seethaler

For information on how to become a UMOCA ambassador, call Chrissy Upton: chrissy.upton@utahmoca.org or 801.328.4201. 

Please help us to continue building a home for contemporary art here in Utah that is recognized nationally for the quality of its exhibitions and locally for its profound contributions to our citizens, our artists, and our sense of place.  

Whether you choose to give $50 for a new membership or $1,000 to make it possible for over 1,000 children to experience contemporary art through our Art Truck, please join us in making UMOCA the kind of civic and cultural institution that you will be excited and proud to share with your family and friends.

Donate here.