THE DAY MY GOD DIED    

FEB 13 AT 7 PM     

Film By Andrew Levine

Entering the brothels of Bombay with hidden cameras, The Day My God Died documents the tragedy of the child sex trade, and profiles the courageous abolitionists who are working towards change. FREE  

This month will showcase Analogital in the main gallery.

FEB 1, 6PM and FEB 15, 6PM

Admission is Free

Analogital is an exhibition of international artists who engage with concepts generated from the transitional space between analogue and digital forms that emerge from our culture's conversion from film grain to computer pixel. More broadly the term identifies a perceptual evolution in the human experience and its mediation.

In the mid-seventies at the University of Utah, innovators made breakthrough developments in early computer graphics and virtual designs like the "Utah Teapot", experiments that would lead to the founding of Pixar and early pursuits of digital reality. Eventual media such as ASCII, ProTools, Nintendo Entertainment System, jpegs and above all the Internet opened a multiverse of possible ways to render, perceive and copy the world around us.  

Analogital is about artists analyzing this science-fictional relationship existing between technology and the human condition. 

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Stemming from her passion for the outdoor industry and her interest in how that industry intersects with notions of the sublime, artist Venessa Gromek creates tent-like sculptures that engage with concepts of abstract artwork, euphoric experience, and impossible functionality.

More than ever, outdoor recreation is about the experience of escaping into the wilderness in as easy and accessible ways as possible. Gromek complicates this process by creating structures that are not useful outdoor shelters, but rather function as contemplative forms related to the tradition of modernism. By using colorful lace, metal poles, and simple hardware, she recontextualizes how design for the outdoors can be reassembled to reflect on the malleability of contemporary sculpture.

Working between the constraints of functional outdoor equipment and attractive modernist aesthetics, Gromek's "Tents" series provides an innovative approach to understanding how inspiration can be captured not only in the awe and beauty of nature, but also in the ease and simplicity of outdoor recreational design.

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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.

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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.

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.