Welcome to Gallery Roll—CATALYST’s bike-focused guide to Gallery Stroll, bringing you a route that spares your feet as you travel cross-town from highlight to highlight while avoiding the nightmare of downtown parking. Pump up your tires, tighten your dork-straps, and get ready to roll tomorrow night, Friday July 20 at 6PM. Route link after the jump.
First, check out the proposed route here and, obviously, here:
“Hamburger” by Trent Call
Collaborative work by Kershisnik and Barney1. Our first stop is at Alpine Art (208 East 500 South) to check out the group show City Heat. Featuring the work of seven artists who each use “street” techniques, the show creates a snapshot of the current urban arts scene without relying on the old standard of graffiti-style lettering. Trent Call’s and Justin Wheatley’s art is frequently found in a gallery setting, but most may recognize Call’s work from his highly visible murals throughout town. The stencil art of David Overstreet and Mason Fetzer is more complex than artists working slyly en plein aire can typically afford to be, mixed media artists Anthony Granato and Iosua Tai Taeoalii use the juxtaposition of posterized forms over lush backgrounds to create their work, and DUSK brings his experience as a hip hop artist to the paintings and drawings he creates, adding another genre of urban art to the mix.
2. Head up 2nd East to Broadway, to Kayo Gallery (177 East 300 South) where you’ll find the opening for a show featuring local artists Brian Kershisnik and Cassandra Barney. Unlike collaborative shows by other artists, where the artists may work separately on individual pieces centering around a single theme, the 25 pieces collected in Drawing Together were created collaboratively by the artists working together over several days in Kershisnik’s studio, blending each artists’ experience and methods into a truly unique work.
3. By now, it should be approaching 7, which means its time to zip up to the Slusser Gallery (447 East 100) to catch the premiere of Amelia Slusser’s short film I’m Not the Only One: A Tribute to Kurt Cobain, featuring Cobain’s songs and accompanied by figurative and abstract paintings by Utah artists such as Vincent Fitches and Nathan Florence. You’ll experience the poignant beauty of images that reflect the feelings of isolation and loneliness typical of Cobain’s lyrics, so you may want to dust off that prescription for Prozac before lacing up your Vans.Music will also be served up live by Amelia Slusser’s folk/punk band, Millie and the Moths. (And yes… if you remember Cobain’s music from the heady days of your youth… guilty!… you’re old. Get over it, and get back on your bike, because it’s time to head over to our next stop… and at your age, it’s important to keep that heart rate up.)
“Aztlan” by Ruby Chacón
“Self Doubt” by Nathan Florence
4. Coast down 100 South until you hit UTah Artist Hands (61 West 100 South), where you’ll find the brightly colored, rural-focused work of Utahn Ron Russon, along with work by Steve Salget and Steven K. Sheffield, part of a continued benefit for the Utah AIDS Foundation.
5. Finally head over to the Mestizo Institute of Culture and Arts (631 West North Temple) for a show featuring graphite artist Manuel Alvarez and painter Ruby Chacón. Both born and raised in Utah, each uses street images and cultural icons to portray everyday life in Neighborhood Stories. Alvarez depicts the trials of less-than-ideal aspects of life in Utah, putting a face to the struggles shared by many locally, while Chacón is inspired by her Chicana roots, cultural and political, to explore the stories told in the faces of everyday people.
Route Note: Feel free to hardcore-it on the North Temple bridge, but those without hardcore biking muscles—or in lady-like attire—should go via 200 South, then 600 West to avoid construction-madness and massive hills. You can even take a jaunt through the cobblestones of the Gateway to get some pre-coffee jitters before you get to Mestizo. But be warned, you risk getting trained with this route… and if you have no idea what I’m talking about, well… welcome to the west side!