Utah Museum's 26th Annual Spiritual and Religious Art Exhibition

THE DAILY HERALD
By Cody Clark

Ryan Harrington's mixed media "History, Present and Future Channel".
Photo courtesy of the Springville Museum of Art

UTAH - Can viewing a painting, or sculpture, or photograph, or other art piece be a spiritual experience? The 26th Annual Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah Exhibition at the Springville Museum of Art is one of the museum’s most popular annual offerings, and museum director Vern Swanson said that the museum accepted for display a smaller percentage of submissions than ever before. The exhibition, which opened last week and runs through Dec. 27, features 179 of the 341 total works sent in from around the state.

Because Utah has such a high concentration of Latter-day Saints, much of the art in the show has LDS themes. The Spiritual and Religious Art show is open to artists of all faiths, however, and Swanson said that this year’s show features pieces by Buddhist, Jewish and Native American artists, in addition to its many different Christian-themed contributions. Swanson said that the Spiritual and Religious Art show is his favorite of the year because it draws artists out of themselves. “It’s not about technique, it’s not about aesthetics,” he said. “It’s about artists using technique and aesthetics to express their core values, their deepest inner beliefs.” [link]