SALT LAKE CITY, UT.- The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art opened three new exhibitions Friday, August 12, 2022. In keeping with its mission to exhibit the work of local and national artists, umoca is presenting the work of two Utah-based artists—John Sproul and 2021–22 umoca Artist-in-Residence Bernard Meyers—and Denver-based artist Tobias Fike. Sproul’s exhibition Here Between There in The Museum’s Projects Gallery features large-scale paintings that use the figure to explore opposites— protection versus exposure, public versus private, acknowledgment versus disregard, and conscious versus subconscious to understand the fallacy of power and the strength found in vulnerability. Photographer Bernard Meyers’ exhibition Urban Abstracts in the air Space uses images collected on walks through urban environments to explore the intersections of photographic realism and abstract expressionism. These divergent worlds intertwine through the reorganization of space, interactions of color, and convergence of reality and imagination. Denver-based artist Tobias Fike’s video work When I Am Gone in the Codec Gallery explores the inevitability of death and examines the impact loss has on those left behind. Fike’s seemingly playful video asks the question, after death, what parts of us remain?

John Sproul
Here Between There

John Sproul’s Here Between There uses the body to explore opposites—protection vs. exposure, public vs. private, acknowledgment vs. disregard, and conscious vs. subconscious—to understand the fallacy of power and the strength found in vulnerability.

Sproul’s figures inhabit strange yet familiar spaces—restaurants, stages, public squares, homes, and galleries. These spaces provide the backdrop and context for the figure’s interactions with those around them and, in turn, establish a somewhat ambiguous narrative. Some figures are naked while others are in various states of dress, striking poses and drawing the attention of the other figures in the paintings or the viewer. Although not all are moved or interested, the central figures present themselves unabashedly––for whatever response their actions elicit. Through this process, Sproul seeks to represent the potential to develop an understanding of oneself that draws on the strength gained from a willingness to be open and vulnerable.

Bernard Meyers
Urban Abstracts

Bernard Meyers uses images collected on walks through urban environments to explore the intersections of photographic realism and abstract expressionism. These divergent worlds intertwine through the reorganization of space, interactions of color, and convergence of reality and imagination.

With a focus on form and design, he sees each work as a puzzle to be put together differently each time he begins to build an image. Current digital technologies allow Meyers to deconstruct a single image into pieces that can be arranged and rearranged into a myriad of possibilities to construct new images that blur the boundaries between photography and painting.

Tobias Fike
When I Am Gone

When I Am Gone is an attempt at coming to terms with the inevitability of death and an examination of the impact loss has on those left behind. Fike’s seemingly playful video asks the question, after death, what parts of us remain?