Whitman, Jameson, and JEFFREY!

Will you allow me to talk about my brother for just one post? Those of you who know Jeff can easily attest to the fact that he would never brag on himself.  He turns bright red at the hint of praise, deflects compliments, and is, in all reality, one of the most thoughtful human beings I've ever come across in my life (his lone competition might just be his wife, Charlotte). Ok, so now you understand that I'm the younger sister of a generous, magnanimous, and crazy talented brother, will you allow me to offer this post dedicated just to him?  (Forget his lack of ego, please forgive mine).  Here is the rundown on what's going on in Jeff's corner of the world (and because it's going on for Jeff, it undoubtedly means that Char, his equally amazing wife, has spent the past three days sharing a joint case of insomnia and making sure paintings are affixed properly to gallery walls).

Thus, I am pleased to announce one of Jeff's upcoming exhibits at the CUAC.  If you are lucky enough to be in the area, I 'm absolutely certain (personal bias aside) it will be worthwhile and beautiful.

Below is the news release/ web release for the show:

WHITMAN AND ASSOCIATES

New work from Salt Lake-based artist Jeff Larsen For Immediate Release: Central Utah Art Center 86 South Main Ephraim, UT 84627 435-283-5110 www.cuartcenter.org Ephraim Utah --The Central Utah Art Center is pleased to announce a showing of the art of Utah native Jeff Larsen. His recent interests have been rooted in an examination of American artistic and literary traditions. Particularly grounded in ideas proliferated in the Hudson River School of landscape painting, and the writings of Walt Whitman, Larsen has sought to bring transcendental landscape traditions home to Utah. This investigation and desire to contextualize greater American traditions is based on Larsen's interests in broad concepts of wilderness and Manifest Destiny, which he has seen fit to translate into a local substance. This series of works has been influenced by Larsen's recent proclivity to reflect on his native landscape, the Salt Lake Valley and surrounding areas, as a utopian project. His is an examination of the successes and the shortcomings of this project. In accord with this examination, Larsen has taken it upon himself to take walks downtown in search of areas he refers to as “ruptures” in the city; spaces that are undefined, marginal and liminal. These are categorically, a new sort of wilderness, created at the seams of Utopian objectives. Larsen's downtown walks have resulted in the works in this exhibition. Jeff Larsen received his BFA in painting at the Rhode Island School of design in 2003. He received his MFA for Studio art in 2008 at Brigham Young University, where he also minored in Art History and Curatorial Studies. This exhibition is one of many at the CUAC that features highly acclaimed artists from around the United States and Utah. A review of our programming has recently been included in the highly influential international Flash Art magazine published in Milan, Italy. Artists who have shown at the CUAC over the last four years have been included in the Whitney Biennial, the Venice Biennial, collected by Charles Saatchi; they have been exhibited in the Getty Museum, Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Saatchi Gallery, major museums in Switzerland, Germany, Iceland, Korea, and Spain; They have shown in Deitch Projects, Mary Boone Gallery, Freight and Volume Gallery, the Drawing Center, and many other important New York, Los Angeles, and international venues. CUAC Mission Statement: The purpose of the CUAC is to educate Utahns about Contemporary Art through exhibitions of artists from three categories: Sanpete artists who demonstrate a high level of professionalism in their art; Utah artists who make art in a Contemporary genre who are emerging or well established; and artists who are exemplary of important trends in Contemporary Art worldwide. The CUAC maintains that good education about art starts with strong exhibitions of Contemporary Art that have relevance in content or image to our community. Education also includes outreach to the community in the form of classes for adults and children, lectures and critical dialogue about art, and an inviting, friendly environment that welcomes visitors and encourages questions and strives to provide answers.

For full exhibit details see: http://mim.io/5e91d?fe=1&pact=2782126033

p.s. sometimes I get asked what "type" of painter Jeff is (meaning what school of painting he would associate himself with or what forms and materials he uses in his works).  The simplest answer is that he most often works with oils, and has, at one point or another, worked with several genres and forms (abstracts, landscapes, portraiture, and new media).  As an outsider, I would say that Jeff's "process" (such a dorky word) is to wrestle with a concept by using forms and materials in interesting and thoughtful ways.  Most importantly, however, I (guiltily) went on ratemyprofessor.com last week (some peers and I had an urgent scholarly matter that needed some attention) only to discover that my brother had been given some very nice remarks and a high "hottness" rating (though we were definitely not looking for Jeff, we found him next to the red chili peppers).  As a sister, this is quite disturbing.  For Char, I can only imagine...)