Gallery Stroll – October 2007

The Salt Lake Gallery Stroll started as an underground event, offering an after hours chance to view exhibits and mingle with artist and gallery owners. Twenty years later, its reaches include but are not limited to, breaking down barriers and classes, providing a family friendly environment to view art, revitalizing Salt Lake streets and businesses. I hope our newly elected officials realize how much the art community has done for promoting local business and getting people downtown. Since it’s called a stroll, not a mad dash, may I offer a bit of advice and suggest you plot the exhibits you want to see. Map out a route based on who closes first and one night only shows, and lastly but equally as important, where will the best late night/after party be?

On Friday October 19th begin the stroll at the new Artspace building at 500 West and 230 South. Cat Palmer is scheduled to show at the Utah Arts Festival Gallery but her collaborator Ty Norager. Ty is actually in Iraq fighting Bush’s war and trying to stay alive. As many soldiers have confessed, in the beginning the reasons seemed clear for joining the fight but as the months drag on and the people you are supposed to be liberating are trying to kill you, it makes your reason for being there less and less compelling. In the mist of all this chaos, I’m sure any distraction would be welcome and a different view on the mundane imperative. For Ty, his mental salvation is the perspective found through the camera lens. Whether, you support the war or not most want to support our troops. I am thrilled to see what Ty’s raw unedited look at what our government claims to be “business as usual.” Cat Palmer will be showing some of her anti-war photographs and interjecting her style and creativity on some of Ty’s pieces to give it all a finished touch. If you can’t make it during the Gallery Stroll, the show will hang October 19th through November 13th. You can also call for hours at 322-2428.

Within walking distance of Artspace is the adorable and unpretentious eatery, the Tin Angel Café, located at 365 West 400 South. This café is a wonderful stop on the stroll to rest those dogs, grab a bite to eat, and receive some of Salt Lake City’s friendliest service EVER! The name of the café implies a tough yet gentle feel and that’s exactly what you get from artist Daisy Johnson’s body of work entitled “Fallen Angel.” Daisy is a photographer, painter, conceptual designer and the director of the Jlife Salon. In her day she has seen many women and men trying to achieve angelic qualities but in this collection she explores angels discovering their human qualities. Johnson relates, “The moment we let go of our aspirations for the divine we can embrace our humanness, then true power, beauty and indeed our experience of divinity can begin.” Amen, Sister! If that’s true then I’m a goddess. Check out Fallen Angel all month at the Tin Angel. For more information about Daisy Johnson check her out at www.daisyjohnson.com or visit the Jlife Salon, 69 Gallivan Ave.

When you are ready to crank it up a notch, head to Red Light Books, on the corner of 300 South and 200 East. This bookstore has edgy art, books, music and tons of crazy miscellaneous things, which make it a perfect fit for our very own Bob Moss. Not to be confused with Bob Ross, the PBS painter who painted “happy little trees.” A beatnik at heart, you might remember Bob as the banjo man but that’s all changing as he is finally receiving the recognition he deserves as an amazing artist. His work was recently showcased in a book entitled Beatsville where he graces the pages with the likes of Mark Ryden, Shag, Coop, The Pizz, Sunny Buick and Tim Biskup to name a few. Red Light is known to stay open until (if not a little after) 10p.m. so make it down for some live music, local art and a wonderful end to the month’s Gallery Stroll.

Go pedestrian, support local art, STROLL.