In conjunction with the Collective and Autumnau, On Thursday September 25, Sego will present its monthly Evening with the Artist lecture and discussion series. The event is free and open to the public. The show will remain open to the public through September 27th and is viewable from 12-8pm Tuesday through Saturday, Mondays by appointment. Special appointments can be made by calling Jason Metcalf at 801.599.0680.

Over the last decade, Adam Bateman has built meticulously layered sculptural forms from language. Composed of hundreds of used books often gathered from libraries, Bateman’s sculptures at first appear Minimalist, and it is easy to formally compare them to the works of Donald Judd or Tony Crag. But upon closer examination these towering stacks are full of complex conceptual meaning. The carefully composed books are oblique triggers for a knotted relationship between object and word-laced thought. Bateman’s latest creation is a stolid wall nearly blocking the entrance to the gallery, boldly confronting the viewer. The titled spines are stacked inward and remain unseen to the viewer, the idea of the words contained on a page more important than the book itself. While the sculptures feel solid and have a heavy presence, the work is more experiential than visual. The relationship between content and object is personified in the yielding layers of books, an unexpected flow in a rigorous rectangle.

Weaved with compulsive gesture, Pam Bowman’s latest sculpture is an amalgam of personal experience and communal navigation. Important to understanding Bowman’s work is an appreciation of ritual, experience, and process. The sculpture in Collective is the result of thousands of sinuous fibers looped together over and over in a continuous braid. The fibers are caulking cotton, a material used to bind and seal wooden planks together in ship-building. The artist used over thirty-five miles of the twined cotton in the work as a material reference to domesticity. An integral part of interpreting the work is a comprehension of the compulsive nature of process: a repetitive method symbolic of memory, ceremony, and ritual. For Bowman, the intertwined strings represent the intersections of people, the combined whole ultimately stronger than the individual. But the work has more to offer than the seemingly simple analogy, as the ropes do not idly line up but violently pull, cover, tug, and jockey for position in a complex shared journey.

The play between Bowman’s tension-knotted twists and Bateman’s architectural stacks belies a deeper meaning that relies on the experiences of the viewer and his or her thinking processes. Adam Bateman studied literature and language at BYU and received his MFA in sculpture from New York’s Pratt Institute. He has shown extensively in NYC, Rekyavik, and UT. Former Director of the Central Utah Art Center, he is the Director of the Birch Creek Service Ranch and continues to work in his studio in Sanpete County. Pam Bowman received a degree in interior design and later an MFA from BYU. She travels extensively and lives with her family in Provo.

Jeff Lambson is curator of contemporary art at the BYU Museum of Art. Prior to coming to Utah he worked at the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC for six years. Jeff is married to Ann Lambson, former director of youth education at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, and lives in Provo with their precocious daughter.

I am sure many of you have already heard of what will be going on at Sego in March: a special project that local artist Chris Purdie has been cooking up for about a year now. Chris has created a website Chrispurdie.com where you can track his progress and see hints of what might be on March 6.  I will try to get him to post on this blog as well.  If the project at all seems narcissistic, solipsitic, and entirely self centered- your’e on the right track.  Chris is the last person I would describe with these personality traits- and thus the project suddenly becomes a critique of the contemporary artist herself- mimicing a number of obvious art world personas that need not be named.

I am most excited for this project as it is one of the few true performance art events that has recently been had in the state of Utah (Dance Theatre Coalition and its Proving Ground performance art series has helped performance significantly in the beehive state). Chris is publishing a full color catalogue with essays by performance rock scholar Wade Hollingshaus, and others yet to be announced. The project recieved major funding from the Laycock Center for Creative Collaboration at BYU, a foundation that this author has benefited from with past project funding also.

This performative collaboration has indeed become an excercise in relational aesthetics: the artist and the project collaborators have all experienced something greater than individual artistic achievement- and the goal is to include viewers as participants in this dialogue.  So start getting excited for this project if you haven’t already.  And make sure you are there on March 6th.  I promise you’ll have a good time.

We at Sego are excited for this new website, and hope that it will enable our patrons greater access to the community we are all working to build- a community of contemporary art fans and artists, as well as those wishing to learn more about the wonderful state of art making today- and specifically how this relates to our own community. We are working hard to update and archive our past events and shows on the site, so that users will be able to reflect and remember their past experiences at the Art Center.  We hope this blog will become an active forum for discussion about contemporary art and relevant topics to artists and the arts (which awesomely becomes almost every topic: from social and political issues, the humanities, history- art and general, science, technology- among many others).

The Art Center, no doubt, has had a wildly successful inaugural year.  We really couldn’t have asked for a greater amount of success. The artists that have shown with us have created interesting and relevant work that has engaged and even entertained our audience.  Most importantly, these shows have begun to establish a local appreciation for contemporary art- an appreciation that is indeed much needed.  Sego is in no way solely responsible for this recent appreciation- Other institutions’ renewed and continued focus on contemporary art have created an overall statewide awareness of the significance of current artistic practices.  Jeff Lambson at the MOA, Jill Dawsey with the UMFA, Adam Price and 337 Project,  Heather Ferrel now heading up the SLAC, Jared Latimer and the CUAC’s continual stellar programming, and Adam Bateman and the Birch Creek Residency Program (and all the other things up his sleeve) have collectively fostered an environment for the appreciation of art which is now.

The Sego Arts Foundation, which is the parent organization for the annual Sego Music and Art Festival, as well as the Sego Art Center- received it’s 501(c)(3) tax exempt status from the IRS just two months ago.  This means that the Foundation can now receive tax deductible donations from individuals and foundations- something that is entirely necessary for our long term success.  Sego began and continues to be a pure grassroots movement in every definition- being run by an all volunteer staff and administration, with major events being driven by a large volunteer base.  If you are reading this blog, you likely have volunteered for Sego in the past- something that we are all extremely grateful for.  Everyone that helps literally owns a part of this organization. All those who put time and money into the foundation have ultimately influenced its direction. If you have given to sego of your time or money – THANK YOU – it is because of you that Sego has stayed afloat and succeeded on so many levels.

As we all know far too well, the economic downturn has affected so many facets of our lives- and Sego has certainly not dodged any of it.  The bright side however, for us, is that up until now (and still now) we have had very little financially.  We have been able to keep our doors open due to the generous support of artists and fans who have given what they could.  This means for us there are no budget cuts, no job losses, no program slashing- because we have worked with a non existent budget, a volunteer basis, and extremely cost efficient programming.  So this means that we don’t have to go down before going up- the upward growth is just slower and more methodical than we anticipated.

This all means that we need to all work a little harder, give what we can in time and money- and we will be able to establish a foundation upon which we can grow and succeed in the coming years.  We need your continual support- financially and in your time (online donations are now possible on our home page through Paypal- and if you would like to give of your time- let us know how you’d like to help out by using our contact tab at the top of this page).  This year we will see art from all over- geographically and conceptually.  We will continue to show local artists of significance (as we always will), as well as introduce artists from outside the valley, the state, and even the country.   I am excited for what 2009 will bring- and hope that you can participate with us in enjoying a wonderful year of art, music, and film.   (photos courtesy Justin Hackworth Photography)

Jason Metcalf

Roland Thompson
“For me, painting is an act of meditation. The artwork results from concentration on a single moment or event. A million or so single events presented next to each other, within a context, consitute the completed art object.

The painting is initiated by a production plan. Execution of the plan (the medium of meditation) is made through a series of decisions considering the boundaries of the production plan.

The meditation is double-minded. While a portion of my brain is kept active moving my body and making judgments, the rest is left to think freely–to imagine.

The painting might be influenced by the free thoughts of the meditation. Possibly the marks vaguely represent images of reverie, or maybe the reverie is simply a fantastic elaboration departing from the image of the marks. And yet, maybe my experience isn’t relevant to the enjoyment of the work. But to the those who are curious, my favorite themes to contemplate are: notions of beauty (ancient and modern), desert landscape, cartography, and technologies (real and imagined) that aid seeing across time and space.”

Roland Thompson studied painting at BYU and then received his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. He has shown extensively across the united states including at White Columns, Pierogi, The Painting Center, The Museum of Contemporary Art Fort Collins, and many other places. He lives in Cedar Hills, UT with his wife and children.