Lydia Gravis

Chakaia Booker: REVIVE (Outdoor freestanding sculpture installation)

Exhibition Dates: December 2021-April 2023

Location: Dumke Arts Plaza, Ogden, Utah

This was the inaugural exhibition for the Dr. Ezekiel R & Edna Wattis Dumke Arts Plaza, a dynamic outdoor gallery and gathering space in the heart of Ogden, Utah’s Nine Rails Creative District.

About the Exhibition: Chakaia Booker’s distinctive approach to form and materiality, utilizing repurposed automotive and bicycle tire rubber to construct complex and monumental abstract objects, speaks eloquently to themes of transformation, reimagining, and re-contextualization. As such, her work is a uniquely fitting focal point for the public’s first opportunity to experience world-class public art at the Dumke Arts Plaza, itself a major initiative in the revitalization and reclamation of civic space for Ogden, the state of the Utah, and the Western U.S.

About the Artist: Chakaia Booker (born 1953 Newark, New Jersey) is an internationally renowned and widely collected American sculptor known for creating monumental, abstract works from recycled tires and stainless steel for both indoor galleries and outdoor public spaces. Booker’s works are contained in more than 40 public collections and have been exhibited across the US, in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Booker received a B.A. in sociology from Rutgers University in 1976, and an M.F.A. from the City College of New York in 1993. She gained international acclaim at the 2000 Whitney Biennial with It’s So Hard to Be Green (2000), her 12.5 x 21 foot wall-hung tire sculpture. Booker received the Pollock-Krasner Grant in 2002 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005. Recent public installation highlights include Millennium Park, Chicago (2016-2018), Garment District Alliance Broadway Plazas, New York, NY (2014), and National Museum of Women in the Arts New York Avenue Sculpture Project, Washington DC (2012). To learn more about her work, please visit chakaiabooker.com

Learn More about the Dumke Arts Plaza Here:https://youtu.be/JUk_QVeBZaM

Exhibition Budget: $95,000
Exhibition Director & Curator: Lydia Gravis
Exhibition Manager: Molly Painter
Installation/Deinstallation Project Manager: Jake Hansen
Commissioned Artist: Chakaia Booker
Artist’s Assistant: Alston Van Patten
Videography by: Cam McLeod & Dylan Totaro
Photographs by: Lydia Gravis and Benjamin Zack
Curatorial Programmer: Weber State University’s Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery
Generously Funded by: Dr. Ezekiel R. Edna Wattis Dumke Foundation, The Matthew S. Browning Center for Design, Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Ogden City, and the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Art & Design at Weber State University.

Exhibition Dates: May - September, 2024
Location: Dr. Ezekiel R. & Edna Wattis Dumke Arts Plaza, Ogden, Utah

About the Exhibition: This vibrant site-specific outdoor installation was a kaleidoscopic declaration of the beauty of differences coming together in harmony. The large-scale installation used hyper-colorful, recyclable PVC film, integrated seamlessly with the architecture of the outdoor plaza site to inspire, uplift, and provide a space for community contemplation.

Videos about the exhibition and installation:

https://vimeo.com/961406846?fl=pl&fe=sh

https://vimeo.com/1010370473?fl=pl&fe=sh

“From where the air is different”
(Site-specific installation #1)
Medium: Flagging tape, fencing, metal zip ties
Size: 30’ x 30 x 21 feet / 9.1 x 9.1 x 6.4 meters 

Aerial Suspended Site-Specific Installation
Description: 5-sided, 5-color, tiered polygon is made from 7 miles of 100% recyclable, extruded PVC film called flagging tape.

“A dream that comes in color”
(Site-specific installation #2)
Medium: 100% recyclable, extruded PVC flagging tape, temporary PVC fencing substrate attached to permanent architectural plaza fencing, zip ties.

Both installations were made with the assistance of over 100 community volunteers, 20 paid assistants, an engineer, project manager, exhibition manager, exhibition director, installation contractor, and the commissioned artist.

Exhibition Director & Curator: Lydia Gravis
Commissioned Artist:Meagan Geckler
Exhibition Manager: Camela Corcoran
Installation/Deinstallation Project Manager: Jake Hansen
Installation time: 3-weeks
Project Planning Time Frame: 16 months
Exhibition Budget: (Excluding Salaried and In-Kind Labor): $120,000
Videography by: Dylan Totaro
Photographs by: Lydia Gravis and Benjamin Zack
Commissioning Agent & Curatorial Programmer: Weber State University’s Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery
Generously Funded by: Dr. Ezekiel R. Edna Wattis Dumke Foundation, The Matthew S. Browning Center for Design, Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Ogden City, and the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Art & Design at Weber State University.

About the Artist: Megan Geckler is an American artist (b. 1975, Abington, PA) living and working in Los Angeles, California. She received her BFA from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art (Elkins Park, PA) in 1998 and her MFA from Claremont Graduate University (Claremont, CA) in 2001. Her large-scale, site-specific installations and drawings have been exhibited internationally at Customs House (Sydney, NSW, Australia), The Courtauld Institute (London, United Kingdom), and at Paris Fashion Week (Paris, France). In America, she has mounted large-scale, site-specific installations at venues such as the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (Salt Lake City, UT), Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, OH), Dumke Arts Plaza (Ogden, UT), Breck Create (Breckenridge, CO), Museum of Art and History (Lancaster, CA), Laguna Art Museum (Laguna Beach, CA), Vincent Price Museum of Art (Monterey Park, CA), Torrance Art Museum (Torrance, CA), and Pasadena Museum of California Art (Pasadena, CA). Geckler has been awarded multiple public art commissions including projects at the LAX Airport, and was awarded the City of Los Angeles (C.O.L.A.) Individual Artist Fellowship by the Department of Cultural Affairs in 2016. Her work is in the corporate collections of Creative Artists Agency (Los Angeles, CA); Four Seasons Resort at Walt Disney World (Orlando, FL); Nike (Portland, OR), Human Rights Campaign (Washington, DC), eBay (San Jose, CA), SoulCycle (Hoboken, NJ), and Facebook (Northridge, CA). Her artworks have been profiled by ArtForum, “O” The Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, Interior Design Magazine, Colossal, The Sydney Morning Herald, Fabrik, LA Weekly, The Creators Project, Designboom, Artillery, Elle Decor Italia, Los Angeles Times, The Getty Research Institute Newsletter, The Associated Press, Art Ltd., Huffington Post, Artweek LA, ArchDaily, ArtUS, ArtDaily, The Columbus Dispatch, Artscene, Design Milk, Flavorpill, and Glasstire, among many others.

Exhibition Dates: April-September, 2023
Location: Dr. Ezekiel R. & Edna Wattis Dumke Arts Plaza, Ogden, Utah

About the Exhibition: “The highest level I’ve ever gotten to on Ms. Pac-Man is level 12. It is the fourth maze and just a couple mazes after the cutscene of a stork bringing a baby Pac-Man to Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Man. Early video games were all about High Scores, and each level you went up things got harder. You, the player, had to “level up” your playing ability to keep going. My work explores the visual connection between minimalism and early video games. The sculptures in the plaza represent animals, figures and objects as pixelated abstractions. I limit my image making to the same constraints that governed early pixel based technologies.

I use a minimal number of squares to create an image. The works I create are constructed using steel and automotive paint- materials traditionally used to build minimalist sculpture. The pixelated sculptures have been placed in the plaza on multiple levels. They are the digital made physical. And the viewer can move up and down the levels to interact with them- More like Donkey Kong, but without a giant gorilla throwing barrels at you. These sculptures span 15 years. From pigeon 2008 to flamingo 2023. I like seeing them together. It feels like leveling up.” — Mike Whiting, Artist

Exhibition Director & Curator: Lydia Gravis
Commissioned Artist: Mike Whiting
Exhibition Manager: Molly Painter
Installation/Deinstallation Project Manager: Jake Hansen
Installation time: 1-week
Project Planning Time Frame: 6 months
Exhibition Budget: (Excluding Salaried and In-Kind Labor): $30,000
Videography by: Dylan Totaro
Photographs by: Lydia Gravis and Benjamin Zack
Commissioning Agent & Curatorial Programmer: Weber State University’s Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery
Generously Funded by: Dr. Ezekiel R. Edna Wattis Dumke Foundation, The Matthew S. Browning Center for Design, Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Ogden City, and the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Art & Design at Weber State University.

About the Artist: https://vimeo.com/848422543?fl=pl&fe=sh

Exhibition Dates: January - April, 2024
Location: Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Ogden, Utah
Exhibition Director & Curator: Lydia Gravis
Commissioned Artist: Gail Grinnell
Exhibition Manager: Molly Painter
Deinstallation Manager: Camela Corcoran
Installation time: 3-weeks
Project Planning Time Frame: 12 months
Exhibition Budget: (Excluding Salaried and In-Kind Labor): $45,000
Exhibition Video & Interview with the Artist :https://youtu.be/3A6D5eXXzFU?si=88PAcAjH0zGfL7gg
Photographs by: Mark Wood
Commissioning Agent & Curatorial Programmer: Weber State University’s Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery
Generously Funded by: Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Ogden City Arts, Mark E. & Lola G. Austad Endowment for Visual Arts

About the Artist: https://www.gailgrinnell.com

Press: https://artistsofutah.org/15Bytes/interlacing-spaces-the-fabric-of-home-in-gail-grinnells-shaw-gallery-installation/

About the Exhibition:Gail Grinnell's's...and there is this lingering thought. was a large-scale suspended installation using evocative materials including mended, tenderly groomed, and repurposed blue plastic tarps as well as meticulous drawings on non-woven, translucent polyester interfacing. This exhibition asked visitors to contemplate how we attempt to nurture ourselves, one another, and our dreams while standing on the contaminated ground of our own recent past.

Date range: 2015-2024
Exhibition & Curatorial Director: Lydia Gravis
Typical Budget: $5,000-$7,500
Average Duration: 4 weeks
Funded by: Private Foundations, Donors, Grants

Exhibition Dates: October 2023 - April 2024
Location: Dumke Arts Plaza, Ogden, Utah
Exhibition Budget: $100,000
Exhibition Director: Lydia Gravis
Exhibition Manager: Molly Painter
Installation/Deinstallation Project Manager: Jake Hansen
Commissioned Artists & Curators: Jo Blake and Cam McLeod
Videography by: Cam McLeod & Dylan Totaro
Photographs by: Lydia Gravis and Alexis Kiedasch
Curatorial Programmer: Weber State University’s Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery
Generously Funded by: Dr. Ezekiel R. Edna Wattis Dumke Foundation, The Matthew S. Browning Center for Design, Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Ogden City, and the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Art & Design at Weber State University.

Exhibition Description: Utilizing the poetics of visual imagery, sound, and choreographed movement, the work of jo Blake and Cam McLeod mines the depths of the human experience, and reminds us of our individual and collective resilience.

Coincidences is an interdisciplinary multimedia project and contemporary movement experience exploring shared isolation, concepts of sensory stimulation and informed trauma that impacts the human experience. Plunging, swirling, and diving amongst the complications of today’s social issues, this exhibition invites the ever-changing, coordinated, and repeated murmurs of individual growth and change. 

Live dance performances took place on Oct. 6 and Nov. 3, 2023, and featured original choreography by jo Blake, original music by Trevor Price and Eileen Rojas, videography by Dylan Totaro, lighting design by William Peterson and Samijo Kougioulis, and dance performed by jo Blake, Jessica Evans, Dominic Favela, Kennedy Johnston, Cydnee Medina, Genevieve Nolan, Madisyn Sorensen and Eli Thornley.

Dates: September - November, 2022
Location: Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Ogden, Utah
Exhibition & Curatorial Director: Lydia Gravis
Exhibition Manager: Molly Painter
Exhibiting Artist: Buster Simpson
Catalog Essayist: Dr. Angelika Pagel, PhD
Photography by: Joe Freeman and Lydia Gravis
Catalog Design: Brooke Whitaker
Exhibition Budget: $65,000
Generously Funded by: Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative

Exhibition Description: "Constructs for the Anthropocene is a compilation of studio and public art projects addressing some of the prime concerns of climate disruption. The selected constructs
are examples of ecological and social actions, intended as suggested approaches for mitigating climate change effects through publicly sited art, in what could be considered an ecological call to arms. The exhibition presents a wide range of tactics for addressing pressing issues such as: sea rise, migrating species, planet acidification, sequestration of greenhouse gases, potable water supplies, sustainable energy, and climate equity. Creative thinkers are well equipped to engage with complex issues and communicate the urgency of human impact on our planet. The Anthropocene Epoch is of our making and will require us all to transition creatively to an adaptive future that is both life sustaining and poetic." - Buster Simpson, August 2022

About the Artist: As an artist active since the late 1960s, Buster Simpson has worked on major infrastructure and planning projects, sight specific sculptures, museum installations, and community interventions. Simpson received a MFA in 1969, and later, the Distinguished Alumni Award in Architecture and Design, at the University of Michigan. He is a recipient of numerous awards, among them, NEA fellowships and the Americans for the Arts Public Art Award in 2009.

Simpson's work employs site specific opportunities, engages social actions, and sustainable opportunities, often considered "poetic utility". Humor and rich metaphors distinguish his work, with deceptively simple sculptures offering social and ecological engagements and solutions to real problems.

In 2013 the Frye Art Museum mounted a major retrospective of my work. In May of 2015 and 2016, Simpson conducted Rising Waters confab at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation on Captiva Island, Florida. This confab brought together a collaborative team of scientist, artists, land use specialists, and activists to create approaches to resilience and the graceful migration of people and biota.

Simpson has exhibited at The New Museum, MoMA PS1, Seattle Art Museum, Frye Art Museum, The Hirshhorn Museum, Capp Street Project, Museum of Glass. Simpson's work is included in numerous public commissions throughout North America.

Exhibition Dates: April-September, 2023
Location: Dumke Arts Plaza, Ogden, Utah
Exhibition Director: Lydia Gravis
Guest Curator: Tyrone Davies
Featured Artists: Tony Gault (Denver), Elizabeth Henry (Denver), Van McElwee (St Louis),Tim Sullivan (San Francisco), Rosa Menkman (The Netherlands), Carlos Castro (Bogota, Columbia), Ryan Wylie (San Francisco), and Timothy David Orme (Marina California).
Exhibition Manager: Molly Painter
Project Planning Time Frame: 4 months
Exhibition Budget: (Excluding Salaried and In-Kind Labor): $12,000
Commissioning Agent & Curatorial Programmer: Weber State University’s Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery
Generously Funded by: Dr. Ezekiel R & Edna Wattis Dumke Foundation, Matthew S. Browning Center for Design, Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Ogden City Arts, Mark E. & Lola G. Austad Endowment for Visual Arts

About the Exhibition: CAULDRON is a hot-pot of weird and wonderful video styles. This collection is an international mix of works that includes ten short works by eight video makers: Tony Gault (Denver), Elizabeth Henry (Denver), Van McElwee (St Louis),| Tim Sullivan (San Francisco), Rosa Menkman (The Netherlands), Carlos Castro (Bogota, Columbia), Ryan Wylie (San Francisco), and Timothy David Orme (Marina California). From art-jokes to deep transcendental projects, each maker offers something very different. The best way to appreciate this program is to stand (or sit) still, and listen.

Exhibition Dates: May 2023
Exhibition Director & Co-Curator: Lydia Gravis
Exhibition Manager & Co-Curator: Molly Painter
Exhibiting Costume Designer: Catherine Zublin
Exhibition Budget: $15,000
Location: Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Ogden, Utah
Photos by: Benjamin Zack and Lydia Gravis
Generously Funded by: The Telstra E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities, Lindquist Creative Fellowship, Mark E. & Lola G. Austad Endowment for Visual Arts.

About the exhibition: This retrospective exhibition showcased over thirty years of costume design by Catherine Zublin and her production teams.

Exhibition Dates: September - December, 2022
Exhibition Location: Dumke Arts Plaza, Ogden, Utah
Exhibition Director & Curator: Lydia Gravis
Exhibition Budget: $5,000
Exhibiting Artists: Sarita Cahoun (India), Mikey Mosher (Chicago) & Kamila Earlywine (Utah)
Exhibition Description: ‍ ‍A time-based outdoor video exhibition and visual meditation experience through the perspective three artists from the US and India.

Shaw Gallery Exhibition Dates: January-April, 2022
Touring Location: Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Ogden, Utah
Original Location: Bemis Center, Omaha, Nebraska
Curator: Rachel Adams, Bemis Center Chief Curator and Director of Programs
Touring Location Gallery Director: Lydia Gravis
Touring Location Exhibitions Manager: Molly Painter
Exhibiting Artists: Joshua Bennett, Lee Cannarozzo, Lizania Cruz, Cass Davis, Brendan Fernandes, Marcus Fischer, Cameron A. Granger, Ekene Ijeoma, Seitu Ken Jones, Molly Joyce, Christine Sun Kim, Glenn Ligon, Kambui Olujimi, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Julia Rose Sutherland, Stephanie Syjuco, Jordan Weber, Carmen Winant, Jody Wood
Installation time: 2-weeks
Project Planning Time Frame: 7 months
(Touring) Exhibition Budget for On-Location Display at Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery: (Excluding Salaried and In-Kind Labor): $45,000
Photographs by: Lydia Gravis and Benjamin Zack
Touring Location Funding through generous support from:Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Ogden City Arts, Mark E. & Lola G. Austad Endowment for Visual Arts

About the Exhibition:All Together, Amongst Many: Reflections on Empathy explores the cultural and sociopolitical issues currently defining the United States. Presented on the heels of the 2020 U.S. elections, the work of 21 artists takes various approaches to understanding empathy and aims to awaken shared beliefs in humanity during these polarizing times. The artists are based across the United States and Canada and through their diverse, unique perspectives broadly engage ideas centered on land rights and Indigenous rights, climate change and the environment, food justice, accessibility and healthcare, immigration and migration, systemic racism, LGBTQIA2S+ rights, the criminal justice system, police brutality, and violence on all accounts. This exhibition, while not an exhaustive survey, provides a snapshot of America’s turbulent society today.

LINK TO CATALOG

Exhibition Dates: October 1 – November 27, 2021

This exhibition was presented in partnership by Ogden Contemporary Arts Center and the Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Ogden, Utah

Exhibition Directors: Venessa Castagnoli & Lydia Gravis
Exhibition Curators: Jorge Rojas and María del Mar González-González
Exhibition Manager (Shaw Gallery location): Molly Painter
Exhibiting Artists: Andrew Alba (OCA gallery space), Blanka Amezkua (OCA gallery space), Tania Candiani (Shaw Gallery Space), Ruby Chacón (OCA gallery space), Esperanza Cortés (OCA gallery space), Amelec Diaz (OCA gallery space), Alexis Duque (OCA gallery space), Patricia Espinosa (OCA gallery space), Guillermo Galindo (Shaw Gallery Space), Harry Gamboa, Jr. (OCA gallery space), Scherezade Garcia (OCA gallery space), Las Hermanas Iglesias (OCA gallery space), Tamara Kostianovsky (OCA gallery space), Jessica Lagunas (OCA gallery space), Shaun Leonardo (OCA gallery space), Michael Pribich (OCA gallery space), Lina Puerta (OCA gallery space), Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz (OCA gallery space), David, Rios Ferreira (OCA gallery space), Nancy Rivera, Horacio Rodriguez (OCA gallery space), Roots Art Kollective (OCA gallery space), Jaime Trinidad (OCA gallery space), and Carlos Villalon (OCA gallery space).

Exhibition Budget: $30,000 (Shaw Gallery location & programming)
Exhibition Planning Time Frame: 8 Months
Shaw Gallery Location and Programming was generously supported by: Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Ogden City Arts, Mark E. & Lola G. Austad Endowment for Visual Arts, Jack & Bonnie Wahlen, the Lawrence T. & Janet T. Dee Foundation

Related Programming

Dr. Mari Carmen Ramirez, Scholar Talk: Latin American and/or Latinx: Differences and Affinities, moderated by Dr. María del Mar González-González, Kimball Visual Arts, Weber State University. Dr. Ramírez, the Wortham Curator of Latin American Art and the founding director of the Institute for the Study of Latin American Art (ISLAA) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH).

Guillermo Galindo performance: Sonic Borders III, Browning Presents! Browning Center, Weber State University

Lunch and Q&A with Guillermo Galindo (co-sponsored by Access and Diversity, Student Affairs). Kimball Visual Arts, WSU

Tania Candiani, Artist Talk, Kimball Visual Arts, WSU

Lunch and Q&A with Tania Candiani (co-sponsored by Access and Diversity, Student Affairs). Kimball Visual Arts, WSU

Jorge Rojas and Dr. María del Mar González-González, Curators’ Talk on Vida, Muerte, Justicia Kimball Visual Arts, Weber State University

Press Coverage (Print)

2021       “Exceptional multidimensional perspectives at Vida, Muerte, Justicia exhibition at Ogden Contemporary Arts” by Les Roka, The Utah Review, Nov. 23

2021       “Art as Activism After the Pandemic: Vida, Muerte, Justicia / Life, Death, Justice at Ogden,” SLUG Magazine, Nov. 17

2021       “Vida, Muerte, Justicia,” American Art Collector, November

2021       “Vida Muerte Justicia” is an Essential Exhibition for Reflection, Mourning and Collective Healing,” 15 Bytes, Oct. 13

2021       "Weber State debuts Latin American Art Gallery for Hispanic Heritage Month" by Vivian Chow, ABC4, Oct. 8 

2021       “Life, Death, Justice” by Alexandrea Bonilla, The Sign Post, Oct. 4

2021       “‘Vida, Muerte, Justicia. Latin American & Latinx Art for the 21st Century’ at OCA Center, USA,” Terremoto (Mexico) Oct. 1

2021       "Exhibition of contemporary Latin American, Latinx art responds to global themes" by Kelly Carper, The Standard Examiner,  Sept. 22

Radio, TV, Podcasts

2021      Nine Rails Arts Podcast Ep. 29 - Vida, Muerte, Justicia / Life, Death, Justice, Nov. 25

2021      Fox 13 Interview, Nov. 3 (Linked via Ogden City Arts Council IG)

2021      CONTACT, PBS Utah, Oct. 12

2021      Univision Utah Interview (Spanish), Sept. 30

2021      KRCL’s Radio Active, Interview with Lara Jones about Vida, Muerte, Justicia Sept. 24

Dates: August - November, 2019
Location: Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Ogden, Utah
Exhibition Director: Lydia Gravis
Exhibition Curators: K Stevenson and Lydia Gravis
Budget: $40,000
Exhibiting Artists: Shawn Bitters (United States), Susanna Castleden (Austrailia), Sean Caulfield (Canada), Miguel Rivera (United States), Miriam Rudolph (Canada) and Annu Vertanen (Finland).
Exhibition Description: Perspectives in Printmaking: An Evolving Dynamic showcased the expansive and experimental medium of contemporary printmaking through the studio practices, perspectives, and academic research of 6 artists from around the globe.
Photography: Benjamin Zach and Lydia Gravis

Generously supported by: Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Ogden City Arts, Mark E. & Lola G. Austad Endowment for Visual Arts, Jack & Bonnie Wahlen, the Lawrence T. & Janet T. Dee Foundation

Dates: January - March, 2020
Exhibition Director: Lydia Gravis
Exhibiting Artist: Charles Edward Williams
Budget: $20,000
Location: Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery (Project Space)
Photography: Lydia Gravis
Generously supported by: Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Ogden City Arts, Mark E. & Lola G. Austad Endowment for Visual Arts, Jack & Bonnie Wahlen, the Lawrence T. & Janet T. Dee Foundation
Exhibition Description: Warm Water is a collection of re-narrated visual works based on the event that sparked the Chicago Race Riot of 1919. These works unfold the story involving five Black teens, and what reportedly caused the death of Eugene Williams in Lake Michigan on the South Side of Chicago. With noted recollections and events reported, the work documents and sheds light on the marginalizing oppositions the teens faced during the fragile height of racial sociopolitical conditions nationwide. This day, July 27, 1919, became the tipping point, and as a result, led to a string of violent race riots across the United States.

Warm Water references the psychological racial constructs and the human state of the five teens during the event, as well as the paralleled combination of chemical/water properties when hot and cold elements are combined. It is also the unsolicited landmark of the lake where the teens nicknamed the spot, "Hot and Cold." With these two diverse complexities, re-appropriated and re-narrated visual explorations attempt to strike a balance between both past and present, from an incident later marked in history as Red Summer.

About the Artist: Charles Edward Williams is a contemporary visual artist from Georgetown, SC, and holds a BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savannah, GA and an MFA at the University of North Carolina (UNCG) in Greensboro, NC. Creating compelling imagery in oils, video/film, and sound installations, Williams's work investigates current, historical cultural events related to racism, and to suggestive stereotypes formed within individuals. His works define self–representation of human emotive responses that lie within cultural identity, and reveal tension to expose the complexities within our sociopolitical environments. Through his visions, we are encouraged to engage in self-examination, to question false boundaries that separate us, and view the inner connectedness of our common existence.

Williams has attended summer artist residencies at Otis College of Art and Design (Los Angeles, CA), SOMA (Mexico City, Mexico), the Gibbes Museum (Charleston, SC), and the McColl Center for Art + Innovation (Charlotte, NC). Solo exhibitions include "Warm Water: New Works by Charles Williams" at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, "Here we Stand: Charles Edward Williams" at the Ellen Noel Art Museum, "Swim: An Artist's Journey" at the Myrtle Beach Museum (Myrtle Beach, SC), "SUN + LIGHT" at Residency Art gallery (Inglewood, LA), "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See" (Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC), and "Swim" at Morton Fine Art (Washington, DC). His work was also recently exhibited at Aqua and Scope Art Fair / Art Basel (Miami, FL). Group exhibitions include the Weatherspoon Museum (Greensboro, NC), the Mint Museum (Charlotte, NC), East Tennessee State University (Johnson City, TN), Tiger Strike Asteroid project space (Philadelphia, PA) and other national institutions.

Works have been reviewed in local and national publications and media, which include the Washington Post, NPR, and South Carolina's ETV network (PBS affiliate). Permanent collections include the North Carolina Museum of Art (NC), the Gibbes Museum (SC), Knoxville Museum of Art (TN), and the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art (NJ). Williams also received the Riley Institute Diversity Leadership Award from the State of South Carolina for the development of enriching art programs within local communities.

Dates: February - April, 2017
Touring Location: Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Ogden, Utah
Originating Institution: UB Galleries, University of Buffalo
Curator: Rachel Adams
Exhibiting Artist: Lydia Okumura
Touring Exhibition Budget: $25,000
Generously Supported by: Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Ogden City Arts, Mark E. & Lola G. Austad Endowment for Visual Arts, Jack & Bonnie Wahlen, Jim & MaryAnn Jacobs, the Lawrence T. & Janet T. Dee Foundation

About the Exhibition and Artist: For almost fifty years, Lydia Okamura (b. 1948, Brazil) has explored the realm of geometric abstraction. She challenges our perception of space through sculptures, installations, and works on paper that blur distinctions between dimensions. In the 1970s, a young artist in her native São Paulo, she studied the Japanese art magazine Bijutsu Techou, which introduced her to Conceptual art, Minimalism, Land art, and Arte Povera. These movements, along with Brazilian Concretism and Neoconcretism, influenced Okumura’s work. Using simple materials such as string, glass, and paint, her dynamic work balances line, plane, and shadow.

Okumura’s oeuvre—although reminiscent of the work of Latin American artists such as Lygia Pape and Carmen Herrera, as well as contemporaries such as Dorothea Rockburne and Robert Irwin—has remained under-recognized. She has exhibited widely in São Paulo and is part of multiple museum collections, but she is much less known in her adopted country, the United States. “Lydia Okumura: Situations” was the artist’s first solo exhibition in the United States. Through the exhibition and catalogue, the UB Art Galleries encouraged a critical reassessment of Okumura’s oeuvre within art history.

Dates: February - April, 2018
Touring Location: Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery
Touring Exhibition Director: Lydia Gravis
Curator & Originating Institution: Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC
Exhibiting Artist: Fahamu Pecou
Touring Location Exhibition Budget: $35,000
Generously Supported by: Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Mark E. & Lola G. Austad Endowment for Visual Arts, Jack & Bonnie Wahlen, Jim & MaryAnn Jacobs

Exhibition Description: This solo exhibition features the work of Fahamu Pecou, an artist profoundly involved in exploring the state of Black existence – life and death – today. Violence in our society is endemic and pervasive. Undeniably Black bodies are disproportionately affected, through the shameful legacy of slavery and Jim Crow to current day shootings – the massacre at Charleston’s own Emanuel AME church in summer 2015 sadly just one tragic example of many. In the midst of this Pecou asks, “Under looming threat of death, how might we inspire life? Through what mechanisms could we resist the psychological violence and despair inspired by the threat of violence and usher in hope?” Or how might art serve as a “space of resistance?”

DO or DIE: Affect, Ritual, Resistance serves as one artist’s action in opposition to these overwhelming societal forces, seeking instead to elevate and re-contextualize Black life and death. Through performance, painting, drawing and video Pecou reframes our view, incorporating references from Yoruba/ Ifa ritual to cultural retentions of hip-hop to the philosophy of Négritude, and through this shapes a story that seeks to affirm life via an understanding of the balance between life and death.

As Pecou states: “DO or DIE is a different type of spectacle, one that distances itself from the terror and violence typically associated with Black bodies. It affirms life and life beyond. It reclaims what was lost, turning our gaze inward and ultimately forward. Through ritual, performance and image, the exhibit challenges the perception of death’s dominion. Ultimately, DO or DIE is a reminder of an intimate balance that affirms life. It is art as affective resistance. It is a healing.”

About the Artist: Dr. Fahamu Pecou, Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, is an interdisciplinary artist and scholar whose works combine observations on hip-hop, fine art, and popular culture to address concerns around contemporary representations of Black men. Through paintings, performance art, and academic work, Dr. Pecou confronts the social construct of Black masculinity and Black identity, challenging and expanding the reading, performance, and expressions of Blackness. 

Dr. Fahamu Pecou received his BFA at the Atlanta College of Art in 1997 and a M. A. and Ph.D. from Emory University in 2017 and 2018 respectively. Dr. Pecou exhibits his art worldwide in addition to lectures and speaking engagements at colleges and universities.

As an educator, Dr. Pecou has developed (ad)Vantage Point, a narrative-based arts curriculum focused on Black male youth. Dr. Pecou is also Founder and Executive Director of the African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta (ADAMA).

Pecou's work is featured in noted private and public national and international collections including; Smithsonian National Museum of African American Art and Culture, Societe Generale (Paris), Nasher Museum at Duke University, The High Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Seattle Art Museum, Paul R. Jones Collection, ROC Nation, Clark Atlanta University Art Collection and Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia.

Dr. Pecou is a recipient of the 2022 Louis Comfort Tiffany Award. In 2020, Pecou was one of 6 artists selected for Emory University's groundbreaking Arts & Social Justice Fellowship. Additionally, Pecou was the Georgia awardee for the 2020 South Arts Prize. In 2017 he was the subject of a retrospective exhibition "Miroirs de l'Homme" in Paris, France. A recipient of the 2016 Joan Mitchell Foundation "Painters and Sculptors" Award, his work also appears in several films and television shows including; HBO's Between the World and Me, Black-ish, and The Chi. Pecou's work has also been featured on numerous publications including Atlanta Magazine, Hanif Abdurraqib's poetry collection, “A Fortune for Your Disaster” and the award-winning collection of short stories by Rion Amilcar Scott, “The World Doesn't Require You.”

Dates: January - April, 2019
Location: Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Ogden, Utah
Exhibition Curator & Director: Lydia Gravis
Exhibiting Artist: Yasuaki Onishi
Exhibition Budget: $35,000
Photography: Lydia Gravis
Generously Supported by: Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Ogden City Arts, Jack & Bonnie Wahlen, Mark E. & Lola G. Austad Endowment for Visual Arts.

About the Exhibition: In his installation, Reverse of Volume, Yasuaki Onishi uses the simplest materials — plastic sheeting and black hot glue — to create a monumental, mountainous form that appears to float in space. The process that he calls “casting the invisible” involves draping the plastic sheeting over stacked cardboard boxes, which are then removed to leave only their impressions. This process of “reversing” sculpture is Onishi’s meditation on the nature of the negative space, or void, left behind.

About the Artist: Yasuaki Onishi, b. 1979, Osaka, Japan, studied sculpture at University of Tsukuba and Kyoto City University of Arts. He has had solo exhibitions throughout Japan and internationally, and his work was included in Ways of Worldmaking (2011), at the National Museum of Art, Osaka (NMAO). In 2010, Onishi was the recipient of a United States-Japan Foundation Fellowship that included a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, as well as a grant from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Inc., New York.

Dates: August - November, 2017
Location: Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Ogden, Utah
Exhibition Director: Lydia Gravis
Exhibiting Artist: Isabel Rocamora
Budget: $50,000
Generously Funded by: Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Mark E & Lola G. Austad Endowment for Visual Arts, Ogden City Arts, Jim & MaryAnn Jacobs, Jack & Bonnie Wahlen, Lawrence T. & Janet T. Dee Foundation.

About the Exhibition: Ecstatic Solitudes brings into dialogue, for the first time in an American gallery space, two celebrated films by British-Spanish artist Isabel Rocamora. Seen in museums and filmothèques worldwide, her large-scale video installations consider the performative language of human gesture and its relationship to individual and cultural identity. The works in this exhibition offer breathtaking imagery and poignantly examine issues of exile, authority and the intimacy of violence.

Set in the historically charged landscape of the Normandy beaches, Body of War (2010) reflects on the transformation of man into soldier. In a rigorous mise-en-scène punctuated by testimonies of retired and serving soldiers, the film deconstructs the visceral act of hand-to-hand combat, effectively immersing the viewer in the relationship between human intimacy and the brutality of war.

Across two enveloping projections, Horizon of Exile (2007) places female identity at the center of a profound meditation on the underlying cultural causes of displacement. Immersed in vast desert plains and guided by testimonies from the Middle East and Latin America, the diptych reflects on the condition of women within authoritative societies, employing testimonies and choreographed bodies to consider issues of self-image, belonging and effacement.

About the Artist: Isabel Rocamora (b. 1968) is a British-Spanish artist filmmaker. Her practice originated in performance with live works commissioned by institutions such as the Arts Council of England and the Victoria and Albert Museum (1993 – 2003). Awarded internationally, her films have been exhibited at CCC, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; the National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen; the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel; the Austrian Cultural Forum, New York; and the Bologna Museum of Modern Art, among other venues.

Dates: February - April, 2016
Location: Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery
Exhibition Director: Lydia Gravis
Guest Curator: Wendy Red Star
Budget: $35,000
Exhibiting Artists: Tanya Lukin Linklater, Peter Morin, Duane Linklater, Amelia Winger-Bearskin, Elisa Harkins, John Feodorov, Tanis S'eiltin, Raymond Boisjoly
Generously Supported by: Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Mark E. & Lola. G. Austad Endowment for Visual Arts, Jack & Bonnie Wahlen, Lawrence T. & Janet T. Dee Foundation

About the Exhibition: https://artistsofutah.org/15Bytes/we-are-the-people-experiments-in-contemporary-indigenism-at-wsus-shaw-gallery/

Dates: August - November, 2015
Location: Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Ogden, Utah
Exhibition Director & Curator: Lydia Gravis
Exhibiting Artist: Elisabeth Higgins O’Connor
Budget: $25,000
Generously Supported by: Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Mark E. & Lola G. Austad Endowment for Visual Arts, Jack & Bonnie Wahlen, Tim & Stephanie Harpst

About the exhibition: https://artistsofutah.org/15Bytes/as-you-pull-away-it-comes-into-focus-elisabeth-higgins-oconnor-in-the-shaw-gallery/

Dates: February - April, 2015
Location: Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Ogden, Utah
Curators: Matthew Choberka & Lydia Gravis
Curatorial Assistant: Chelsea Bohem
Catalog Designer: Taylor Stone
Photography: Lydia Gravis
Budget: $35,000
Generously Supported by: Weber County RAMP Tax Initiative, Tim & Stephanie Harpst, Telitha E. Lindquist College of Art & Design, Jack & Bonnie Wahlen, Lawrence T. & Janet T. Dee Foundation.

About the Exhibition:https://artistsofutah.org/15Bytes/pure-paint-for-now-people-at-wsus-shaw-gallery/