The Mountain America Expo Center opened the first Salt Lake City Art Show last night, a festival intended to better the viewing, buying, and showing experience of art galleries.
Salt Lake City muralist Caro Nilsson designed the logo for the event and attended as an exhibitor.
“It's so full of such good art,” Nilsson said. “There's sculptures all down the middle of this giant arena, like conference center thing. I've never been in a place like this before. Very exciting.”
Origins of the show
Originally from the East Coast, father-daughter duo turned co-founders of Peaks Art Fairs Kevin O’Keefe and Briana Dolan moved to Reno, Nevada, in 2020.
At the time, the COVID-19 pandemic was shutting down art scenes across the country. But Dolan said living in Reno during the early months of the pandemic also shone a light on the creative talent of Nevada residents.
“We wanted to be able to show a different view to Reno, and kind of prove that it's not this Reno 911 situation. And to be able to show all the talent in one place and just kind of be like, ‘well, this is actually what Reno is about,’ and that works well.”
Dolan explained she noticed artists were feeling disjointed. That’s when she and her father decided to create their own pop-up gallery.
“They felt like local people didn't buy local art,” Dolan said. “People with money went somewhere else … they just felt like they were kind of being left behind.”
But something was missing. Dolan and her father began working with local artists to put on something much bigger.
“They're like, ‘Well, let's make it look really nice and see what happens.’ … So we launched the first show in Reno in 2022,” Dolan said. “The whole model is really based on making it super community anchored … and getting people to feel like a fine art show can be something that's welcoming.”
The first Reno Tahoe International Art Show featured hundreds of exhibitors in a 50,000 square foot exposition center — roughly the size of a football field. By the following year, the show had doubled in size.
Coming to Salt Lake
After seeing the success in Reno, the pair decided it was time for the next step: Salt Lake City.
“We wanted to create this, like very diverse mix, and we felt that there could not be a more perfect place than Salt Lake for this,” Dolan said. “There's just an immense support for the arts here, more so than we've seen anywhere else.”
The show features 165 exhibitors, including painters, sculptors, furniture, and Utah treasures. Performance artists are also highlighted throughout the event.
The first day of the show, the Artiva String Quartet performed in the entrance of the expo, playing a mixture of pop and classical music.
Several hours into the event, Oaxaca En Utah performed various cultural dances. Norma Carver is the founder of the nonprofit.
“Our mission is to share, celebrate and perpetuate the culture of Oaxaca through festivals, through presentations of dancing and through gastronomy,” Carver said.
Oaxaca also used the event to advertise one of their own upcoming celebrations, La Guelaguetza, or “The Gift.” The event will take place on July 25th at Heritage Park in Kaysville.
Then Oh Theater, a contemporary dance company based in Salt Lake City, took the stage.
Their half-hour long performance included several acts, though the stage was never empty. Dancers Camry Blackhurst, Zoe Jensen, Izzy Akers, Devan Dowling, and Kyra Atkinson captured the audience’s attention and held it for the entire performance.
The event’s first day concluded with a fashion show titled “Style the World,” with pieces by Andre DuBois.
The show began with a brief speech by the MC, Afia Chin, then moved on to a dance performance by A. Raheim White. After the performance, models walked around the exhibition center to show off the work by DuBois.
“We live in a time where creativity and culture are being actively silenced and encouraged to be erased,” Chin said. “So let us remain united in the belief that art changes the world.”
The exhibition is open through Sunday, May 17 and is housed in the The Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy. For more information on where to buy tickets or to view the schedule, visit the Salt Lake Art show website.
