A new exhibition of contemporary art, made possible by two Utah State University professors, will be on display at the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum in Logan starting Jan. 27.
Perception and Abstraction is the name of the new exhibition and will incorporate a variety of pieces ranging from landscape paintings, geometric sculptures and mathematical and scientific systems.
This collection was possible thanks to Terry Peak, USU professor of social work, and David Peak, USU professor of physics.
The Peaks have been collectors since 1996 and are very excited to give NEHMA a portion of their collection.
Bolton Colburn, curator of collections and exhibitions at the museum, emphasized the importance of the new — and what he calls ‘adventurous’ — art pieces.
“The Peaks, from what I've seen, have the most important collection of contemporary work in Logan. I mean, they're pretty serious collectors. So it's going to give our community a chance to see what their collection is like. And it's largely a window into contemporary art in the New Mexico region, in particular, Santa Fe. So that's something we don't often see in Utah, so it's nice to be able to get that snapshot,” Colburn said.
One piece called AARON by Harold Cohen is completely computer-generated. Cohen was one of the first artists to explore AI in art more than 40 years ago.
The exhibition will be open to the public from Jan. 27 to July 20, and a reception will take place on Jan. 27 from 7 to 9 p.m.
“It's a very accessible collection, as I was mentioning, so I think people will enjoy that aspect of it, too. It's not hard to get. And then we've got the more demanding and rigorous side of the thing that's dealing with abstraction and some of the issues of abstractions as well, including the piece AARON, because that's been set up as a program that is executing abstract work,” Colburn said.
