Featured Artworks
DECEMBER 15
Leslie Graff (American, born 1976)
She made the holidays delicious (2023)
Risograph print on Mohawk Via Vellum, 9 x 12 inches (image size), 11 x 14 inches (paper size)
Signed and numbered, edition: 50
$100 + $10 shipping/handling via USPS Priority Mail. Unframed. Quantities are limited.
Order yours to benefit the Center.
The wild, true story of She made the holidays delicious (2023)
In January 2021, a 48-year old man was arrested by the Boston police department. He had broken into Arden Gallery, destroyed and stole artworks, and tried to break into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum with a small sledge hammer. Leslie Graff’s work was in that Arden Gallery show. Her painting, titled She made it delicious, was slashed by the thief and was unrepairable.
Now, to bring a destroyed work back to life, Graff has returned to the image for a new work. To accomplish it, she created a full-scale cake image paired, this time, with a 1950s wrapping paper pattern based on one her grandparents had in their Idaho fabric store, which they used to wrap her Christmas gifts every year. The artist was working on the painting as her grandmother passed away a month shy of 99 years old.
Commissioned by the Center, Graff then created the smaller holiday scene for this project which she titled She made the holidays delicious.
Limited quantities of this commissioned Christmas print are available to order to benefit the Center.
DECEMBER 8
Susana Isabel Silva
In the Abyss, 2020
Cut Fabriano paper, framed dimensions: 25 x 28 inches
Original available for purchase to benefit the Center
About the Art:
Silva’s cut-paper composition references a scene from the Book of Mormon in which the Jaredite people are led to the Americas. Their experience included crossing the tumultuous ocean in compact, barge-like ships.
And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind … therefore when they were encompassed about by many waters, they did cry unto the Lord, and he did bring them forth again upon the top of the waters.(Ether 6: 6-7)
For Silva, In the Abyss represents her affinity with the Jaredite story, which she connects to her trust in God as He has guided her throughout her life. Like the Jaredites tossed on the waves of the sea, the intense red hue of the paper engulfs the pinprick of gold in the center, creating a sensation of smallness before the immensity of the surrounding space.
Silva says,
Reconozco que el Señor me sustenta para poder al fin vencer al mundo, con sus desolaciones, sus contrastes y altibajos sin perder la visión de la tierra prometida.
“I recognize that the Lord sustains me to finally overcome the world, with its desolations, its contrasts, and ups and downs, without losing sight of the promised land.”
We are thrilled to offer the work of Susana Isabel Silva for the benefit of the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts. Note: The work has been sold.
DECEMBER 1
Elise Wehle (American, born 1986)
Firmament Below (2024)
Cut paper, 12.25 x 10.25 inches, signed and numbered, edition: 50
$100, plus $10 shipping, unframed. Order yours to benefit The Center.
About the 2024 commissioned Christmas print:
Commissioned from the accomplished artist Elise Wehle, this beautiful image is the Center’s 3rd annual Christmas print. Every year, we commission a new artist to create an original Christmas-inspired work that will enrich your home holiday decorations for years to come.
Firmament Below is a cut-paper, limited edition print that evokes Christmas by juxtaposing the tangible elements of the earth (plants, our bodies, and the mortal world) with patterns that represent the spirit (a holy star and an offering with outstretched hands).
Wehle’s body of work concerns itself with the struggle between the spiritual and the temporal. Her art focuses upon the cycles of life, the seasons, and the relationships between growth and decay. In Firmament Below, she celebrates Christmas and the elements of life.
The top sheet is handmade, heavyweight mulberry paper, and the sheet underneath is Unryu, a lightweight, translucent, long-fibered, green paper from Thailand made from the bark of the mulberry tree.
NOVEMBER 24
Jacob Askeroth
I Ascend Unto My Father
10"x27" Acrylic on panel
About the Art:
“The title for this piece comes from John 20:17 when Jesus Christ appears to Mary Magdalene at the garden tomb following His glorious resurrection, indicating to her that He would soon be ascending to the presence of His Father. Later, friends and disciples "looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up" (Acts 1:10) to heaven. Similarly, after appearing to, teaching, and spending time with His faithful followers in the Americas, He said to the multitude that He would "now... go unto the Father" (3 Nephi 17:4) before returning the following day. Ever our perfect Exemplar, Our Savior has marked the path for us to follow so that we, through Him, can also return to the presence of our loving Heavenly Father. When we regularly give our time to and look to God and follow His Son, His light will break through any dark, ominous clouds that may exist in our lives and He will help us rise above. Ascending and returning to Their presence will bring ultimate and everlasting joy.”
About the Artist:
Jacob is an LDS artist whose artwork is inspired by stained glass windows and other Christian art. Through his passion for painting and woodworking, he is able to capture vibrant hues and intricate details, often depicting scenes from scriptures. Jacob attempts to infuse his creations with a sense of reverence and awe, drawing on the long tradition and connection between religion and stained glass windows that work together to evoke a feeling of being in a sacred place. He invites viewers to contemplate the intersection of beauty and spirituality, with a keen focus on conveying the depth of religious emotions. His artwork leaves a profound impact on all who encounter it, offering a glimpse into the timeless stories and teachings of faith. Jacob currently lives in West Lafayette, Indiana, with his wife and four children, who all love creating art every day. You can see more of Jacob's artwork at @j.askeroth.art or contact him at jacobaskeroth@gmail.com.
NOVEMBER 17
Justin Wheatley
Searching for Something
12" x 12"
Oil on panel
About the Art:
Made in partnership with the Artist’s Residency at the Center, this painting is in theme of the artist’s of the artist’s residency project #walktoworship. Of the piece, the artists says: “The young man searches for something (could be truth, wisdom, comfort, or other things) in the midst of a chaotic world. I think we all feel like this at times in this world of ours 😊.”
Made in partnership with @centerforldsarts
NOVEMBER 10th
Mary Teasdel
Garfield Pier, Great Salt Lake, 1904
watercolor, 14.75”x18”
Springville Museum of Art
About the Artist:
Mary Teasdel, born in Salt Lake City in 1863 to a well-to-do merchant family, was a pioneering Utah artist and one of the first Utah women to study art in Paris.
She attended the University of Deseret, graduating with high honors in 1886, after studying under artist George Ottinger. Teasdel continued her training with J.T. Harwood before attending the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design in New York.
Eventually, Teasdel inherited a small sum that enabled her to pursue studies in Paris, where she trained under masters William Benjamin-Constant, Jules Simon, and James Whistler. Her impressionistic landscapes, still-lifes, and portraits earned her acclaim, and she became the first Utah woman and second Utahn to exhibit at the prestigious Paris Salon in 1899, as well as at the International French Exhibition.
Upon returning to Utah, she served on the Utah Art Institute board and won awards, including top honors at the 1908 Utah State Fair. Later in life, she moved to Los Angeles, where she continued painting and worked to improve California's art education. Teasdel passed away in Los Angeles in 1937, remembered as a talented, dedicated artist who broke barriers for Utah women in the arts.
A full bio can be found at the Springville Museum of Art website.
NOVEMBER 3rd
Jackie Leishman
Sunlight Wood Flesh
48 x 110 inches, mixed media on paper
Hear from the Artist:
“The piece is from a collaboration of poetry and art between an evolutionary biologist/poet Steven Peck and [the artist], Jackie Leishman. We are exploring visually and through poetry Absence, the loss of forests. The work confronts a rapidly changing world, an unpredictable climate, a decline of diversity, and all within a context of a raging debate over what is true. By pairing art with poems related to forest ecosystems, we are hoping to spark a dialogue and explore how art, science and poetry might be combined to turn people's gaze to the sense that our world is at risk of being so fundamentally changed by humans that it becomes a place we can no longer live and flourish.
“Our discussions were driven by the presence of ever hotter and frequent fires, skies filled with smoke so that sun and moon appear red and diminished. The art and poems were made as a call and response to each other.
“Sunlight Wood Flesh specifically is exploring the loss of connection between the trees as more are lost to deforestation, bark beetles, and fires.”
About the Artist:
Leishman grew up in Georgia, moving to the Los Angeles area after completing her MFA from the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Originally trained as a photographer, she now works as a mixed media painter. Using both traditional and non-traditional materials, including fragments of old projects, Leishman explores the dichotomies she witnesses. Select solo and group presentations include Ahmad Shariff Gallery, Claremont, Meyer Gallery, Park City, Claremont Museum of Art, Susan Elay Fine Art, New York, Granary Art Center, UT among others.
Leishman’s work has been featured in Feel Free magazine, Penumbra, Flyway, Whitefish Review, VoyageLA, Artemis Journal, and others. She has been awarded grants and residencies including the Anderson Center, and Prairieside Outpost. Her work is beloved by collectors, art advisors, and designers. She recently completed a large commission for Stream Realty for their Regions Plaza commercial building in Atlanta, GA, designed by Gensler. She collaborates with evolutionary biologist Steven Peck on bodies of work investigating the loss we will continue to experience with climate change. Their work has been featured in multiple publications and their entire first body of work was bought by a major University library for their permanent collection.
OCTOBER 27th
Samantha Zauscher
What We Look Like (2023)
Photograph
Taken from 35,000 feet somewhere between Edinburgh and Chicago, these incredible cloud mountain ranges forced a path that felt like flying through a valley. It wasn't until another lone commercial flight passed by in the distance (visible in frame), that the true scale and magnitude of these clouds came into focus. Almost breathtaking in scale, a Keanu-esque "Woah" quietly slipped out, along with the realization that that's what we look like. How tiny and small like "atoms on the fingernail of God" yet He knows the hairs of the head on everyone sitting on that flight.
Visit What We Look Like at the Center’s exhibition The Delicate Ties That Bind at Claremont University, CA until Nov 1st 2024.
Samantha Zauscher is a commercial and editorial portrait, fashion, and dance photographer based in San Diego, LA, and NYC. A former professional dancer, her favorite work dives into the world of ballet while traversing art, culture, design, fashion and music through the vehicle of movement and the makers of these forms.
October 20th
Emily Erekson and Jamie Erekson
Was This The Face (2022)
Interactive Media Installation
About The Work:
Initially a reflection on individual isolation, was this the face has unfolded into a dialogic exploration of the self defined by the other, and the other defined by the self. The multidimensional project is a discourse on hybridity: it is both an online and interactive experience as well as a curated presentation. It is both audio and visual; voluntary and planned; static and dynamic; representational and figurative. Willing participants, photographed as part of a growing archive, provide portrait material for six cross-sections of the facial visage. Each photograph is uploaded, sectioned, and composited into an evolving image, which changes every few seconds on a constant loop and projected onto a location (pictured here on the Manhattan Bridge in October, 2024). The Ereksons’ capable fusion of genres amplifies tensions related to intersectionality; and the facial portrait is something and nothing all at once. At one point the facial strips render and project on the screen, challenging the nature of the image over and over again, while sounds of the accordion frantically crescendo and rarely resolve. The result? The viewer anxiously anticipates what never comes: permanence.
View the installation online and add your own picture at wasthistheface.org.
Emily and Jamie Erekson’s was this is face is also a recipient of the Center’s Art for Uncertain Times grant. Read more about the grant and the making of this project here.
October 13
Andrew Ballstaedt
Monsters in the sky (2024)
Acrylic on paper on fabric stretched over a board, 29”x48”
Collection of the artist
Hear from the Artist
Art is a playful escape for me. I create art because it reminds me of a time when I was a kid—when life was simpler and less complex. This painting is actually done on paper, embossed into its thick surface. I was raised in a Mormon family with 12 children, so naturally, some of my art reflects my upbringing and religion.
October 6
Jared Lindsay Clark (American, born 1976)
Palimpsests - Saturday (2012)
Etching on paper, 8 x 7.875 inches (image size), 15 x 11 inches (paper size)
Church History Museum
In 2012, Jared Lindsay Clark created an artwork based on his note-taking experience of attending Latter-day Saint general conference on Temple Square. While sitting in the dark during the conference session, the artist scribbled in a sketchbook lines of captured texts, quotes, word art, scribbled forms, and outlined profiles of speakers in a notebook. Clark turned the composite image into an etching that reflects spontaneity and a witty authenticity as its layering captures his effort to remember and assimilate leaders’ teachings using a personal vocabulary of imagery and text.
View this original artwork at Work & Wonder at the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City, UT.
SEPTEMBER 22
Page Turner (American, born 1981)
Blessed Big Oak Revival from Total Plenitude: A Congregation of Sister Seekers (2018)
Assemblage mixed media, about 36 inches in diameter
Collection of the artist
Hear from the artist:
SEPTEMBER 22
Georgina Bringas (Mexican, born 1975)
120 cm I / 120 cm II (2024)
Measuring tape, MDF, 6 x 12 inches, two panels
Private collection
Used with permission of the artist
Georgina Bringas writes, “Since my artistic production sprang from my interest in making evident everyday events in my exercise of dwelling, covering and living the space, which instead of comprehending it, I was striving to apprehend it. I found out that in my work I was trying to grant values to experiences and objects as a way of rendering evident the unobservable, making personal interpretations of these situations by means of perceiving and quantifying their evidences, that mean for me the results of my own work. By reflecting on this constant in my practice, I discovered that I was trying to measure what was happening in my surrounding as recourse for understanding my relationship with space, time and objects with measuring tape and VHS tape.
“Medir es aprender”
“To measure is to learn”
“…mi producción artística, partí de mi interés por evidenciar acontecimientos cotidianos en mi ejercicio de habitar, recorrer y vivir el espacio, al que más que entenderlo quería aprehenderlo. Encontré que en mi trabajo estaba tratando de otorgar valores a experiencias y objetos como una forma de evidenciar lo inobservable, haciendo interpretaciones personales de estas situaciones por medio de percibir y cuantificar sus evidencias, evidencias que son para mí los resultados de mi obra. Al reflexionar sobre esta constante en mi práctica descubrí que estaba tratando de medir lo que sucedía en mi entorno como recurso para entender mi relación con el espacio, el tiempo y los objetos. Esto es lo que me llevó a aproximar los conceptos y procesos de medir a mi propia práctica artística y aplicarlos dentro de mi producción como herramientas para diseñar patrones, sistemas e instrumentos de medida que me dieran otra clase de información de mi entorno resultado de una traducción de lo que para mí eran estas experiencias. Me- dir nos permite acercarnos al mundo y de esta manera llegamos al conocimiento del entorno conforme lo cuantificamos. Al calcular, entendemos algo de aquello que estamos evaluando. Al comparar una cosa con otra para abstraerlo en números estamos usando ese número como un símbolo que sustituye aquello que calculamos. Dicho proceso de tomar algo del mundo real que es completamente inaprensible, como el espacio y el tiempo, y sintetizarlo llevándolo a una expresión numérica, significa para mí un medio para obtener una información extra que nos posibilita a clasificar, ordenar y asir aquello tan vivencial.”
“…my artistic production sprang from my interest in making evident everyday events in my exercise of dwelling, covering and living the space, which instead of comprehending it, I was striving to apprehend it. I found out that in my work I was trying to grant values to experiences and objects as a way of rendering evident the unobservable, making personal interpretations of these situations by means of perceiving and quantifying their evidences, that mean for me the results of my own work. By reflecting on this constant in my practice, I discovered that I was trying to measure what was happening in my surrounding as recourse for understanding my relationship with space, time and objects. This led me to bring near the concepts and processes of measuring to my own artistic practice and to apply them inside my production as tools for designing patterns, systems and instruments of measurement that could provide me with a different kind of information regarding my surroundings, while we quantify it. By calculating, we understand something from what we are evaluating. By comparing one thing to another in order to abstract it into numbers, we are using that number as a symbol that substitutes what we calculate. This process of taking something from the real world that is totally inapprehensible, such as space and time, and to synthesize it, translating it into a numerical expression, means to me a medium to obtain extra information that enables us to classify, order and grasp that which is so essential to life.”
SEPTEMBER 15
J. Kirk Richards (American, born 1976)
Cristo (series) (2014)
161 paintings
oil and acrylic on panel, dimensions variable
installation dimensions 20 feet by 40 feet
Church History Museum
“Each of the 161 canvases, spanning twenty feet, in Latter-day Saint artist J. Kirk Richards’s Untitled (Cristo Series) pictures a slightly different and abstracted version of Christ. Cristo was exhibited in 2013 for the Mormon Pavilion at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art’s (UMOCA) first biennial, Mondo Utah. Laura Allred Hurtado, who was the global arts acquisitions specialist at the Church Museum of History and Art at the time (and now is director of UMOCA), curated the pavilion and helped conceive of the work.
Even with further development, the series remained untitled. The parenthetical addition, however, invites viewers to question how their knowledge of Christ, as a concept, person, and figure of religious devotion, came to be. Richards seems to agree, as depictions of the religious figure were “something [he’d] thought a lot about.” He remarked how “one early work that survives from the 6th century depicts Christ as an attractive white man with shoulder-length hair and a beard. And it seems like for 1500 years not much has changed…Is there a danger in having such a narrow interpretation of these religious figures?”
Richards visualizes the question through abstraction, blank canvas, and hazy contours framed by vague identifiers, foregrounding the recognizability of the iconic elements of traditional Jesus images while calling on the viewer to fill in the gaps. This strategy might challenge viewers to at once recognize the impossibility of a singular image of Chris and acknowledge the importance of variety—to flesh out the image of Christ as a personal engagement. This is art as a relatively open and unfinished encounter.”
- Excerpt from the Introduction of “Latter-day Saint Art: A Critical Reader”
SEPTEMBER 8
SEPTEMBER 1
Lacy Knudson (American, born 1982)
San Diego Temple Mural (2018)
Acrylic on wood panels, 9 x 18 feet
Used with permission of the artist
Lacy Knudson is an artist trained as a muralist. She lives in rural Virginia and works with clients on projects for schools, businesses, and homes. In 2018, Lacy was asked by girl’s camp organizers in Southern California for a paint project at a church-owned camp. Lacy writes about the mural, “This idea came to mind, and I felt the spirit help direct me for the way I should go about it. I created the design, numbered it, and mixed all the colors in large quantity; then I projected the image to trace the lines of the design. Once the lines and numbers were on the wall and the paint mixed and numbered, the girls could pick a section, find the matching paint number and get to work.”
The project was something that all of the stake camp girls could work on. The artist created a composition using iconic imagery from the San Diego area including the temple and the beautiful city it resides in. Over the course of a week, girls in groups of about 10 would come to the mural station and have a turn to beautify the camp. In all, around 160 girls worked on the piece. The artist adds, "For many of them it was their favorite activity at camp not only because it was fun but because it was a service that would make people happy to look at for years. The mural makes a wonderful visual improvement to the camp and is still there today bringing the spirit of the temple and an appreciation for the beauty of nature."
AUGUST 25
Daniel Beck (American, born 1996)
WAVES (2023)
Oil color pencil on acrylic ground on panel, 25 X 40 in
Courtesy of the artist
Daniel Beck finds divinity in the immeasurable variety of life, and practices spiritual optimism by cultivating an approach of constant learning and appreciation for what he observes. His works act as reliquaries for his subjects, aspiring to a spiritual dimension that encourages quiet meditation on the many facets of existence.
WAVES, a portrait of the artist’s mother, is an investigation on the continuity of self; many threads are carried through time, but their intersection finds an original circumstance at each moment. What life was lived before, and what was left behind? One version of the self conceals another, and the infinite sea of potentiality gives way to one actuality, one in succession after another.
AUGUST 18
Hilaida Miñoso (American, born 2000)
Las Cuatro Estaciones (The Four Seasons) (2022)
Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 72 inches
Used with permission of the artist
Hilaida Miñoso graduated from Caldwell University with a degree in art and psychology, specializing in art therapy. Her family is from the Dominican Republic. She grew up and lives in Paterson, New Jersey. Recently returned from missionary service in Costa Rica, Hilaida is pursuing a career as an artist and will also be furthering her education in graduate school as an art therapy student.
Hilaida describes Las Cuatro Estaciones, “This is a landscape painting that integrates the four seasons, starting with spring on the left to winter on the right side. As the seasons transition, the viewer sees plants and animals that represent each season. Ultimately this piece represents the beauty of adaptation and how nature always adapts, regardless of climate change. It is also a symbol of resilience. Regardless of the trials that we go through as human beings, we thrive and grow just like the cycle of the four seasons. While using natural elements and nature as the main subject, making art is meaningful to me because it is a way for me to express my deep appreciation for God’s creations. The art that I make consists of imagination-based dream worlds, which reflects my spirituality and faith. Through the use of color, texture, line, and movement, I am able to express my work and allow my inner-child to execute the painting.”
AUGUST 11
Jorge Cocco (Argentina, b. 1936)
The Call (2015)
oil on canvas, 30 in x 40 in
Used with permission of the artist
This piece, which won the purchase award at the Church History Museum’s international art competition in 2015, is the first work Cocco completed in his now signature sacrocubism style. The piece references the scriptural passage of Mark 1: 16-18, as the Savior called humble fisherman to be his disciples.
Cocco’s work was selected for the cover of the Center’s forthcoming volume with Oxford University Press, Latter-day Saint Art: A Critical Reader.
Sunny K Jun (Korean, b. 1966)
ChakGaDo Series 1, 2 (Scholar’s Accoutrements Series 1, 2) (2010)
Sumi Chinese ink on Hanji (traditional Korean paper)
Used with permission of the artist
Sunny K Jun is a writer and artist from Korea. She studied traditional Korean folk art at Hongik University Art and Design Education Institute and at Gahoe Folk Painting Academy. Her published books are The Body, Things the Lion and the Mouse Never Considered Before (사자와 생쥐가 한번도 생각못한것들), and Chats with Lion (사자와 수다).
The Korean folk art paintings from her ChakGaDo Series, above, depict the study of a scholar in the Joseon Dynasty. It is full of symbols. Traditionally, rocks, turtles, pine trees, and peaches are symbols of longevity, and peonies symbolize happiness. Sunny, who joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1982, writes, “This painting is about diligently pursuing learning and truth and wishing for health, longevity, and happiness.”
JULY 28
AUGUST 4
Dellan Sithole (Zimbabwean, born 1999)
Rise of Africa (2024)
Oil on canvas, 60 cm x 100 cm
Used with permission of the artist
Dellan Sithole is a 25-year old artist from Zimbabwe. He is an intern at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and is studying for his Higher Diploma in Fine Art at the National Gallery School of Visual Arts. His work is inspired by the Bible and the Book of Mormon. He notes, “I love surreal work because it gives me the freedom to imagine and put it on canvas through the power of imagination. My work tell stories that people can relate to. Not only do they tell of the physical but also celestial as I try to depict the spirituality of life eternal.”
Describing the painting above, Sithole writes, “It's a painting in my future exhibition, and it's called Rise of Africa. It talks about how Africa has a guardian angel protecting and looking after it. The whole exhibition circulates around this painting. Africa is a land of minerals, fertile soils, and more that we cannot comprehend as humans. Therefore I put playgrounds in it, tall skyscrapers, trees, gold, even technology. That blue building generates gravity that is why the cars within the continent are not falling. It has its own gravity and it's skyrocketing because I am showing how it has so much potential. The Angel is a pregnant woman as well. She will give birth to the heir who will also protect Africa.”
JULY 21
Avril Caron (French Canadian, born 1980)
On my knees I can see forever (2022)
Acrylic on wood and sewing patterns, 10 x 27 inches
https://www.avrilcaron.com/
While Avril was serving as a missionary, she was diagnosed with a degenerative disease that left her in chronic pain and with no hope of recovery. In this intense period, her paintings became colorful, strong, and full of faith. The painted illusions became a reality when she was miraculously healed. Since then, Avril has devoted her work to testifying of God's power and love. She painted “On my knees I can see forever” to show that so many times the solution to problems are found in a plea to God. The fog and confusion disappear as you let God enter and see the way He has prepared (1 Nephi 17:13). The character in her painting has one hand raised high to give thanks to her Maker, and another inclined ready to humbly receive. Sewing patterns are also found with selected words and markings.
JULY 14
Madeline Rupard (American)
Mormon Easter (2022)
Acrylic on paper, mounted on panel, 9 x 12 inches
Private collection
Circular folded tables, white tablecloths, and textured walls are materials common to most Latter-day Saint chapels, but here Rupard uses them to visualize a scene from the New Testament, where the stone is rolled away from the sepulchermadd to reveal Christ’s empty tomb on Easter morning. Using everyday materials to describe such a spiritually profound moment creates a paradox that Rupard calls the “paradox of divine truth to be found in artificial, prefabricated spaces in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” The uniformity of Latter-day Saint places of worship may be utilitarian. Still, as Rupard demonstrates, the visual simplicity of these spaces conceals a deeper spiritual complexity and experience that many Latter-day Saints share. Even the most mundane objects can acquire sacred meaning, as Rupard says, “If I really believe that God exists and that He loves us very much, every painting is an Easter painting.”
JULY 7
Amber Lee Ramos (American)
Doctrine & Covenants 60, 2021
Hand-cut Paper Collage
Courtesy of the artist
Doctrine and Covenants is a compilation of revelations and sacred scripture in the Latter-day Saint faith. In the 60th section, the prophet Joseph Smith records a revelation given to him in August 1831 where he was told to open his mouth, not hide the talents and gifts he received, and to be unafraid of the judgments of men as he shared his testimony of the Savior, Jesus Christ. Ramos takes Smith’s revelation to heart, using symbols to communicate her experience reading the verses. The shovel represents her commitment to sharing Heavenly Father’s love with those around her. The jewels represent the talents, testimonies, and authenticity she shares with others, and the Latter-day Saint temple under construction demonstrates her never-ending pursuit of spiritual strength.
Ramos also reflects on the Latter-day Saint belief that bodies are temples and sacred spaces of divine potential. By attaching feminine legs to the temple at its base, she playfully acknowledges this belief while also reckoning with what she calls “the prejudices I had against my own body.” Temples appear frequently in Ramos’ work as anthropomorphic forms in her collages.
JUNE 30
Kent Christensen (American, born 1957)
Secrets of the Great Salt Lake, 2019
Oil on linen
Courtesy of Jeffrey S. Tolk & Astrid S. Tuminez
Known for his playful representations of some of the sweet things in life—ice cream, cookies, Diet Coke—artist Kent Christensen applies his whimsical approach to his triptych Secrets of the Great Salt Lake. Filled with representations of significant people, places, and objects related to Utah, the center of Mormondom, the artwork is nothing short of an ode to a place beloved by the artist.
At the center of Secrets of the Great Salt Lake stands a cotton-candy pink rendering of the LDS Salt Lake Temple, one of the state’s most important landmarks. On the horizon line is a multi-car train—a nod to the first transcontinental railroad that met at Promontory Point. An enormous dinosaur stands as a reminder of the state’s geological significance, with the Church’s second president, Brigham Young, sitting astride a smaller one. Other significant places are invoked in the foreground, such as the otherworldly red-rocked landscape of southern Utah and Robert Smithson’s earthwork, Spiral Jetty, where the natural rocks are replaced with candy confections.
Concerning the inception of this piece, Christensen writes: “I conceived this triptych over the course of many years as a personal piece that would address aspects of my own personal and family history as well as broader issues around Utah culture and the historical arc of “progress” with its attendant political, religious, and societal complications. I had always been fascinated by the triptych painting, The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch since seeing it as a young study abroad student in 1981.”
JUNE 23
Ron Linn (American, born 1997)
hraun i (bed), documentation of presence (2016)
Inkjet print on newsprint, 25 x 37 inches
Used with permission of the artist
"Geology is a palimpsest; it contains the trace of its own making in its layers. Are we also palimpsests? Don't we live ourselves in layers and stacks?”
Linn’s self-portrait ponders the relationship between man and nature. Positioning his body within the soft, undulating landscape of Iceland’s lava fields, his peaceful repose matches the mossy curves of the terrain, layering his human form within the land’s geology. Such a tranquil scene of human rest captures the briefest moment within the long and violent history of volcanic activity that created Iceland’s lava fields and is a common theme within Linn’s work. From ancient, old-growth forests in Oregon to the sandstone deserts of Utah, Linn uses these topographies to consider his place within the fabric of the natural world and the human experience as one layer within the vast geological history of the earth.
JUNE 16
Aïsha Lehmann (American, born 1997)
All Alike? (2021)
Ink, collage, and graphite, 11.5 x 37.5 x 2 inches
Church History Museum collection
An anonymous crowd moves right and left across an indeterminate space. Several figures stop and face forward. Their direct gazes, dark complexions, and patterned clothing separate them from the rest of the crowd who pass by unhindered behind them. All Alike? developed through Lehman’s personal interest in racial identities and the past racial teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Between 1852 and 1978, Black Latter-day Saint men were ineligible for priesthood ordination, and the legacy of this policy remains omnipresent for members of color. Here, the static poses of the Black figures visualize the mental effort required to reconcile past racial teachings with more loving doctrines of inclusion in the Church, an experience common among members of color. Lehman’s work thus illustrates Nephi’s claim in the Book of Mormon.
“For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.” (2 Nephi 26:33)
