The 87th Annual Spring Salon, featuring diverse works

The 87th Annual Spring Salon, featuring diverse works -- ranging from traditional oil paintings to contemporary sculptures -- from hundreds of artists across the state has been juried and is ready to be viewed.

This year's show had 1,008 entries, of which 253 were accepted and are currently on display.

"It's the biggest show that we do each year," said Ashlee Whitaker, associate curator for the museum. Whitaker oversaw the submission of artwork for the salon and also placed and hung the show -- which keeps growing.

"This year's salon is bigger," Whitaker said. "We thought last year's was quite big in terms of the quality of the work was really overwhelming. This year, it's even more so. Also, the physical size of the works is a lot bigger."

To accommodate the increased number and sizes of the works, the entire main floor of the museum has been filled and has spilled over into two galleries on the second floor.

"We didn't want to make the show smaller," Whitaker said. "We wanted to accommodate all the works that were juried in, because they're definitely worth it."

The 253 pieces were juried by Dr. Philipp Malzl, member of the Utah Arts Council board of directors and chair of the Mapleton Heritage Museum Preservation Committee, and by Adam Price, founder of the 337 Project and executive director of the Salt Lake Art Center.

"It was definitely a very, very difficult selection process for the jurors," Whitaker said. "There were so many outstanding works. It's a statement about the art scene in Utah and how it is absolutely growing in dynamic. It's really impressive, and it's a wonderful symbol that Utah is really coming into its own as an art state."

Six jurors' awards were granted, with Jeff Pugh running away with the Jurors' First Place Award for his oil on canvas "Skyscrapers & Cowpies" -- a modern rural farmland scene.

"Jeff does a lot of depictions of rural Utah landscape, fields and mountains, trees and cows," Whitaker said. "He has a very distinct style and way of handling the paint. He focuses a little bit on geometry and his use of the palette knife creates a really distinctive feel to the piece."

Pugh graduated from the University of Utah in 2004 and has spent the last seven years developing his art.
"I would call it modern landscape," Pugh said of his style. "It's traditional subject matter, but I'm pushing the design."

Pugh said he's still pinching himself to believe his piece won the coveted first prize.

"I keep wondering if they got the right name and the right painting, because I've seen the quality of work that was submitted, and that makes it an even greater honor for me to receive the award."

In addition, second-place jurors' awards were given for works by Shea Guevar and David Miekle, and third-place awards were presented to pieces by Sandy Freckleton, Travis Richard Tanner and Sunny B. Taylor. A handful of awards also were given to various other artists by museum staff.

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