Exhibition Community Opening

Xi Zhang: Dream Dust Milkshake & Jiyoun Lee-Lodge: Mindscape
Mingle with the artists and enjoy light refreshments and drinks.

Main Gallery
Xi Zhang’s recent paintings explore what it is to be human—to grow and evolve, to navigate relationships, and, often, to struggle. Placing his protagonists amid dream-like landscapes, reality becomes tangled with the complicated nature of how we perceive ourselves, others, and our surroundings. It is in these psychologically driven, often ambiguous narratives that Zhang compassionately depicts universal moments of struggle. Here, he aims to uplift the viewer—to inspire hope and let us know that we are not alone in moments of turmoil and tribulation.

Zhang’s work has been exhibited internationally, and featured in prominent news outlets and periodicals, among them CNN, PBS, NPR, and Juxtapoz.

Cafe Gallery
Jiyoun Lee-Lodge describes herself as “a self-exiled Asian, woman, mother, and social media addict.” She is a recent transplant from New York, and her work in the ‘Waterman the Stranger’ series describes her experience as a new Utahn.  Struggling to settle in a place that looks and feels so different from the jungle of skyscrapers that she knew, she asked herself, “If I mimic what an ideal life looks like here, will I blend in well?” In each piece, she illustrates herself as shifting water that repels, absorbs, reflects, and fails, showing the figure’s struggle (her own struggle) to find a place.

Lee-Lodge’s “Waterman the Stranger” series is paired with an earlier body of work called “Mindscape”, which the artist describes as portraits of her senses—touch, sight, smell, and so on—frozen in time. Influenced by infographics, animations and hieroglyphs, her work as a whole explores how identity is constantly in flux.

Jiyoun Lee-Lodge is a Korean-born, Salt Lake City-based artist. She recently won best in show at the 2019 Statewide Annual Mixed Media & Works on Paper Exhibition.