Join the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art for the first of three virtual panel discussions with artists from the group exhibition From Before to Now on Tuesday, July 21 at 7pm. Register now via the link provided on the exhibition webpage to attend this virtual event on Zoom.

Every three-and-a half years the editors of 15 Bytes: Artists of Utah organize a juried exhibition of 35 Utah artists under the age of 35 at the Art Barn—an art space run by the Salt Lake Arts Council that once was a previous home of UMOCA. Juried by Artists of Utah board members, the exhibition functions as a snapshot of Utah makers, providing a glimpse of artwork now as well as a foretelling of what’s to come.

However, 35 x 35 was never seen as a result of COVID closures.

From Before to Now draws on, but does not, simply reproduce the original exhibition. Rather, the reimagined exhibition poses the following question to the artists involved:

How has the quarantine changed the way you think about and make art now? What does your work look like now?

In a sense, the exhibition questions the intent of the original exhibition: can providing a survey of what’s happening now really be a prediction of the future? Life imprints itself on its makers and world events, such as the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting fear, isolation, and quarantine as well as mass protests in reaction to police violence and racial injustice have ramifications that can generate a shift in an artist’s practice—both seismic and subtle ways.