Granary Art Center exhibitions
See Traditions differently
10-8-2020
EPRHAIM—Granary Arts will be hosting two new exhibitions that focus on family traditions, but in very different ways.
The new exhibits open on Wednesday, Oct. 7 and run until Jan. 22.
Because of COVID-19 concerns, an opening reception is being replaced by virtual-artists talks, which can be seen on Instagram Live @granaryarts, according to Granary Arts director Amy Jorgensen.
Showing in the upper gallery will be a fun piece by Steven Stallings Cardenas, a Columbian artist and jazz musician formerly from Provo. His show entitled Pan Pari Mí, or Bread for Me, contains videos, photos and sculptures of Stalling’s attempts to bake sourdough bread. In his work, he questions the idea of European “artisanry” while infusing his Colombian musical background into his work with colors, rhythms and dancing.
He graduated with a BFA in Studio Art from Brigham Young University with an emphasis in New Genres. He has had solo shows at Washer/Dryer Projects and BYU’s Gallery 303 and was in a group exhibition at PAL gallery. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
He will give his virtual talk Oct. 9 at 2 p.m. on Instagram Live @granaryarts.
Showing in the main gallery will be a presentation of soft sculpture and photography from two artists that probe family traditions and cultural identities of their native ancestry.
The art from Nancy Rivera and Denae Shanidiin, entitled Facing Home, considers notions of home, displacement and memory as they relate to a multicultural identity.
Rivera, who was born in Mexico City and immigrated to the U.S. with her parents, tells her history of migration through documents and photographs taken from visits to her hometowns in central-Mexico. The resulting exploration of family history, traditions and nostalgia is personal, yet transcends her individual experience.
She is a visual artist and arts administrator based in Salt Lake City. Her work is part of private and public collections, including the State of Utah Alice Merrill Horne Art Collection and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.
Fellow artist Denae Shanidiin, born to the Diné (Navajo) Nation, shares an identity hungry for a sense of hózhó—balance and harmony—in a cruel world. Her work offers personal identifiers of the softness and resilience she embodies. Both spiritually and materialistically, Shanidiin expresses her bond to motherhood while processing her displacement as an indigenous woman.
Her photography reveals her Diné ancestry through intimate family portraits in urban settings and on her homeland. Shanidiin’s various projects reveal the importance of Indigenous spirituality and sovereignty.
Rivera and Shanidiin will give their visual talk Oct. 17 at 4 p.m. on Instagram Live @granaryarts.
The two new exhibitions can be viewed at Granary Arts, 86 N. Main St. in Ephraim, during regular hours, Wed – Sat, from 11 – 5 p.m. Social distancing and safety protocols will be followed.
Granary Arts is funded primarily by Ephraim City and supported in part by the Utah Arts and Museums and the National Endowment of the Arts.
“As a non-profit enterprise, our primary focus is to provide quality art and community events to the people of Sanpete County,” said Granary Art manager Adah Bennion.
In addition to art shows, Granary Arts offers classes on art and provides free family workshops on drawing, painting and other arts. They switch up exhibitions several times a year. For more information, go to http://www.granaryarts.org.
