Jan, 15
UMOCA 26-27 Artist in Residence
UMOCA AIR
Jan, 15
Dilation Diary Book Release
A collection of essays and photographs braiding together a vulnerable account of gender confirmation surgery and the ecological framework of wildfires.
For too long, the conversation around gender confirmation surgery has been limited to bawdy jokes and accusatory whispers. Author Finn Epperson-Valum seeks to change that with Dilation Diary, an intimate and revelatory look at what the recovery process for gender confirmation surgery looks like today.
Using the principles of fire ecology, her delicate but fierce writing, and a 35mm camera, Epperson-Valum details what an experience with transgender healthcare looks like in the conservative state of Utah. She guides readers through her recovery journey from stuffy hospital rooms to the ashes of recently burned woodlands, uniting the challenge of personal healing with reflections on forest regrowth.
The book design by Utah-based artist Laurie Larson relies on the awkward and personal nature of the diary concept, creating an intimate and coltish layout. Her design honors the uncomplicated, co-created nature of the project while elevating it to a unique concept-driven art book.
Published and released by Bare River Press, an independent press born in Utah’s Great Basin. Edited by Julia Case.
Sept, 26
AIA Utah
2024 Graduate:
Honor
Award for Excellence in Design
The AIA Utah Student Design Awards program highlights and honors the incredible and innovative work of Utah’s brightest students. This program engages with the talented community of designers and provides a platform to display and celebrate their hard work and determination.
AIA Utah
Instagram Post
Instagram Post
Sept, 21
801 Art Book Fair 2024
The 2nd annual 801 Art Book Fair, brought to you by 801 salon and Copy That Studio, hosted by UMOCA . The fair focuses includes books and objects from artists, authors, designers, printers, galleries, publishers, and shops local to Utah.
UMOCA
Instagram Post
Instagram Post
Mar, 15
Driftwind Book Release Event
On Friday, March 15th, Bare River Press celebrated the release of their new book Driftwind — a collection of creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, photography, and illustration created by young writers and artists in Salt Lake City. The book was edited by Rory Weeks and Julia Case, and designed by Laurie Larson.
Bare River Press formed in 2020 as part of a collaborative effort to explore the ecological entanglements of the Great Basin region through art and writing. The group published their first book Abandon Shape in 2021. A grant from the Utah Museum of Fine Arts funded this project. Shortly thereafter, Bare River Press began conceptualizing a second book inspired by nature writer Robert Macfarlane’s prose poem “Ness,” which investigates the notion of ‘drift.’
“To drift is to move, to change; to surrender to the vibrant aliveness of the cosmos and be transformed by the voyage,” write Driftwind editors Julia Case and Rory Weeks in the book’s introduction.
"This anthology explores the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of life in the Anthropocene, as experienced on the shores of Great Salt Lake and beyond," writes Case.
The event at Ken Sanders is intended to share this work with the local community and celebrate the care and connection that defined its creation.
2023 Digital Matters Graduate Fellowship
residency.
Sept, 21
Design Build Bluff 2023 - Open House
Every fall, a graduate studio of up to sixteen students designs a pre-identified architectural project for a beneficiary of the Navajo Nation in the southern Utah tribal area.
Historically these are small single family homes assigned by the local tribal chapters. In preparation these students study indigenous architecture and Southwestern vernacular. They read building specifications, make working drawings and project management documents.
In spring they move more than 300 miles away from the school of architecture, to the remote campus’ small home and namesake in Bluff, close to the Navajo Nation’s northernmost chapters. They spend the better part of this semester converting drawings into habitable space. As the edifice rises, so does a community of cohorts, who can boast hands on experience of construction, teamwork, successful project delivery, budget management, publication of their work and incredible amount of physical labor—all upon mere graduation.
Oct, 27
2023 Utah Design Exhibit - Jurors Choice, Peoples Choice Awards
The Utah Design Exhibit began in 2017 as an annual fine furniture exhibit. The first exhibit consisted of student work from the University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College and featured several professional furniture builders from around the Wasatch Front.
Since then the exhibit has grown in attendance and participation drawing hundreds of attendees in 2023 to see 24 furniture builders and interior designers from around the country. The Utah Design Exhibit awards a Jurors Choice and a People Choice award for the lamps in the exhibition. In the 2023, designer Laurie Anne Larson won Peoples Choice and Jurors Choice with her Nuda lamp.
“These two lamps are playful and biomimetic explorations of laser-cut joinery. The lit object exposes paper texture and the tapering/bulging forms. Unlit the object is humble: made from paper and ply.
The simple fabrication enables iteration of the project, exploring form, scale, texture, color, and how these simple changes shift the function.“
Instagram Post
Utah Design Exhibit - 2023 Exhibitors
Utah Design Exhibit - 2023 Exhibitors
Oct, 1