UVSC auction: "Art for Life," a benefit exhibition and art auction, is under way through Dec. 14 at UVSC's Woodbury Art Museum, 575 E. University Parkway (inside University Mall), Orem. More than 70 professional Utah artists have donated works for the show, and all the artwork will be sold through silent auction Nov. 19-Dec. 7, with proceeds benefiting the Woodbury museum and a proposed arts center on the campus of Utah Valley State College. For more information, call 801-426-6199 or visit www.uvsc.edu/museum.
Textile show: A Fiber Art Invitational Exhibition, featuring quilts, weavings, baskets, purses, silk paintings and other items, is on display through Dec. 1 at the Brigham City Museum-Gallery, 24 N. 300 West, Brigham City. The show features works by nine Utah artists: Sharon Alderman, Lisa Brothman, Susan Burton, Connie Denton, Judy Elsley, Roberta Glidden, Diane Haueter, John Hess and Anne Muñoz. The museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays; call 425-723-6769.
Logan lecture: Chinese-born painter Hung Liu will present a free public lecture Monday at 7 p.m. in the Performance Hall, approximately 1090 E. 675 North, on the campus of Utah State University in Logan. Liu earned a graduate degree at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing before coming to the United States to study visual arts at the University of California, San Diego. Since 1990 she has taught in the art department at Mills College in Oakland, Calif. As an artist, Liu is interested in subjecting the documentary authority of historical photographs to the more reflective process of painting.
"I paint from historical photographs, usually those taken of Chinese subjects by foreigners," she says. "These include 19th-century images of . . . prostitutes, child street acrobats, war refugees and women laboring at such tasks as pulling a boat upriver, operating an industrial-scale loom and walking in circles behind the handle of a millstone grinder."
Watercolor demonstration: The Utah Watercolor Society's meeting Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. will offer a lecture and demonstration by Joyce Baron, an award-winning abstract painter known for her remarkable use of color and design. The meeting will take place at the Holladay City Administration Building, 4707 Holladay Blvd. The public is welcome.
It's art, Your Honor: Those courtroom sketches of plaintiffs, defendants and their lawyers - the ones you see on the TV news - may not be fine art. But that hasn't stopped the Springville Museum of Art from mounting a retrospective of sketches by Scott Snow, who worked as a courtroom artist for KSL-TV for 25 years and covered such high-profile cases as Mark Hofmann's forgery and murder trial, the Lafferty brothers' murder trials and the Olympic bribery trial. The show opens with an artist's reception Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the museum, 126 E. 400 South, Springville. It will remain through Nov. 31. For more information, call 801-489-2727.
An artist's best friend? "Year of the Dog," an exhibition of canine-themed works by five Utah artists, opens Thursday at the Utah Arts Council's Rio Gallery in the historic Rio Grande Depot, 300 S. Rio Grande St., Salt Lake City. The artists are Sandy Brunvand, William Emerich, Amanda Moore, Zuzanna Smolarkiewicz and Paul Stout, who employ different media to explore their affection for their pets.
"As artists, we often find ourselves involved in a solitary existence in our studios, print shops and darkrooms," says Moore. "Our only companions are the ones that lay at our feet. Even if their influence is not obvious, they are the only ones to silently witness our creative process. This show will be an homage to those silent companions."
The show will continue through Dec. 1, with a public artists' reception on Nov. 16 from 6 to 9 p.m. in conjunction with the Salt Lake Gallery Stroll. The five participating artists will be in attendance to answer questions.
