Follow your nose: The Julie Nester Gallery in Park City is presenting new paintings by Utah artist Stephen Foss through March 4. A tasty piece of trivia: Foss, an abstract painter, was several years ago the unlucky victim of the theft of one of his paintings before a San Francisco exhibit. In the end, reported the San Mateo Daily Journal, a trio of bumbling thieves tried to sell the painting back to the very gallery that reported it missing. The painting was returned "unharmed but smelly." For more information on the better-smelling Foss show at the Nester Gallery, 1755 Bonanza Drive, call 435-649-7855 or visit www.julienestergallery.com.
Visiting artist: Utah State University in Logan will host noted sculptorJames Suris as its Visiting Artist Monday through Wednesday. Suris, who has exhibited at the Whitney and the Smithsonian, will present a public lecture Monday at 7 p.m. in the Eccles Conference Center, Room 216, on the USU campus. Suris also will lead a workshop Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the art department's sculpture area, SL 101, in the Fine Arts Visual wing of the Chase Fine Arts Center, approximately 1200 E. 700 North. All events are free and open to the public. In an artist statment titled "Swimming in Forever," Suris, whose sculptures in wood and metal are organically inspired, wrote, "As a child of East Texas I found myself a Being of the Woods, playing in the shifting shades of the sycamores and gum, oaks and pine. . . . And if I looked through the moving limbs, I could see all things living, bringing an endless supply of images, mine for the believing." For information about Suris, visit www.jamessuris.com. For more information about USU art events, visit www.csa.usu.edu.
You ought to be in stitches: Opening Thursday at the Brigham City Museum-Gallery at 24 N. 300 West are 40 contemporary quilts from a national traveling exhibition by artists in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. The exhibition, which will run until March 8, is funded by the Marie Eccles Caine Foundation and the Utah Arts Council. For more information, call 435-723-6769.
