SALT LAKE CITY—Utah Division of Arts & Museums will host its annual statewide exhibition, Utah 2016: Mixed Media & Works on Paper, at the Rio Gallery November 18, 2016 – January 13, 2017. 

A public reception on Friday, November 18, from 6-9 p.m., will acknowledge the Best in Show, Jurors’ Award Winners and Honorable Mentions. Visual arts competitions have been a project of Arts & Museums since 1899, providing juried exhibitions open to artists across the state of Utah.

“The Mixed Media & Works on Paper Statewide Annual Exhibition always proves to be an exciting and inventive exhibition due to the nature of the category,” Visual Arts Program Manager Felicia Baca said. “While the boundaries of artmaking are always changing, the rotation gives us the opportunity to bask in more traditional forms and processes, such as masterful drawings, woodcuts, and collage, while also seeing a range of works that reinvent the media.” 

Increasingly, entries included more works of paper, or alternatively, artists who choose to work within both mixed media and works on paper. While our hope is that artists can enter Statewide Annual in multiple years, the nature of the work we see serves as an important indicator as to how artists are defining themselves and their work-or choosing not to make such distinctions. 

“The variety of works is not to be underestimated. Some honor tradition. Others push tradition forward to a new place entirely. But all of them share an attention to craft and to composition,” Juror Carmel Buckley said. “We valued all of these traits as we decided which works to exhibit and which ones to confer with awards. The result is an exhibition of contemporary art that both the State of Utah and the participating artists can be proud of.”

Entries came from 40 cities across Utah including over 375 works by 205 artists. Of those, 72 works were selected. Admission is free and exhibition catalogs are available at no charge. 

The Rio & Alice Galleries were created as a service to Utah artists. They provide free venues for emerging and established artists to collaborate on exhibits and engage the community through art making and dialogue. For more information on exhibition and other program opportunities visualarts.utah.gov.