More Art

The BYU art museum really is a great place to go. Sure, they have your expected religious and LDS art, but they have a bunch of interesting modern exhibits as well. And while you're not going to find any nudes (I think), some of the pieces displayed are pushing the envelope in a different way. (I talked about another exhibit that they still have up here. It's Andy Warhol and Takashi Murakami.)

Their current exhibit is "We Could Be Heroes: The Mythology of Monsters and Heroes in Contemporary Art." It's an interesting exhibit because the pieces all seem very mismatched. You have photography, paintings, videos, sculptures, large inflatables, etc. None of the pieces really have the same aesthetic feel. Some concentrate on comic book characters, some on real-life "heroes," and some on Big Foot. I guess what really ties them all together is the artist's exploration of what it means to be a hero or monster. 

A piece that really stuck out to Colby and I was this untitled painting by Michael Whiting. The rest of Whiting's artwork can be found on his website here.


























The story goes that Whiting found this piece at a garage sale or something like that, and then painted a pixelated robot into the original scenery. What's awesome is that it works so well, you almost can't even tell. I mean yes, there is a giant futuristic robot in the middle of this Victorian (?) romanticized pasture, but the colors, the softness, and the direction that all of the nature and characters seem to point to fit in perfectly with his addition.

And who could not love a bubblegum pink pixelated robot? Especially in the middle of all that nature - he just looks like he belongs. There's definitely a lot of great humor to this painting. 

Again, maybe this piece of art mostly appeals to Colby and I because of our love of science fiction. But this painting also makes me want to find garage sale crap and turn it into something awesome. If only I were artistically inclined!

So props to Mr. Whiting and the BYU art museum. (You can check out the museum's website here.)