by
Jose Davila IV
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Mar 7, 2024 3:24 pm
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Andrew Alba talks about his work during the opening of his show at Material Contemporary.
Andrew Alba – Inheritance Material Contemporary South Salt Lake, UT March 1, 2024
Andrew Alba doesn’t trust art that’s too pretty.
That’s part of why he had to unlearn so much of what he knew about drawing. And he wanted to move away from just showing what he could do. Instead, he aims to make marks that contribute to the world and might even change it.
The result is a collection of unsettling works focused on feelings and histories that we, as humans and as individuals, have inherited. The paintings and drawings feature suspicious characters, repeating animals, and liminal backgrounds. All of the artworks unfold onto one another in two small gallery spaces at Material Contemporary in South Salt Lake. I was there for the opening of the show and heard Alba speak about his work.
by
Jose Davila IV
|
Feb 27, 2024 11:12 am
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SHARAH MESERVY PHOTO
Bellario (Jason Bowcutt) listens to Portia (Lily Hye Soo Dixon) during a scene in Balthazar.
Balthazar Plan‑B Theatre at the Studio Theatre in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center Salt Lake City Feb. 22, 2024
I couldn’t have gotten a better first taste of Utah theater than a performance of Plan‑B Theatre’s new play Balthazar. Intimate, smart, and innovative, the production asked good questions and played with language in ways I hadn’t encountered before.
The show, running through next weekend, adapts William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice by placing a closeted Bellario, played by Jason Bowcutt, and a genderfluid Portia/Balthazar, played by Lily Hye Soo Dixon, at its center. It’s a small, two-person production set almost exclusively in Bellario’s stately law office in Padua. It’s a short show, but that doesn’t stop the characters from changing right before our eyes.
