Phillips Gallery

06/11/2026

Craig Law, one of Utah’s most prolific and accomplished photographers, is well recognized in many parts of the country as one of the nation’s leading practitioners in black and white gelatin silver, platinum, gravure and carbon photography. Since the mid-1970’s his work photographing indigenous pictographs and petroglyphs in southern Utah has been featured in Smithsonian Magazine. In 2008, he received the “Oliver Award” from the American Rock Art Association for his photographic work on the “Barrier Canyon Style Project.” He has received grants from The National Geographic Society, the Utah Arts Council, and the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation. His rock art photography is currently in a traveling exhibition with the Utah Division of Arts & Museums, which adds new images by the photographer every five years, and has been traveling throughout Utah to the State Capitol, schools, libraries, city halls, etc. for 30 years. Craig Law received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine art from Utah State University where he is now professor emeritus of photography.

"Making a photograph for me is a complex, enriching endeavor that gives me delight. Most of the time I’m considering a “finished print” as I begin to organize the composition. Thinking about you, the viewer, and how I can best convey the visual experience of the subject, shapes how I organize the image. I think about the many possibilities of controlling the color and tones, to convey what the color feels like as I see it. Also, it takes me time to find the best place to stand with the camera, to share with the viewer the clarity in the image that I see.

"A few of the older images in this exhibit involve film rather than digital recording. Using film was a slower process with more complexity, where I was able to take steps that enhanced my ability to edit before I made an exposure. However, even with film exposures, I’ll often use digital tools to give me a great range of possibilities to help me adjust the image to my preconceived ideas about the print.

As I am getting older, there are practical considerations to my work. With the distance and weather conditions of certain sites, I am not able to carry the weight of the film gear. Digital tools are about half the weight of film gear. The lighter weight helps me walk further.

Making the print is a major part of my creative process. There must be a feeling of completeness for me before I sign a print. A fulfillment of the memory of the subject that feels accurate. Often, the first printing attempts don’t satisfy me. With time and patience, I can get to the essence of what I remember.

When the light’s off, I come back later when everything feels right to make the image.
I love all of this and, even now, I hope to continue and improve in my ability to convey visual emotions." -Craig Law

To see more of Craig Law's work, please pay us a visit. You may also see his pieces on our website at https://www.phillips-gallery.com/New_Site/craig%20law_may_2026.html. This exhibit, along with Hunter Jackson on our Main Floor and Nikita Nenashev and Caroline Roberts in our Dibble Gallery, comes to a close tomorrow, June 12th.

06/03/2026

"Little Country", c. 1980, acrylic on canvas, 61 X 73 inches

We just took in this gem by Tony Smith for resale. The piece is in pristine condition and is framed with a beautiful, narrow silver floater frame. It was previously owned by Jeffery Anderson, long time President and owner of the Rustler lodge, Alta.

Frank Anthony “Tony” Smith was born in 1939 in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1961 and 1964, with a year spent at the Art Students’ League in New York in 1962, he received Bachelor of Fine Arts and Masters of Fine Arts degrees from the University of Utah. During his career, he taught courses at the Salt Lake Art Center; Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan; the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, Montana State University, Bozeman; Anderson Ranch, Aspen, Colorado; and the University of Washington, Seattle. From 1966 until 2006 he was a member of the art department staff at the University of Utah, teaching painting and drawing. Smith exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationwide and is represented in public and private collections internationally. In addition, he was a conceptual illustrator for special effects in 1977, for Star Wars: The Movie.

Smith’s inclination toward invention may have developed when, at 10, he contracted rheumatic fever and was confined to bed for a year. Isolated, he listened to the radio and read the encyclopedia. During his illness, his family moved to another home in Salt Lake, and Smith’s knowledge of the outside world was imagined through windows that afforded him glimpses of the mountains. It was only when he recovered and first ventured from the house that he was confronted with the alarming realization, for a young boy, that he had invented an entire landscape. While we are inclined to build personal mythologies on the clarity of hindsight, Smith’s experience quite probably propelled a fertile imagination into greater definition.

To see "Little Country" in person, please pay us a visit. Should you have any questions, please contact us at 801-364-8284 by phone, or email at [email protected]

05/21/2026

Hunter Jackson built his first darkroom in 1970 and pursued the art of photography over the next 20 years. In 1991 his photos were exhibited in NYC, juried by Richard Avedon; then life intervened with four children and a career in biotech, but his love of the single, still image remained. He has used the medium to help him understand his world and the evanescent tendrils of connection to it. “I don’t set out to photograph anything in particular and, in fact, take few photographs. Someone said about Andre Kertesz, ‘He fishes for photographs. Instead of running to find them, he waits patiently for them to bite.’ Kertesz was a fisherman almost without peer, but those words have the ring of truth to me. I click the shutter instinctually, when I feel a nibble. I never know immediately if what’s in the camera is worth anything. Like in the old days when a print would emerge under a red light, the first glimpse of an image says, ‘move on’ more often than ‘look deeper.’ If the latter, it may take patience – months, sometimes even years, before we connect. By the time we’re done, I like to think, as the painter John Wood might say, they’re not about something, they are something.”

To see more of Hunter Jackson's work, please pay us a visit. You may also see his pieces on our website at Phillips Gallery Artists Gallery. This exhibit, along with Craig Law on our Main Floor and Nikita Nenashev and Caroline Roberts in our Dibble Gallery, remains on display through June 12th.

05/06/2026

"Laughter is the release valve on the pressure cooker of life." — Wavy Gravy

As global headlines grow increasingly heavy, the weight of it all can feel unbearable. It is exactly during times like these when we need humor most. Laughter reduces stress, improves one's immune system, betters our interactions with others and brightens our overall view of ourselves and the world around us.

Additionally, humor can be one of the greatest tools of resistance. It isn’t about ignoring the gravity of war or political division; it’s about surviving it. Historically, satire has flourished in the trenches. HA! The Art of Humor brings together ten artists—David Crown, Steve Dayton, Meri DeCaria, Larry Elsner, Corinne Geertsen, Denis Phillips, Gini Pringle, Gerald Purdy, Harry Taylor, and Tony Smith to remind us that the most human thing we can do is find the punchline. Come for the art; stay for the delight.

To see more pieces featured in Ha! The Art of Humor, please pay us a visit. You may also see work on our website at https://www.phillips-gallery.com/New_Site/humor_group_show_2026.html. This exhibit, along with John Wood and Cuong Ta on our Main Floor remains on display through May 8th, just three more days!

04/29/2026

Cuong Ta is a modern renaissance man; a math teacher and ceramics artist with degrees in Rhetoric (UC Berkeley) and Public Policy (University of Michigan). Ethnically Chinese, he was born and raised in Saigon until his family escaped as refugees on one of the last flights out of Vietnam and ended up in Southern California. His creative pursuits have likewise been peripatetic, from writing short fiction to weaving, jewelry making and creating his own comic book superheroes. It was ceramics, however, that truly captured his heart. He describes his first lessons in clay as a spiritual process where he felt as if he was channeling a former life as a potter. He quickly excelled in the medium and created a successful career as a Bay Area artist, all while continuing full-time as a math teacher and department chair in local independent high schools. Cuong Ta maintains a studio in Oakland and lives in Emeryville with his husband, artist John Wood.

To see more of Cuong Ta's work, please pay us a visit. You may also see his pieces on our website at https://www.phillips-gallery.com/New_Site/cuong_ta_2026.html.This exhibit, along with John Wood on our Main Floor and Ha! The Art of Humor in our Dibble Gallery, remains on display through May 8th.

04/22/2026

John Wood has lived and worked in the Bay Area for more than 20 years, but his connections to Utah go back to his youth. After graduating from Highland High School, he attended Weber State University and earned his BFA in Painting from the University of Utah. He went on to graduate studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan where he received his MFA in Painting. He then taught for several years as head of the Fine Arts Department at Judge Memorial High School. During that time he worked with students on mural projects in several Salt Lake elementary and middle schools. His absorbing, abstract imagery is the culmination of a lifetime of work incorporating the human form and landscape as starting points in developing his images, which then progress to integrate his inner thoughts and feelings. Trusting that the process will lead him, he is much more interested in the emotional and sensual qualities that emerge rather than in any recognizable form. He lives in Emeryville with his husband, artist Cuong Ta.

To see more of John Wood's work. Please pay us a visit. You may see his pieces online at https://www.phillips-gallery.com/New_Site/john_wood_2026.html. This exhibit remains on display through May 8th.

12/11/2025

We are trying something new, and so should you!
20% off all Posca acrylic marker sets until Dec 24th!

11/12/2025

11/12/2025

Nancy Vorm served as a member of the Duneland Weaver’s Guild in Northwest Indiana before relocating to the Wasatch Front. In 2009, she received a bachelor’s degree in Painting and Drawing from the University of Utah. Vorm has mainly been known for her encaustic work (painting with wax). However, for her current œuvre, she has shifted focus, to the materiality of acrylic paint. “My new work continues to build a history from the explorative process itself. To uncover the possibilities of combining and manipulating diverse media, color and mark-making methods to create non-objective art.”

Vorm has participated in numerous juried shows in Utah, California, and New York. Her work was chosen by the U.S. State Department for an exhibit in its embassy in Taiwan. She was also commissioned by the University of Utah Hospital’s Infinity Chapel, to create four large encaustic pieces. Vorm works full time as a studio artist and instructor in her downtown SLC studio.

To see more of Vorm's work, please pay us a visit. You may also view her work on our website at https://www.phillips-gallery.com/New_Site/nancy_vorm_oct_2025.html. This exhibit, along with Oonju Chun, Cordell Taylor and Meri Decaria on our Main Floor, ends this Friday, November 14th. We hope to see you before then!