With two quality exhibits on display at the Salt Lake Art Center, visitors will find themselves captivated by the creativity and message of each.

"Material Culture: The Fine Art of Textile," in the Main Gallery and Projects Gallery through Sept. 30, will introduce many to the novel utilization of thread in artwork; the various techniques employed by the six artists in the show are truly engaging.

Judy Singer's paintings merge textile and paint to produce abstract expressionist compositions.

Wendy Huhn's post-modernist quilts are so visually ambitious visitors will study them as they enjoy them.

Elaine Reicheck's embroidered samples of Shakespearean-themed tiles focus on the battle of the sexes; they're topical and clever.

Lia Cook's monumental tapestries are digitized explosions of common people and places, and Susan Taber Avila's hand-stitched and machine-stitched objects take fine threads to places they've never been before.

Jean Hicks' site-specific piece, "Filter," employs felt and human hair so effectively and artistically visitors will deliberate its meaning for some time.

"Looking Back: 75 Years at the Salt Lake Art Center," running through Oct. 14 in the Street-Level Gallery, is a tasteful representation of the class of art exhibited at the center for three-quarters of a century.

The two-dozen artists whose work was selected to be shown reads like a who's who of important and influential Utah visionaries: Susan Beck, Anna Campbell Bliss, Gordon Cope, Lee Deffebach, George Dibble, Larry Elsner, Alvin Gittins, Stephen Goldsmith, J.T. Harwood, Richard Johnston, Earl Jones, Frank McEntire, Waldo Midgley, Rodger Newbold, Don Olsen, Bonnie Phillips, Denis Phillips, Tony Smith, Doug Snow, Will South, LeConte Stewart, Bonnie Sucec, Maureen O'Hara Ure and Francis Zimbeaux.

Many of the artists taught at the Art Barn or the Art Center; some were students. Most have had solo exhibits there and consider it their artistic "home."

Both of these exhibits are a feast for the eyes and mind; "Looking Back" and "Material Culture" are definitely worth a look.

---

E-mail: gag@desnews.com