LOGAN – The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (NEHMA) at Utah State University will debut a pair of compelling art exhibits that explore the American West through very different lenses this month.
The opening of Meet the Fletchers is slated for 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 21, with a gallery talk that highlights Calvin Fletcher and his role in the founding of the USU’s Art Department and the establishment of Logan as an epicenter of modern art in Utah.
Simultaneously, NEHMA will also open an exhibit entitled Jim Mangan: The Crick, a photographic meditation on a group of young men often referred to as “the lost boys.”
Meet the Fletchers will feature the work of Calvin Fletcher, his wife Irene and their son Dale, showcasing how the family members taught and cared for each other, according to Shaylee Briones, a NEHMA marketing and communications coordinator.
While each of the three produced work in distinctive styles, she adds, they shared a common commitment to artistic experimentation.
“Calvin was a flexible artist and beloved teacher,” agrees exhibit co-curator Danielle Stewart. “Irene was a skilled portraitist, adept at conveying human expression. Dale was extremely experimental; his ideas about the connections between art and spirituality were ahead his time.”
The 5 to 7 p.m. gallery talk that opens the Fletcher exhibit on Feb. 21 will feature Fletcher descendant Ronald Jenkins and co-curators Stewart and James Swensen as well as live music and refreshments.
The photographic portraits in the Mangan exhibit will focus on the vulnerability of youth against the capricious landscape of the American West.
Photographer Jim Mangan originally traveled to southern Utah and Arizona to capture the architecture of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here.
Instead, he became fascinated with the hidden community of FLDS outcasts who seemed to live in a previous era, Briones explains, riding horses, wearing hand-stitched clothes and united in their distrust of the outside world.
Jim Mangan: The Crick reflects on how art shapes our understanding of place, community and identity in the American West.
On Saturday, April 4, the NEHMA will host Mangan for an artist’s talk from 5 to 6:30 p.m., along with novelist Judith Freeman.
Both exhibits are free and open to the public.
The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University fosters engagement with modern and contemporary art to facilitate learning and promote dialogue about ideas important to the people of Utah and the mission of Utah State University.
For more information, go to the NEHMA website at usu.edu/artmuseum or contact Shaylee Briones at shaylee.briones@usu.edu.
The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art is located at 650 North, 1100 East on the USU campus.