Artwork by Caro Nilsson • Exhibit runs from March 11 to April 21, 2023
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Caro Nilsson is a muti-media artist whose paintings rely on slow wanderings on roads, trails and pathways. These wanderings become memory, and in memory there is always an element of invention, of imagination. The practice of making art is a way of having a conversation with this altered version of a past reality- remembering moments or places more for the way they felt than the strict visual facts of how they looked.
Caro has a professional background in architecture, where the world operates in straight lines and correct answers. Making art becomes a place of pure experience and expression, with fewer rules to follow, more ways to do things than just a single ‘right way’. It becomes a way of interpreting and collaborating with past experiences – the way it felt to move through a space with feet and hands, to feel sunlight or smell pine needles. Caro often creates paintings using more materials than just ‘paint’ – often incorporating more tactile elements such as sewn-in embroidery thread or textured tissue paper in addition to acrylic and gouache on canvases. Creating work in this way opens up a dialogue with experience that is freer and more honest.
Currently, Caro’s work is investigating the role of perception on experience - by the simple act of paying attention, does the world around us fundamentally change? Can we make something feel full of magic and wonder, just by telling ourselves all of the ways that it is? Can we participate in the creation of our own realities?
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY:
Caro holds a B.S. in Architecture and a B.A. in Fine Art from the University of Virginia. She has spent her adult years exploring America’s wild places, and translating those feelings and findings into paintings. She completed her first solo Artist Residency at the Dacha in Mystic, CT in the Spring of 2021, and currently lives and paints full time from Salt Lake City.
AGE GROUP: | All Ages | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Exhibits | Arts & Creativity |
NOTE: The Main Library's Rooftop Terrace is closed through 2022 for repairs and renovations.
Salt Lake City's Main Library, designed by internationally-acclaimed architect Moshe Safdie in conjunction with VCBO Architecture, opened in February 2003 and remains one of the most architecturally unique structures in Utah. This striking 240,000 square-foot structure houses more than 500,000 books and other materials, yet serves as more than just a repository of books and computers. It reflects and engages the city's imagination and aspirations. The structure embraces a public plaza, with shops and services at ground level, reading galleries above, and a 300-seat auditorium.
A multi-level reading area along the Glass Lens at the southern facade of the building looks out onto the plaza with stunning views of the city and Wasatch Mountains beyond. Spiraling fireplaces on four floors resemble a column of flame from the vantage of 200 East and 400 South. The Urban Room between the Library and the Crescent Wall is a space for all seasons, generously endowed with daylight and open to magnificent views.
