{"id":193863,"date":"2026-02-04T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/?p=193863"},"modified":"2026-02-04T16:52:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T23:52:27","slug":"art-in-experimental-places-ben-bloch-and-carol-sogard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/arts\/art\/interviews-features\/art-in-experimental-places-ben-bloch-and-carol-sogard\/","title":{"rendered":"Art in Experimental Places: Ben Bloch and Carol Sogard"},"content":{"rendered":"

As human beings, we are attracted to all things new. <\/em>Though, according to Carol Sogard<\/a> and Ben Bloch<\/a>, the concept of \u201cnew\u201d isn\u2019t so simple. At Finch Lane Gallery<\/em><\/a>, the two local artists explore the relationship between what is new and used, and how what is used can be artful. In separate exhibits, Bloch and Sogard explore the excitement of innovation, meditate on similarities between the man-made and natural worlds and encourage reflection on our own wasteful habits.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn as much as art attempts to reveal something new, unseen or formerly obscured, I feel like technology operates similarly\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Bloch is a landscape painter who lives part-time in both Salt Lake City and Montana. According to him, any process that transforms or reveals an idea can accomplish what a traditional painting intends to accomplish: to create a physical representation of space. In Make Me a Landscape, Do Not Include Any Sky<\/em>, Bloch explores how to fulfill this goal by incorporating artificial intelligence into his inspiration. \u201cIn as much as art attempts to reveal something new, unseen or formerly obscured, I feel like technology operates similarly,\u201d Bloch says. To pursue this concept, Bloch worked with John Brownell<\/strong>, a programmer, to create their own closed-circuit AI image model trained only in Bloch\u2019s past works.<\/p>\n

\"From
From \u201cMake Me a Landscape, Do Not Include Any Sky\u201d by Ben Bloch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Through a sort of input-output exercise in self-reflection, Bloch used AI-generated paintings in his own likeness as prompts. From the generated images, Bloch recreated the scenes in large-scale, handmade paintings. This effort explores the idea of a \u201cprompt\u201d and its transformative nature. According to Bloch, just as a landscape painter might use a photograph as a prompt, or an abstract painter might use an emotion, this use of technology showcases a new and intriguing way to inspire an artist\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cArt often has some kind of transformative effect,\u201d Bloch says, \u201cwhether you\u2019re transforming the way people think about things, you\u2019re transforming literal, physical materials or you\u2019re transforming the output \u2014 in this case \u2014 to something that\u2019s handmade and reinterpreted.\u201d Bloch hopes his work prompts viewers, regardless of their opinion of AI, to contemplate the reflective nature of the technology and how it can be used in interesting and almost cyclical ways.<\/p>\n

Sogard has spent years exploring the concepts of sustainability and consumer waste through her artwork and in the design program at the University of Utah, where she is a professor. The relationship between consumerism and sustainability is complex, according to Sogard: \u201cAs a human, you\u2019re a consumer, and we don\u2019t have a choice. That\u2019s just how we\u2019re built, right? That\u2019s how we stay alive. From the perspective of teaching sustainable design \u2026 We look at, how can we be more conscious consumers?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is right under your nose is not always what it appears to be\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"From
From \u201cA Pictorial Atlas of Fossil Remains\u201d by Carol Sogard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sogard began collecting \u201cman-made and organic remains,\u201d whether nature\u2019s waste, such as a dead leaf, or human waste, such as a dropped button or crumpled paper. Sogard describes them as modern-day fossils. In a sort of documentary process, Sogard began photographing these items. \u201cWhen a leaf falls off a tree and it dies, that\u2019s nature\u2019s version of us dropping something on the ground or leaving something [behind],\u201d she says. By demonstrating this similarity, Sogard asks the audience to reflect on their own consumption and to be attentive to their behaviors.<\/p>\n

Through a mix of collage work, design, sculptural and found-object displays, Sogard invokes the feeling of a natural history museum, showcasing how consumer waste interacts with the natural world. The exhibition asks the question: Do we really need all of these things to survive? The exhibit, titled A Pictorial Atlas of Fossil Remains<\/em>, asks viewers to remove the degree of separation between themselves and their garbage. \u201cWhat is right under your nose is not always what it appears to be, you know?\u201d Sogard says. \u201cSome of these objects \u2014 they almost seem like they\u2019re natural, but they\u2019re not, so just really [think] about what you see and [how] you consume.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibition runs through Feb. 20 at Finch Lane Gallery<\/em>. To learn more about Ben Bloch\u2019s work, visit benbloch.com<\/em><\/a>. To see more of Carol Sogard\u2019s work, visit carolsogard.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read about past exhibitions by Utah artists:
\nI Exist Because They Survived: Artists Unpack Assimilation at Material Gallery<\/a>
\nReclaiming Heritage, Reimagining History: SLC Artists Manifest Their Own Destiny<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bloch and Sogard explore the excitement of innovation, meditate on the man-made and natural worlds and encourage reflection on our own wasteful habits. … read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":194016,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[],"_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12429,376],"tags":[9324,29746,31345,31344,4361],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193863"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}