Salt Lake City-based artist Beth Krensky responds to the natural or built environment with a practice rooted in socio-historical memory of place.
Beth Krensky is the area head of art teaching and associate chair in the department of art and art history at the University of Utah. She received her formal art training from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies. She was one of the five founding members of the international artist collective the Artnauts. Her work is intended to provoke reflection about what is happening in our world and create a vision of what is possible.
“I am a gatherer of things—objects, words, spirit—and a connector of fragments in order to make us whole. My work responds to the natural or built environment while providing a refuge. My pieces reference and are relics from real or imagined rituals. I create objects and performative gestures as a contemplative act. Much of my work is intended to be portable and cross boundaries as a metaphor for movement within and across the multiple layers of shared or contested existence over time and place. My practice is rooted in a socio-historical memory of place. I use art as a tool for highlighting and creating human experiences that are both shared and unique. I see the relationship between artists and the public sphere as inextricably linked. The arts offer the possibility of transformation on both an individual and societal level by opening up a free space where anything is possible. This free space allows people to name themselves, envision a different reality, and engage in the re-making of their world.”
Krensky was selected as one of Utah’s 15 Most Influential Artists by 15Bytes in 2019 and is a finalist for the 16th Arte Laguna Prize. She is also a scholar of youth-created art and social change. Her writing addresses community-based art education, youth activist art, and art for social change. In 2022, she was selected as the Higher Education Art Educator of the Year by the Utah Art Education Association.
Salt Lake City, Utah | bethkrensky.com | @bethkrensky
