• Moonrise at Gemini Bridges Mural by Caro Nilsson on the Moab Brewery distillery north wall 

  • The moon rises silently over canyon walls that sit like sentinels. This piece considers how the
    rocks have sat patiently and watched the world unfold for millennia, and we get to participate in a tiny
    part of these eons. We also get to bear witness to another perfect moonrise on a desert evening, let our
    feet explore the wash and discover that it isn’t so silent after all. There is something special about the
    desert at dusk, something sublime and unknowable. The Datura bloom and the grass draws its tireless
    wind circles in the sand, cautious creatures emerge alongside us like ghosts. It is an honor, to remember
    one’s place within and among landscapes.​

  • About the Artist: Caro’s dream-like, impressionistic landscapes pull the viewer into a specific place that feels outside of time. Her paintings straddle the line between real and imaginary- understanding the notion that
    everything is always both. Caro paints primarily from memory, focusing more on the way a place felt
    than the facts of how it looked. In this way, memory morphs and heightens the shapes, shadows and
    colors of her landscape- blurring the facts in a way that feels more honest and true to the experience
    that it came from. At its heart, Caro’s work is about a personal relationship with landscapes, and all of
    the human and non-human influences and presences within them.
    Rooted in traditions of impressionism, Caro’s paintings depict worlds in which the act of observation
    (beyond just that of sight) plays a role in their creation. By simply noticing magic within the mundane,
    the world that we live in becomes full of mystery and excitement, a world of hidden stories, meant to be
    uncovered by those who take the time to listen.
    Caro was born in Vancouver, Washington and has spent her entire life building relationships with the
    land in America’s endlessly variable biomes- and translating those feelings and findings into paintings.
    She holds a B.A. in Fine Art with a Distinguished Major in Printmaking, and a B.S. in Architecture from
    the University of Virginia. She completed her first solo painting residency at the Dacha in Mystic, CT in
    the Spring of 2021, and currently lives as a multi-media painter and muralist, painting full time from Salt
    Lake City.

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• Abbey's Desk Concerts facilitated by Rachel Toups will be held at the Back of Beyond Bookstore (83 North Main St) on March 17 and March 30, 2024 at 7 p.m.

• MARC Dumpster Mural by PiMo

  • The dumpster located at the Moab Arts building on 111 East 100 North will be painted in a southwest chevron style by artist Pete Apicella

• A Gathering: Portraits of Moab by Samantha Metzner

  • This installation will be on display in the Moab Arts Foyer Gallery in June.

  • A Gathering: Portraits of Moab is a social practice arts project and installation that seeks to
    explore the diverse and intimate personas of those who call the Moab valley, the traditional
    lands of the Ute and Ancestral Pueblo peoples, home. Through dedicated exploration of the
    various identities residing in this place, this installation also aims to celebrate the shared
    humanity of individuals within the community while breaking down barriers of preconceived
    notions of identity and internal biases. Therefore, acknowledging all of the joy, grief, happiness,
    anxieties and full spectrum of being that is at the depths of the collective human experience.
    By showcasing over 100 portraits in an immersive exhibition this project invites the viewers and
    participants to collectively and individually partake in a practice of celebrating vulnerability, joy
    and struggle within all of our complex senses of self and community. This exhibition also
    acknowledges that gathering in community can often feel like a radical act in a world
    sometimes fractured by divisive political rhetoric and a culture of rampant and often harmful
    individualism and that by prioritizing love within self and community, collective healing and
    empowerment can be allowed to happen.

  • About the Artist: Samantha is an artist and fine art photographer currently based in Moab, UT. She specializes in historic and alternative printing processes as well as portraits and is adept at working across
    photographic mediums, including film, digital and mixed media pieces.
    Samantha received her Bachelors of Art in Photography from Guilford College in 2015 and has
    since been featured in various publications and juried shows. Most recently, she was selected
    as the 2022 Artist in the Parks for the Southeast Utah group of national parks and monuments.
    Most of her current work revolves around themes of identity and place, playing with the
    intersections of intimacy within the self and chosen surroundings.

  • Portrait Sessions will be held the following dates, please sign up ahead of time here.

    • March 1 at Moab Arts from 12-2 p.m.​

    • March 2 at Moab Arts from 12-2 p.m.

    • Other dates and locations TBD