Exploring the visual and emotional connections between two monumental landscapes, the Sears Art Museum at Utah Tech University is presenting the photography exhibition “From Red Rocks to Glaciers: Southern Utah and Alaska Through the Lens.”
The exhibition, which opens with a reception on June 5 from 7 to 8 p.m. and will remain on display until August 14, features a suite of Alaskan wilderness photographs by Tisa Zito next to works by prominent regional photographers whose images of Southern Utah and the larger Southwest serve as both a companion and response. Together, the photographs in the exhibition create a visual conversation between the Southwest and far North — between red sandstone cliffs and glacial ice, drought and abundance, heat and silence.
Featured regional photographers include Deborah Bice, Ilene Bandringa, George Kalantzes, Mike Shedlock and Shirley Smith. Each artist contributed photographs that reflect on the region’s distinct terrain while engaging, directly or indirectly, with the themes in Zito’s Alaskan imagery.
“I wanted the exhibition to function almost like a call and response,” Sears Art Museum Director and Curator James Peck said. “Tisa’s Alaskan suite became the catalyst for inviting regional photographers to reconsider Southern Utah through a comparative lens. The result is not simply a landscape exhibition, but a dialogue about place, memory, scale and the ways wilderness shapes us emotionally and psychologically.”
Rather than presenting the landscapes as opposites, the exhibition reveals unexpected parallels between them: immense scale, geological drama, isolation, vulnerability and deeply personal experiences tied to wilderness. The photographers respond to Alaska’s glaciers, rivers, forests and mountains with images of canyon walls, desert light, weathered stone and open expanses.
Zito’s photographs emerged from a solo journey through Alaska, where she traveled through remote landscapes, documenting fleeting impressions of solitude, exhaustion, awe and renewal. Her reflections on camping, silence and physical endurance inform the emotional core of the exhibition.
Through contrasting yet interconnected imagery, “From Red Rocks to Glaciers” encourages viewers to consider how vastly different environments can evoke similar feelings of wonder, humility, solitude and transformation. The exhibition ultimately asks audiences to look beyond geography and recognize the shared emotional language of landscape itself.
All works are for sale. A portion of all proceeds will support the Sears Art Museum and a portion of Zito’s proceeds will go to support fire restoration efforts in Pine Valley.
Utah Tech University’s Sears Art Museum offers free admission and is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. For more information about the museum or “From Red Rocks to Glaciers: Southern Utah and Alaska Through the Lens,” visit searsart.com.