Brittney Weiland is an interdisciplinary artist working between painting, sculpture, bioart, and installation (and sometimes video, photography, assemblage, and performance). Her work is based in autotheory and metaphysics with a thematic insistence on time, memory, connection, and loss. The untimely deaths of her father and of her niece, as well as chronic illness, heavily informs her practice. She chooses to work with materials with minimal longevity, such as live flowers and florescent colors. Like a body, the neon pigments and flowers exist as a momentary brilliance, then they undergo an eventual fade, returning to the earth. Weiland’s highly lyrical work is meant to change and decay over time. Water is always a main component in her art and everything represents the body. She also works with objects that function as relics from her personal history. She collects materials that are left over after significant change, such as a death or illness, as a way of exploring absence and presence and time. In previous installation work, piled trash, a weathered bathtub, rotting food, and old medical bills function as representation of time progression and an archive of her own dying body. Lately, she has been working with dead flies, live flowers, bubbles, and poison water. She attaches these elements to large sculptural watercolor paintings that allude to post-mortem shrine making and ritual mourning. She is situating these pieces as contemporary Memento Mori paintings that utilize feminine imagery while imposing maximalist qualities onto minimalist forms. Her work has been shown at The Springville Museum of Art, Urban Arts Gallery, Utah Valley University (UVU), and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). She has presented her research at the Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research and the UVU Humanities Symposium as a student presenter. Her work has been published and awarded in numerous journals and publications, including UVU Touchstones, Composing Chaos, and Ever Arriving. She is a Utahn currently living and studying in Chicago, IL at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
CV
Education
School of the Art Institue of Chicago, BFA Studio Art, 2026
Utah Valley University, A.A.S Art & Design, 2023
Solo Exhibitions
Survival Mode, Utah Valley University, Oct 19 - Nov 2, 2023
Ogden First Friday Art Stroll, Ambiance Home Innovation, June 7 - June 11, 2024
Small Group Exhibitions:
Echoes of Absence, Utah Valley University, 2023
Conversations with a Historical Figure, Utah Valley University, 2023; Jurors Award
Juried Exhibitions:
Panoramic Collisions, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2024
37th Annual Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah, Springville Museum of Art, 2023
UVU Green Party, Utah Valley University, 2023
Composing Chaos Exhibition, Utah Valley University, 2023
2023 Student Show, Utah Valley University, 2023
UAA Connect, Urban Arts Gallery, 2022; Artists’ Choice Award
Instinct: Black & White Works on Paper, Utah Valley University, 2022
Publications:
Ever Arriving, Utah Valley University, 2024
Touchstones Fall Edition, Utah Valley University, 2023; 2nd place Art
Composing Chaos, Utah Valley University, 2023
Touchstones Fall Edition, Utah Valley University, 2022; 1st place Art
Honors & Awards
Presidential Scholarship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2024
Greenlight Scholarship, Utah Valley University, 2023
Dean’s List, Utah Valley University, 2015; 2020-2023
Related Experience:
2024 Humanities Symposium: Environmental Humanities, Utah Valley University, 2024; Student Presenter
Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research, Utah Valley University, 2024; Student Presenter
Conversations with a Historical Figure, Utah Valley University, 2023; Poster Design
Apprentice, SLC Ink, 2021-2022
Studio Manager, Chibitasm, 2014 - present
Contact:weilandbr@gmail.com IG @brittneyweiland