The Sears Art Museum at Utah Tech University is pleased to present From Red Rocks to Glaciers: Southern Utah and Alaska Through the Lens, a photography exhibition exploring the visual and emotional connections between two monumental landscapes through a unique curatorial dialogue.
On view June 5 through August 14, 2026, the exhibition centers on an evocative suite of Alaskan wilderness photographs by Tisa Zito, alongside works by prominent regional photographers whose images of Southern Utah and the larger southwest serve as both companion and response. Together, the exhibition creates an extended visual conversation between the Southwest and the 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 atmosphere and themes in Zito’s Alaskan imagery.
Rather than presenting the landscapes as merely opposites, the exhibition also reveals unexpected parallels between them: immense scale, geological drama, isolation, vulnerability, and the 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 familiar to audiences throughout the American Southwest.
Zito’s photographs emerged from a transformative 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.
“I wanted the exhibition to function almost like a call and response,” said James Peck. “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.”
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.
Opening reception is June 5, 7-8 PM. Light refreshments will be served. For additional information, please contact the Sears Art Museum.
Correction: A June print edition article about the Sears Art Museum exhibition at Utah Tech University contained information that did not accurately reflect the materials provided for publication. The online version of the article has been corrected. We regret the error and apologize to Utah Tech University, the participating artists, and our readers.
