LDS international art exhibit opens

“A different style of art,” curator says, “is like a different language.”

Art remains one of the best ways to tell the story of faith in all its marvelous variations, which is why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been sponsoring an international art competition every three or four years since 1987.

“A different style of art is like a different language. ….We have such a variety of art languages as people ‘liken the scriptures’ unto themselves,” said Latter-day Saint art curator Laura Paulsen Howe, who curated the 13th International Art Competition that opened Thursday in downtown Salt Lake City. “Artists are going to use the visual grammar that makes sense to them, that they grew up in and that they learned.”

Indeed. Chosen from 583 entries by a team of five jurors, the exhibit features 150 works from artists who reside in Angola, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tonga, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam.

This year’s theme — “Lift Up the Hands Which Hang Down” — was gleaned from a verse in Latter-day Saint scripture that teaches all to “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.”

The artworks are varied in their approach to the theme, including scenes from the New Testament and the Book of Mormon, folksy approaches to helpfulness and hospitality, to the communal experience of quilting, a mother embracing her child — and multiple images of hands.

The show also presents diverse styles and media, ranging from realistic depictions to abstract expression — done in oil, watercolor, ink, paper, fabric, clay and ceramic.

Claire Forste, who lives in New York’s Harlem, drew painted mirror figures of women carrying one another.

Forste was trying to depict “friends and family members and people I’ve known for different kinds of seasons of my life, who have been able to have this kind of reciprocal caring of one another,” the artist explained. “There are times where I’ve been in a position to help them, and many times in which I’m the one that’s in need of help. I wanted to show that give-and-take with two women taking turns carrying each other.”

Chilean artist Pamela Salinas Bernal cut up tiny pieces of paper to create “The Garden of the Lord,” a lush landscape of flowers, rivers and sky.

It expressed her conversion to Mormonism, Bernal said in an interview through a translator. “The flowers represent the diversity of people in general, and then you have workers who are working with the flowers.”

In the corner is a “greenhouse, which represents missionary work,” Bernal said. “The flowers that you see inside are newer, and they need a little bit more tender care as they grow.”

The artist felt a pressure to “be an example to other Latino women artists so they will feel empowered to participate in these exhibits.”

This free international exhibit runs through Jan. 3, 2026, at the Church History Museum, 45 N. West Temple.