Layne R. Meacham of Salt Lake City, Utah is a mixed-media, abstract painter. He began studying art at his junior high school with David Chaplin (artist, educator, and former University professor) who also provided him with private classes. At that time he also took many classes at the Salt Lake Art Barn, now known as the Finch Lane Gallery. He then dropped out of public school to paint. In 1967 he went into the Marine Corps and was sent to Vietnam. After receiving the Bronze Star, he returned to Utah to pursue a degree. As an undergraduate he studied under Don Doxey at Westminster in Salt Lake City, doing still life and figure drawing. He also took classes at the University of Utah and the Salt Lake Art Center. While pursuing his Masters in social work at Columbia University, he attended classes at the Arts Student League in New York City. Due to family health concerns, he transferred to the University of Utah where he continued to take art classes while completing his MSW. Meacham is now a licensed psychotherapist.

Layne likes to travel to glean ideas for new projects. He recently visited Bogota, Columbia, and explored its rich, diverse landscape. Upon his return to Utah, he displayed many colorful paintings at Finch Lane that documented his adventures in South America’s Andean Mountains, and more particularly the handbill-ridden walls of Bogota that still have a resounding “Viva Che Vive.” His work is powerful enough and big enough to really cast a mood. And yet there is a quality of innocence to his work in juxtaposition to his difficult life experiences.

In regards to his latest adventure in Latin America and his show at the Finch Lane Gallery, Meacham says, “Since early adolescence which was fraught with stress, my only real and complete redemption from the catastrophic consequences of boredom has been, and always will be, to make art. Of course, I also do it for all the cliche classical psychological reasons: art-making acts as a release valve for neurosis and so on. Sublimation has always driven the process.” He went on to say that his work has evolved from the days of the old Art Barn in 1963 when he looked toward the masters and tried to imitate them. “I did great Deffebach/DeKooning/Olson/Snow knock-offs for years. Nowadays I hope that I don’t mimic these art icons, however of course I appropriate from all of them and Picasso, Debeinkorn, and Kandinsky as little as possible. I believe that I have evolved pretty much into a less derivative Meacham style which I try to keep as spontaneous, unplanned, and immediate as possible.” Meacham hopes that his art will not be boring to those looking at it. He quotes Jean Dubuffet, the French painter, “Artists who bore us are just like those professional inventors who have never invented anything. It’s unfortunate for them, the poor wretches if they have wasted their lives studying and researching in their laboratories, without ever finding anything.”

However, Meacham adds, “If the viewer is bored with my work, I was not bored making it!”

Excerpts taken from Robert Olpin’s Utah Artists film series and book co-authored with Siefert and Swanson, Utah Artists. Also from the Finch Lane Gallery Exhibition in 2005.
Courtesy of Artists of Utah and Layne Meacham.

Art Education
• 1963-67 – Salt Lake Art Barn
• 1973-74 – Westminster College
• 1974-75 -Art Students League, New York City
• 1989 – University of Utah
• 1969-77 -Intermittent courses from David Sucec, Earl Jones and other courses at local art institutions

Solo and Group Exhibitions
• 1988 -Diskin Art, Los Angelas, California
• 1989 -Queen of Arts Gallery, Park City
• 1991 -University of Utah Union Building, New Automatism
• 1991 -Dolores Chase Fine Art, Salt Lake City, Moabital Experiences
• 1995 -Dolores Chase Fine Art, Salt Lake City, Recent Abstractions
• 2000 -Dolores Chase Fine Art, Salt Lake City, Passages Through the Middle Way
• 2000 -Left Bank Gallery, Salt Lake City, New Murals
• 2000 -SoHo Gallery, Salt Lake City, Three Utah, Phase Space Artists
• 2001 -Dolores Chase Fine Art, Salt Lake City, New Direction
• 2001 – Westminster College, Salt Lake City, Alumni Show
• 2003 -The Artspace Forum, Salt Lake City, You Like What You Know

Juried Competitions
• Spring Salon, Museum of Art , Springville , Utah

Jurors
• 1990 -Allen Dodworth, Utah , and Scott Leavitt, Colorado
• 1991 – Jerold Wunderlich , New York , and Allison South, Utah
• 1992 -Benedict Read, England , and Valeria Kidrick , Utah
• 1993 – Roy Brindley, England , and Sherrill D. Sandberg , Utah
• 1994 -Selected (no nomenclature available)
• 1995 -Marcus G.C. Halliwell, England , and Lee Deffebach, Utah
• 1996 – Third Place Winner , Polly J. Sartori, New York , and Robert I. Marshall, Utah
• 1997 -Martin L. Beisly, England , and Betsy Quintana, Utah
• 1999 -Selected
• 2000 -Selected
• 2001 – Merit Award, Peter and Elaine Adams, California
• 2003 – Merit Award , Springville , Utah

Utah Arts Council Juried Competitions
• 1999 -Prudence Roberts, Curator of American Art, Portland Art Museum , Oregon
• 2000 -Union Pacific Depot Show, Utah , Two cash awards
• 2001 -Christine Giles, Associate Curator of Art, Palm Springs Desert Museum and Bruce Guenther, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Portland Art Museum, Bountiful Art Center, one of six cash awards.

Invitational
• 1993 -“Union Pacific Depot,“ Utah , Curated by David Sucec
• 1993 -“Friends of Lee Deffebach,“ Phillips Gallery , Utah
• 1996 -“This Place Utah ,“ Latter-Day Saint Museum of Church History and Art , Utah
• 1997 -“The Reality of Abstraction: Painting in Utah 1946-1996,“ Salt Lake Arts Center , and curated by AnnerPoore
• 2001 -“ Utah Artists ,“ Utah Arts Festival Grand Hall Exhibit, curated by Ursula Pimmentel and Robert S. Olpin
• 2002 -“150 Years of Painting, 2002 Cultural Olympiad Exhibition,“ curated by Vern Swanson, Springville Museum of Art
• 2002 -“Juxtapositions: The Artist and the Environment,“ Art Barn, curated by Hikmet Loe

Museums Permanent Collections
• Springville Museum of Art, Spingville Utah
• Westminster College, Eccles Conservatory of Music, Salt Lake City, Utah
• University of Utah
• Eccles Collection, Logan Utah
• Utah State University, Logan Utah
• Marcia and John Price Museum of Art, University of Utah Campus
• Sweet Candy Company
• Belson Getty Inc.Investments, Salt Lake City

Awards
• Elected on of the hundred “Most Honored Artists of Utah.“ Selection panel was made up of representatives from the Utah Arts Council, the University of Utah, Brigham Young University, Utah art historians and the Springville Museum of Art.