RYAN SIMMONS
On View at Le Meridien Salt Lake City Downtown
131 S 300 W, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Portrait of a Lake is an ongoing photographic series that bears witness to the ecological changes surrounding the Great Salt Lake—the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere and a critical habitat for millions of migratory birds and other life forms. The lake is receding at an alarming rate, and the surrounding ecosystem faces increasing stress. The work is made using the historic salt printing process, one of the earliest photographic techniques. Each print incorporates salt collected directly from the lake, embedding the landscape into the image both physically and chemically. As the salt continues to react over time—staining, corroding, and embalming the work—the images shift in tandem with the landscape they depict. Portrait of a Lake is, at its core, a personal gesture of preservation—an attempt to hold the lake as it transforms. It asks what photography can offer in the face of environmental change: not necessarily a solution, but a space for witnessing, remembering, and reckoning with what we stand to lose.
Header image: Dry Shores, Ryan Simmons
About the Artist
Ryan Simmons is an interdisciplinary artist based in Utah whose practice spans photography, mixed media, and site-specific installation. His work investigates the shifting relationships between humans and the natural world, drawing on environmental, historical, and cultural frameworks to explore systems of care, control, and collapse in the Anthropocene. Simmons holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Utah, along with an Associate of Fine Arts and an Associate of Science from Snow College. His work has been exhibited nationally in venues such as the United Nations COP28 CREATE Exhibition, Statewide Annual at Ogden Contemporary Arts, and Portrait of a Lake at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center. Additional exhibitions include the Mestizo Institute of Art and Culture, the J. Willard Marriott Library, Granary Arts, and the Great Basin Station.
His professional experience includes roles as Programs Assistant at Granary Arts and Co-Curator of Lumlux Gallery. His art is held in both private and public collections, including the collection of the Utah Division of Arts and Museums. He has received over 30 awards, including the University of Utah Women’s Resource Center Award presented at the Governor’s Mansion, and has led creative initiatives such as a collaborative coloring book project for Shriners Children’s Hospital. Through an evolving, interdisciplinary practice, Simmons remains committed to making work that both questions and reimagines the ways we inhabit the world. ryansimmonsart.com
Learn more about our exhibition partner Le Meridien Salt Lake City Downtown
Works on view at Le Meridien Salt Lake City Downtown
Send purchase inquiries to info@granaryarts.org or call 435.283.3456
Remnants, 2024
salt print on paper
$900
Dry Shores, 2024
salt print on paper
$900
Black Rock, 2024
salt print on paper
$900
Wetlands, 2024
salt print on paper
$900