Ogden Contemporary Arts Presents New Public Art Project

Real / Surreal: Stories of Antelope Island is a community public art project lead by New Mexico-based artist Suzanne Sbarge, Ogden Contemporary Arts’ 2025 Artist-in-Residence, featuring collaborative art displayed on a full wrap of an Ogden City bus through Lamar Advertising, and on a series of digital YESCO billboards across Norther Utah—from Ogden to  Salt Lake City. This project features images of animal/human hybrids created by community members who participated in Suzanne’s artist-led collage and painting workshops. It is presented in conjunction with Anomalies, a solo exhibition Sbarge developed during her two-month residency at OCA, which reflects on the animals and delicate ecosystem of Antelope Island and the Great Salt Lake.

For the community engagement portion of her residency, Sbarge invited participants of all ages and diverse cultures to imagine ways of combining humans with animals that live at Antelope Island. Students from ages 6 to their 70’s developed surreal narratives through experimentation and play with the mediums of collage and watercolor paint. The prompts were to think about how they arrived at their current place and time, and to imagine alternate futures. The overarching theme of Real / Surreal explores interconnectivity among species to re-imagine our place within the web of life in this time of environmental crisis and technological acceleration that are transforming our world.

Sbarge says, “Collage is a liberating and adventurous way of working that is full of surprises, guided by intuition and the unconscious.” Workshop participants discussed the process. Kaija Johnson (age 12) said “One of the things I just love is putting wings on mammals.” Susan Snyder said. “Animals got along well without us before. I like how this makes me look across time. It’s really fun to get out of my own head.” One of the workshops was specifically for the Venture course in the Humanities at Weber State University, which included students from Kuwait, Mexico, Italy, Guatemala, Colombia, and Guam. When asked what they want to imagine in the future, answers included freedom, being in Mexico, human unity, world peace, and healed souls. “Suzanne’s project embodies OCA’s mission to make contemporary art accessible and relevant to our community,” said Venessa Castagnoli, Executive Director of Ogden Contemporary Arts. “She has created space for people of all ages and backgrounds to explore imagination and connection; both to each other and to the world around us.”

Sbarge has organized art projects on public transit spaces in the past in her hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico. She sees it as a way to share art with a much wider population than the number of visitors to galleries and museums. It brings art to audiences from all socio-economic backgrounds and walks of life in their daily lives. Drivers, passengers, bus riders, cyclists, and pedestrians will see art in unexpected places, awakening the imagination and generating new awareness of the people, cultures, and environment.

Suzanne Sbarge: Anomalies is on view at Ogden Contemporary Arts from November 7 through January 11, 2026.

This Project is Made Possible By:

Giv Communities, Weber County R.A.M.P., Utah Office of Tourism, George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, Dr. Ezekiel R. and Edna Wattis Dumke Foundation, Rocky Mountain Power Foundation, Utah Division of Arts and Museums, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Ogden City Arts. Special thanks to Lamar Advertising, YESCO, Utah Transit Authority, and all our community participants.

About the Artist

Suzanne Sbarge has been a visual artist all her life. She was raised in Connecticut and has lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico for 36 years. She holds a BA in Art History and Studio Arts from Barnard College and an MA in Art Education and Art Therapy from the University of New Mexico. She founded the contemporary art museum 516 ARTS in Albuquerque and worked as a nonprofit arts leader for close to 30 years while simultaneously maintaining her own art career. This residency has given her the unique opportunity to focus fully, work on a larger scale, and explore new mediums.

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