Geometrical designs will fill UMOCA's Art Truck

Students around Utah will be getting some geometry with their art this school year.

The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) has chosen artist Meridith Pingree — who creates kinetic sculptures and geometric competitions in her work — as the featured artist for the Art Truck, UMOCA's educational outreach program, for the 2014-15 school year.

Pingree is based in Brooklyn, but she has Utah roots. She's a Bountiful native and a University of Utah graduate. She received her MFA at Rhode Island School of Design.

Pingree's work looks at patterns of human behavior through sculptures and geometric works that react to viewers' movement. In the Art Truck, students will see a sculpture that moves in reaction to people around it. (There's a video of Pingree's sculpture above.) Also, two compositions will grace the inside walls — one made from zippers, the other of aluminum. The outside of the truck will be wrapped in Pingree's drawings, which are an organic mix of math and geometry.

"Meridith's exhibit shows that art is relevant to students' lives," said Elly Baldwin, UMOCA's Educator and Art Truck driver, in a statement. "The tour will use pattern as a jumping-off point to explore how people interact with and are influenced by math, science, and technology."

Baldwin will drive the Art Truck to schools and community centers along the Wasatch Front, giving students tours of the truck's gallery and providing lesson plans for kindergarten through 12th grade.

Pingree will be on hand for a reception, Aug. 29 from 7 to 9 p.m., at UMOCA, 20 S. West Temple, Salt Lake City. The reception also celebrates two new exhibits at UMOCA: "Matthew Allred: Clinamen" and the third "Cultural Cartographies" series, which features Robert Smithson's "Hotel Palenque."