Trent Thursby Alvey was born in 1948. She is a graphic artist and mixed media artist who uses painting, sculpture, and lighting techniques to create works that are described as contemporary and pop. She lives in Salt Lake City. 

In 1987, Alvey graduated from Westminster College where Don Doxey was one of her instructors. After graduation, she owned a graphic design business in Salt Lake.  

Alvey won a bronze in 2002 for a mixed media piece, for The Sacred and the Profane, in a statewide competition for the Bountiful Davis Art Center. The Museum of Fine Arts acquired her 1992 installation, Toaster Worship, for its permanent collection. Alvey was chosen as one of twenty Utah artists to be part of the Women Beyond Borders exhibit at Art Access Gallery during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. Her work has also been included in a variety of local and national exhibitions: The Painting Center , Crossing the Line , New York City (2005); Springville Art Museum's Spring Gala (2005); Kimball Art Center, Park City (2005); and Artspace Forum Gallery (2003).

Biographical information on this page was adapted from autobiographical information supplied by the artist.

Trent Thursby Alvey is a mixed-media artist who uses painting, sculpture, and light and sound technique in the creation of works that have been called both pop and contemporary. Thursby has exhibited in significant one-person and group shows including Out of the Land, which traveled to The National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. Toaster Worship, Thursby's sculptural piece included in this National exhibit, was recently acquired by the Museum of Fine Art at the University of Utah for their permanent collection.

Trent has been included in both editions of Artists of Utah written by Robert S. Olpin, William C. Seifrit, and Vern Swanson (last edition 1999, published by Gibbs Smith Publisher). Trent was chosen as one of twenty Utah artists to be part of the Women Beyond Borders exhibit at Art Access Gallery during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. The Utah exhibit became part of an international collection including work from women in 33 countries. Trent's work is also included in Utah Artists Project/ J. Williard Marriott Library's (University of Utah) digitized collections of selected Utah artists.

Dolores Chase, art collector, regarding Trent's work, " She has done many brave and ambitious pieces over the years, one of which I own. She continues to grow and experiment—often combining disciplines in enigmatic ways, one of them being her wave theory/physics installations in steel and neon. She takes risks and always creates compelling and thought-provoking work."

Trent earned BFA degrees in Fine Art and Communications at Westminster College of Salt Lake City in 1986, where she studied painting with Don Doxey.

Solo Exhibition History: Salt Lake City, Utah (unless otherwise stated:)

Painting and Assemblage Salt Lake Main Library, Tribal Portrait: Beauty and Brutality 2006 
Phillips Gallery, solo installation, Propensity for Repetition 2006 
October, Phillips Gallery, 2005 
Kimball Art Center, Park City, Utah 2003 
Patrick Moore Gallery, New Work from sub-Saharan Africa 2001 
Installation, Art Access, Blue Lotus Lake 2001 
Installation, Finch Lane Gallery - Frequency Manifests Form 1998 
Installation, Finch Lane Gallery - Encountering Energy 1994 
Installation, Finch Lane Gallery - Five Realities Group Exhibition History: Salt Lake City, Utah unless otherwise stated: 2008 
Present Tense: a Post 337 Exhibit, 7/08 Salt Lake Art CenterArt Partners Exhibit, 7/08 Art Access Gallery 2008 
300 Plates, 7/08 Art Access 2008 
Untitled, 7/08 Rio Grande gallery 2007 - 337 Project, 7/07 Graffiti Building, 140 artist collaboration 2006 
Rio Gallery 2006 
Phillips Gallery 2006 
Art Access 2005 
The Painting Center, Crossing the Line, New York City 2005 
Springville Art Museum's Spring Gala, Springville Utah. 2004 
Women's Art Center 2004 
Kimball Art Center, Park City, Utah 2002 
Art Access, Women Across Borders artists from over 30 countries exhibited during the Utah Winter Olympics, SLC. UT 2002 
Bountiful Davis Art Center, Visions Olympic Exhibit, Bronze Award, Bountiful, UT 2002 
Bountiful Davis Art Center, The Nature of Abstraction three person exhibit, Bountiful, UT 1993 
National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington D.C. 1993

Special Awards:

• One of 20 Utah Women Artists chosen for the international exhibit Women Beyond Borders to be shown during the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City at Art Access Gallery. The Utah Boxes will become part of this international collection which will find a permanent home in California. 
• Trent Thursby Alvey's work and biography has been included in both editions of Robert S. Olpin's Artists of Utah, published by Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1999. 
• Received the Bronze Award in the Olympic Exhibit Visions and Victories: Exploring the Triumphs of Pioneering and the Olympic Spirit through the Arts. 
• Private Collections: Martha Kongsgaard, Kongsgaard Goldman Foundation; Terry Tempest Williams, author; Ruth Lubbers, Director of Art Access Gallery, S.L.C.; Pam Crowe Weissburg, director Kimball Art Center, Park City, UT.

Artist's statement:

My most recent work, Between Heaven and Earth, exhibited at Kimball Art Center in Park City, represents the coming together of dichotomies. The paintings are on the one hand calm and contemplative, but on the other, they are powerful and vast. I am always aware of the dichotomous concepts of push and pull, light and dark, explosive and quiet, high color intensity and low, and how to accomplish them. I am attempting to bring the opposites side by side into the work so that it evokes for the viewer an ocean of energy and wisdom. The ironic part is that to create such work the artist must, after applying all the skills, knowledge and creativity in her toolbox, let go completely and trust that the alchemy will happen.

I try to capture in my work the glimpses that I have as an artist, that is, the fleeting insight into our existence. Artists acknowledge those glimpses and explore the power therein, so that the viewer can respond to those shared illusive and shadowy memories. Willem de Kooning described himself as a “slipping glimpser”, saying that he often felt like he was slipping rather than standing straight up and that as he was slipping he would get glimpses.

My desire is to work larger, increasing the drama and epic power of my paintings, and to continue experimenting with media. I understand more and more that the energy that comes across to the viewer of the painting is directly proportional to the amount of energy invested into the piece. My most successful work style is an explosion of energy, rather than sustained ongoing parceling-out of energy.

“Installation art is the work of process. The way to learn something deeply is to experience it. Gathering materials, seeing images, allowing repetition to occur, finding the object, applying paint or paper - this is my way of manifesting those oblique images and making them visible for the viewer.“ Please visit my web site at http://www.trentthursbyalvey.com and see my current work.

Biography courtesy of the Artist

Newspaper Articles

"Art Canvass." The Deseret News, November 27, 1994. 
"Art Canvass." The Deseret News, May 6, 2001. 
"Art Canvass." The Deseret News, August 10, 2003. 
"Bad Dog Rediscovers America." The Deseret News, August 18, 1998. 
"Bronze wins gold at B.D.A.C.'s 'Visions and Victories.'" Davis County Clipper, February 19, 2002. 
"Coming Up: Visual Art." The Salt Lake Tribune, September 13, 1998. 
"Coming Up: Visual Art." The Salt Lake Tribune, January 7, 2001. 
"Coming Up: Visual Art." The Salt Lake Tribune, December 30, 2001. 
"Coming Up: Visual Art." The Salt Lake Tribune, February 17, 2002. 
"Gallery Stroll Gives Viewers' Eyes a Promenade Through Varied Terrain." The Deseret News, May 23, 1993. 
"Hundreds Flock to D.C. Opening of Art Showing by Utah Women." The Deseret News, February 19, 1993. 
"Introspective works fill Art Center." The Park Record, February 16-18, 2005. 
"Keeping the faith in Springville." The Arts, November 23, 2003. 
"New Exhibits Are Framed with Element of Surprise." The Deseret News, June 19, 1994. 
"Showing at Local Galleries." The Deseret News, August 6, 2000. 
"Showing at Local Galleries." The Deseret News, January 7, 2001. 
"Showing at Local Galleries." The Deseret News, September 16, 2001. 
"Showing at Local Galleries." The Deseret News, January 6, 2002. 
"Showing at Local Galleries." The Deseret News, January 5, 2003. 
"Utah Arts Festival: Music, Dance, Art and News Works Will Flourish at Triad Center Next Week." The Deseret News, June 17, 1993. 
"Utah Marquee: Visual Art." The Salt Lake Tribune, October 26, 2001. 
"Utahns with Roots in Spiritual Movement." The Salt Lake Tribune, December 26, 1994. 
"Visual Arts Calendar." The Salt Lake Tribune, June 3, 1994. 
"Visual Arts Calendar." The Salt Lake Tribune, July 8, 1994. 
"Visual Art." The Salt Lake Tribune, February 16, 2001. 
"Westminister Honored for Admissions Advertising." The Deseret News, April 29, 1988. 
"Works Tell Pain, Pleasure of Being." The Deseret News, June 7, 1992.

Books

Olpin, Robert S., William C. Seifrit, and Vern G. Swanson. Artists of Utah. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1999.

Periodicals

Westminster College. "Phase Space Art Exhibit," Review, Westminster College Alumni Magazine, Summer 2003. 
15 Bytes. "The Ventilator On: The Nature of Abstraction at the B.D.A.C." 15 Bytes. January 2002.