In commemoration of World AIDS Day today -- also recognized within the artistic community as Day Without Art -- multiple local venues will treat exhibited pieces in a unique way. ---
At the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Vincent Laurensz van der Vinne's 17th-century painting "Momento Mori" will be draped with black cloth. Both the title and the "vanitas" style of the work provide appropriate recognition of life's brevity, and the artists who have been lost to AIDS over the past 30 years.
The Salt Lake City and County Building brings the idea home even more locally with a ceremonial covering of Utah artist DeWayne Sessions' "Ruby Slippers" today at 5:30 p.m. Sessions died of AIDS-related complications in 2006; his work and his struggle with the disease were chronicled in the documentary A Work in Progress.
Art Access/VSA will participate with events during the Friday, Dec. 2 First Friday Gallery Stroll, 6 - 9 p.m.