Diane Stewart: A cultural force in Utah and beyond.

• Author: Olson, Pamela M.
• Position: Around Utah: Spotlight

Before I have the chance to ask Diane Stewart anything about herself, she begins sharing details of the most recent opening at her gallery, Modern West Fine Art. The show was the premier of "March" the latest work by Jann Haworth. "She's been flying under the radar," Stewart says, "but it's my mission that everybody knows who Jann Haworth is." Most people do, even if they don't realize it; Haworth is the internationally regarded co-creator of the cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album and here in Utah, the artist of "SLC Pepper" a 50 x 30-foot mural in downtown Salt Lake City. Stewart talks fervently yet concisely about Haworth's career--past projects and ongoing works--and just like that, she has sparked a new and lively interest in one of her artists.

Promotion of artists is what gallery owners do, but Stewart's admiration for each artist seems to go beyond salesmanship. Born in Arizona, her father collected Native American art and she says she "was always drawn to Native American culture." After starting her own collection with Utah artists--"LeConte Stewart, of course"--she built a collection of the Taos Masters. Her love of contemporary art grew with her collection, which eventually led to the opening of Modern West Fine Art in 2014. "The idea was percolating for a year or two, and I had a lot of encouragement," she says.

The gallery represents the work of varied media and artists, both nationally acclaimed and local, but they all present a startlingly new yet familiar look at the West. "There are not necessarily cowboys here," Stewart says. "I don't want anachronistic art," especially from the artists who are Native American. The works don't tell dusty old stories or show stereotypical subjects in moccasins. "They paint them in Vans,"...