10 Works You Should Know: Maddie Blonquist

As the Roy and Carol Christensen Curator of Religious Art at the BYU Museum of Art, Maddie Blonquist approaches her work with both familiarity and discovery.

She recently curated Earthbound and Heavenward: The Sacred Art of Discipleship, an exhibition organized around what Christian tradition often calls a “sacred distance”: the felt space between who we are and who we hope to become. Across more than five hundred years of art, Earthbound and Heavenward traces how artists have wrestled with that distance—and, just as often, how they have discovered heaven pressing close through ordinary gestures, domestic scenes, and quiet acts of attention.

Here, Maddie compiled ten works that she believes deserve wider recognition. “There are several works in Earthbound that more people should know about,” she notes, “so this feels like a great opportunity to share our collection with others.” Together, her selections reveal a museum collection alive with saints and sinners, pupils and prophets—figures whose struggles and hopes mirror our own, and whose stories remind us that the divine is often found nearer than we expect.

1

Emilia Wing
Nazareth
Oil and gold leaf on panel, 36”x36”
Used with permission of the artist

2

Royal Nebeker (1945-2014)
Prayer, 2006
oil on canvas, 60 3/16 x 54 1/8 inches
Brigham Young University Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Lewis and Gail Burnham, 2015

3

Trevor Southey (1940-2015)
Jesus and Mary: The Moment After Triptych, 1975
oil on masonite board, 72 x 48 inches. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, 1975

4

Ron Richmond (b. 1963)
Exchange No. 8, 2004
oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches
Brigham Young University Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Lewis and Gail Burnham, 2005

5

James C. Christensen (1942-2017)
Portrait of Porter Rockwell, c.1979
acrylic on board, 15 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches
Brigham Young University Museum of Art, gift of Gregory and Linda Mackay, 1997

6

James C. Christensen (1942-2017)
Portrait of Joseph Smith with Butterfly, c.1979
oil and acrylic on canvas, 23 1/16 x 17 1/8 inches
Brigham Young University Museum of Art, gift of Gregory and Linda MacKay, 1997

7

Bruce H. Smith (b. 1936)
Bait, 2011
oil on canvas, 51 x 57 inches
Brigham Young University Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Lewis and Gail Burnham, 2011

8

Franz M. Johansen (1928-2018)
The Rod and the Veil, 1975
resin, 86 x 103 inches
Brigham Young University Museum of Art

9

Robert Vern Bullough (1926-2023)
The Prophet, c.1970
welded steel, 40 x 12 x 8 inches
Brigham Young University Museum of Art

10

J. Kirk Richards (b. 1975)
Rescue, 2025
oil on panel with dirt, 81 x 48 inches
Brigham Young University Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Brent and Bonnie Jean Beesley Family, 2025