The whale in a Salt Lake City traffic circle

Out of the Blue

Salt Lake City artist Stephen Kesler created Out of the Blue, a full-size humpback whale breaching from the roundabout where 900 South, 1100 East, and Gilmer Drive meet. The fiberglass-and-steel sculpture was installed in 2022.

The Whale is associated with the 9th & 9th neighborhood, although the neighborhood's namesake intersection is two blocks west at 900 South and 900 East. The distinction matters to maps and very little to folklore.

A permanent Whale with changing coats

The sculpture is permanent, but its painted surface is designed to change. Salt Lake City Public Art describes a rotating mural program that will bring a new local artist to the Whale every three to five years.

Point of Reference by Michael Murdock remains the visible mural as of this page's last check. Axios Salt Lake City reports that arts officials announced Jiyoun Lee-Lodge as the artist selected for the Whale's next mural during 801 Day on August 1, 2026. The city's project page had not yet published the winner when we checked it.

Whale Fortunes calls murals the Whale's coats; that part is our fiction, not the city's terminology.

Why a whale here?

The official public-art account connects the sculpture to a neighborhood known for welcoming people, ideas, art, and identities that arrive unexpectedly. A 2025 city survey found that many respondents described the Whale as fun, iconic, unique, colorful, whimsical, and a source of community connection.

No single explanation has ended the argument, which may be one reason the Whale works so well. It is public art large enough to become a landmark and strange enough to keep producing stories.