Nevada Museum of Art Curatorial Director and Curator of Contemporary Art JoAnne Northrup has partnered with Las Vegas-based art advisor Michele Quinn to co-curate Tilting the Basin: Contemporary Art of Nevada. The exhibition bridges the divide between Northern and Southern Nevada communities and provides a wide-ranging overview and understanding of the most accomplished work being created by more than thirty artists living and working in Nevada today.

The first nationally significant exhibition presenting art made in Nevada occurred in 2007 with Las Vegas Diaspora: The Emergence of Contemporary Art from the Neon Homeland, on view at the Las Vegas Art Museum, which has since closed. Organized by the well-respected art critic and curator Dave Hickey, the exhibition celebrated the work of twenty-six artists, all of whom received their degrees from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and studied with Hickey between 1990 and 2001 when he taught art theory and criticism in the Department of Art at UNLV.

Fast forward almost ten years later. After more than fifty artist studio visits in both Northern and Southern Nevada across Nevada, spanning Las Vegas to the south, Reno and Carson City in the north. Northrup and Quinn’s research revealed that the Nevada contemporary art scene does not evidence a singular aesthetic permeating artists’ work, but rather a wide array of practices and media. Nevada artists are creating innovative work ranging from painting, sculpture, and installation, to photography, interactive, and sound art. Their work is informed by popular culture, the natural environment, and landscape, as well as cultural identity, politics, and current events.

Tilting the Basin: Contemporary Art of Nevada aspires to provide contemporary dialogue aimed at enlightening our broader audiences to the richness of our entire arts community and how it can be a powerful tool in the growth of the great state of Nevada. The exhibition highlights the work of six artists in depth, showing several examples from each in a variety of media. Featured artists include Galen Brown, Justin Favela, Katie Lewis, David Ryan, Brent Sommerhauser, and Rachel Stiff. The remaining artists’ work will give visitors a wide-ranging picture of the art being created across Nevada today, including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, mixed media, street art, installation, sound performance, fiber arts and new media. Some work, like that of Reno photographer Megan Berner, will live exclusively on social media. Berner plans to take daily photographs of the Northern Nevada sky for the eleven-week duration of the exhibition. The images will post to the Nevada Museum of Art Instagram account, allowing the community to view the body of work as it develops over time.

Additional collaborations and offsite installations are planned as well. Las Vegas-based artist Brent Sommerhauser will collaborate with Reno-based Holland Project and Nevada Museum of Art E.L. Cord Museum School to create small ‘sketches’ in glass by layering rich color combinations of glass powder, glass strings and other glass elements over handmade glass tiles that Sommerhauser will fire on-site in his kiln. The resulting tiles will be photographed and shared on the Nevada Museum of Art Instagram account and displayed in the E.L. Cord Museum School. The combined tiles will contribute to a growing work that will serve as a participant record. Performance art elements of the show include Justin Favela’s Family Fiesta.

Tilting the Basin: Contemporary Art of Nevada will be reprised in Las Vegas in 2017. Artists chosen for the exhibition have not before had work prominently displayed at the Museum:

#TiltingTheBasin

Las Vegas

Chris Bauder, Mark Brandvik, JW Caldwell, Matthew Couper, Gig Depio, Justin Favela, Sush Machida Gaikotsu, Shawn Hummel, Wendy Kveck, JK Russ, David Ryan, David Sanchez Burr, Sean Slattery, Brent Sommerhauser, Brent Holmes, Krystal Ramirez, Rachel Stiff

Reno/Carson

Megan Berner, Rebekah Bogard, Galen Brown, Erik Burke, Nate Clark, Tim Conder, Joseph DeLappe + Pete Froslie, Russell Dudley, Jeffrey Erickson, Jen Graham, Ahren Hertel, Katty Hoover, Eunkang Koh, Nick Larsen, Katie Lewis, Sarah Lillegard, Omar Pierce

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Premier Sponsor

Stacie Mathewson and Doors to Recovery

Lead Sponsor

Wayne and Miriam Prim

Major Sponsor

Jacqueline Black

Supporting Sponsors

Maureen Mullarkey and Steve Miller; Nevada Arts Council; The Private Bank by Nevada State Bank

Sponsors

Kathie Bartlett; Elaine Cardinale; Barbara and Tad Danz; Dolan Law, LLC; Tammy M. and Brian E. Riggs; Sari and Ian Rogoff

Media Sponsors

Getaway Reno-Tahoe; Juxtapoz Magazine; KUNR Reno Public Radio; Nevada Magazine; Reno-Tahoe International Airport; Tahoe Quarterly; Western Art and Architecture

This theme comprises one section of the museum-wide exhibition, Tahoe: A Visual History.

The Washoe people have lived in the Lake Tahoe region for countless generations. They referred to Lake Tahoe as DaɁawɁaga, or “edge of the lake,” because they lived around its shore. The term was eventually shortened to DaɁaw, from which the word “Tahoe” is derived.

Different Washoe groups gathered annually at the lake during late spring and summer where they caught fish and gathered plant foods. The Welmelti were from a territory located roughly north of the lake, the Ṕawalu or “valley people” lived to its west, and the Huŋalelti were from the southern region. During the winter months, they returned to the lake’s adjacent valleys where elevations were lower and temperatures milder.

The annual trip to DaɁaw was eagerly anticipated. Its pure waters offered more than simple benefits—it was the life-sustaining element for the land, the plants, the fish, the birds, the animals, and all the people who lived around it. Once the Washoe people arrived at DaɁaw, they blessed themselves and the water in celebration of the harmony that existed among the people, the land, and the water. Every notable geographic feature and stream had a Washoe name.

Today, Washoe people carry on the traditions of their ancestors and encourage younger generations to do the same. Programs related to Washoe language preservation, basket weaving, fishing, and other traditional activities are offered and encouraged through the Washoe Cultural Advisory Committee. Special access is also granted in areas around the lake where Washoe people continue to gather native plants and other resources. Lake Tahoe continues to be a special and sacred place to all Washoe people.

This theme comprises one section of the museum-wide exhibition, Tahoe: A Visual History.

In 1844, trapper and frontiersman Elisha Stevens safely guided the first American emigrant wagons across the Sierra Nevada to California over what came to be known as Donner Pass. Two years later, the Donner Party sought to repeat this trek, but snow stranded them near the lake that would later bear the Donner name. Because of this disaster, a region destined to develop into a world-class destination first entered American history through a dystopian scenario of starvation, death, murder, and cannibalism.

One might think that the tragedy of the Donner Party would have provided a warning for generations to come. In the American West, however, dystopia remained a recurrent possibility. The Sierra Nevada and Donner Pass stood as a barrier to America’s desire to expand westward. As the transcontinental railroad neared completion in 1869, over 20,000 men were employed by the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroad companies in some capacity. Around 12,000 of them were Chinese immigrants working in the treacherous Sierra canyons. Accidents, avalanches, and explosions, according to some reports, left as many as 1,200 Chinese laborers dead.

The nineteenth-century paintings and photographs of Donner Pass seen throughout this exhibition tend to offer romantic views of picturesque rail cars and pristine landscapes. Whether intentionally or not, artists typically marginalized or ignored the presence of Chinese workers. Many Chinese and Chinese-American artists working today seek to revisit this visual history, producing artworks in a variety of media to honor and memorialize the stories of those who perished during the construction of the railroad.

This theme comprises one section of the museum-wide exhibition, Tahoe: A Visual History.

The Sierra Nevada range was a physical and symbolic obstacle to America’s western expansion in the nineteenth century. The legendary struggles of the Donner Party in the winter of 1847, along with an enterprising drive to surmount the summit via railroad, fueled a young nation’s “Manifest Destiny” to stretch its boundary from coast to coast. Artists depicted Donner Lake, the closest body of water to Donner Summit, more frequently than any other in the Sierra range. Unlike the flat, picturesque expanse of Lake Tahoe’s surface, the view of Donner Lake from the summit offered a dramatic, sublime vista layered with historical and symbolic significance.

Visiting artists, photographers, and other tourists often lodged at the Summit Hotel near the top of Donner Pass. Built in 1870, the hotel was a way station for travelers on the Central Pacific Railroad (completed in 1869) and a destination from which travelers could explore the surrounding mountain terrain. For the most part, early photographers such as Alfred A. Hart, Andrew Russell, and Carleton E. Watkins, as well as painters including Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Hill, were drawn to the region because of lucrative commissions provided by railroad executives who sought grand images to celebrate and promote their transcontinental accomplishments.

The American conquest of the now-legendary summit predicted not only the joining of east and west with rails of steel, but the development of the entire far western United States—to which the Tahoe region stood as both barrier and gateway.

This theme comprises one section of the museum-wide exhibition, Tahoe: A Visual History.

During the Golden Age of American landscape painting in the second half of the nineteenth century, Lake Tahoe and its nearby lakes inspired paintings by artists who were primarily associated with the burgeoning art world of San Francisco. Lake Tahoe itself did not become a subject for serious artists until the 1860s after the discovery of silver on the nearby Comstock. Early tourists to the lake included the influential Unitarian minister, Thomas Starr King, who visited in the summer of 1863 and delivered a rapturous sermon on the beauties of the lake to San Franciscans upon his return—surely enticing many artists to visit.

From the 1860s through the 1880s Lake Tahoe was depicted by artists with an enhanced sense of realism known as the Hudson River School style. Painters associated with that style sought out beautiful natural landscapes and executed their paintings with considerable realism. At the same time, they sought to convey a spiritual or transcendental presence in their paintings to underscore the widely held nineteenth-century belief in nature’s divine origins. Like the California geologists John Muir and Joseph LeConte, many artists believed that nature was God’s handiwork. Painters visiting the Sierra reproduced natural features in ways that inspired thoughts of divinity: mountains were sublime and still water serene.

Many of America’s most noted nineteenth-century artists including  Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, William Keith, John Ross Key, and William Marple considered Lake Tahoe a worthy subject for their landscape paintings. For most city dwellers of the time, the Sierra was considered a remote wilderness destination. However, one might experience a taste of the wilderness through the vicarious agency of a landscape painting. Contemplating a spiritually charged view of the lake in one’s San Francisco or New York living room could provide much of the same magic as being there in person. When exposed to a beautiful painting, the clamor and stress of urban life might be forgotten.

This theme comprises one section of the museum-wide exhibition, Tahoe: A Visual History.

Nineteenth-century American understanding of the Sierra Nevada was shaped by the maps, sketches, photographs, paintings, and written accounts produced by the first Euro-American pioneers to visit the region. John C. Frémont, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, is considered the first Euro-American to view Lake Tahoe on February 14, 1844 from Red Lake Mountain, a peak near what is today Carson Pass. The body of water we now call Lake Tahoe was referred to variously in the nineteenth century as Mountain Lake, Lake Bonpland, and Lake Bigler.

The discovery, mapping, depiction, and cultural assimilation of Lake Tahoe by Euro-Americans is linked to the exploration and settlement of the Great Basin—the last region of the United States to be officially explored and defined by the federal government. After Tahoe’s initial discovery by Euro-Americans, most early nineteenth century pioneers approached the Sierra from the east, after passing through the long desert stretches of the Great Basin.

By the mid-1850s, wagon roads through the Sierra, constructed primarily to service gold and silver mines, became better defined. These routes made the region accessible to travelers from both eastward  and westward directions—including artists and photographers.

The Nevada Museum of Art is proud to present to our community The Horse, a comprehensive exhibition detailing the enduring bond between horses and humanity. The exhibition explores early interactions between horses and humans and portrays how horses have, over time, influenced civilization through advancements in warfare, trade, transportation, agriculture, sports, and many other facets of human life. The exhibition was created by leading scholars and scientists at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Dioramas, skeletal mounts, fossils, cultural artifacts from around the world, and interactive computerized modules – will draw visitors into the world of the horse as never before. An immersive multi-media experience, The Horse explores our history, inter-dependence, and emotional connection with this remarkable animal.

The Horse is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH); the Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau-Ottawa; The Field Museum, Chicago; and the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Premiere Sponsor

Louise A. Tarble Foundation

Lead Sponsors

Barrick Gold; The Bretzlaff Foundation; Irene and J. George Drews; The Thelma B. and Thomas P. Hart Foundation; Anne Brockinton Lee and Robert M. Lee

Major Sponsors

Damonte Ranch, Perry M. DiLoreto; Deborah C. Day; Dickson Realty; Hooker Creek Ranch; Nevada Arts Council; Sandy Raffealli, Raffealli Family Trust; Wells Fargo; E. L. Wiegand Foundation

Supporting Sponsors

Kathie Bartlett; Leah Elizabeth Cashman and Rhonda Cashman Evans; Marshall R. Matley Foundation; Jennifer and Jason Patterson; Gigi and Lash Turville; Whittier Trust Company of Nevada

Additional Sponsors

Answerwest; Jeanne Blach; Marc Grock; Clark J. Guild Jr. Charitable Foundation; Charlotte and Dick McConnell; Karen and Bill Prezant

Media Sponsors

Getaway Reno-Tahoe; KUNR; Lake Tahoe TV; Reno-Tahoe International Airport; Tahoe Quarterly; Western Art & Architecture

Celebrate a bygone era during this exhilarating presentation of vintage neon signs that once graced some of Nevada’s most iconic restaurants, casinos, hotels, and business establishments. From flashing incandescent bulbs to candy-colored neon tubes, the nostalgic pieces featured in The Light Circus: Art of Nevada Neon Signs have not been seen publicly since they illuminated street side locales decades ago. Presented in the Museum’s Feature Gallery, the exhibition on view October 13 through February 10, 2013.

The iconic M-shaped cowboy chaps from the long-demolished Mapes Hotel Casino have been re-electrified and will hang alongside the flickering bulbs of Reno’s Harold’s Club and Nevada Club signs, as well as those of the Sahara, a longtime casino icon of the Las Vegas stip. Other forgotten favorites that have been refurbished for the exhibition include signs from Parker’s Western Wear, the Holiday Hotel, and El Cholo, one of Nevada’s oldest Mexican restaurants located in Las Vegas. A last minute addition to the exhibition includes the sign that hung for many years above Reno’s legendary Deux Gros Nez coffee shop, which closed in 2006.

For well over a decade, Reno- collector Will Durham has worked to build this collection of vintage neon signs. For the past year, Durham and the Nevada Museum of Art spent countless hours restoring the light fixtures, controls, and electrical components of each piece, along with their painted and porcelain surfaces. For Durham, who acquired his first sign in 1996, collecting the pieces has been a labor of love. In many cases, he has gone to great lengths to save signs that would have otherwise been discarded. In some cases, salvaging the signs took years of persistence, but Durham recognized that saving them was crucial to preserving Nevada’s history—and that sharing them with the public was even more important.

Lead sponsor

The Bretzlaff Foundation

Major sponsors

Earl and Wanda Casazza, Casazza SLV, IGT, E. L. Cord Foundation and George and Irene Drews

Supporting sponsor

E. L. Wiegand Foundation

Additional support

City of Reno Arts and Culture Commission, Charlotte and Dick McConnell and the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency

Launching a long-term collaboration with New York’s El Museo del Barrio—the leading Latino cultural institution in the U.S. dedicated to Latino, Latin American, and Caribbean art—the Nevada Museum of Art presents a wide-ranging and diverse survey of their stellar art collection. This lively exhibition presents more than fifty objects including sculpture, painting, prints, photographs, and mixed media installations addressing themes such as identity politics, colonialism, emotional connections to homeland, and contemporary visual culture. Artworks created by living artists are contextualized with a concise selection of ancient Taίno stone carvings.

Voces y Visiones: Highlights from the Collection of El Museo del Barrio, New York, was jointly organized by the El Museo del Barrio and the Nevada Museum of Art.

Major sponsor

IGT

Media sponsor

Entravision

This exhibition surveys the architecture, urban planning, and design work of American architect William L. Pereira through images, models, drawings, and plans. The exhibition re-examines the modest spaces he created early in his career and the large-scale structures for which he is largely remembered.

The structures Pereira designed were far-flung and often large in scale, ranging from San Francisco’s iconic Transamerica Tower to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the University of California, San Diego Geisel Library to the master plan for California’s Irvine Ranch and the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX); Marineland of the Pacific to Cape Canaveral; a master plan for Doha—the capital city of Qatar—to the National Medical Center of Iran. Pereira became the first architect for the University of California system and master planned and designed many of the buildings for the University of California, Irvine.

The purpose of the project is to frame Pereira’s practice within the histories of architectural modernism and southern California in the mid-twentieth century. Because Pereira’s career parallels the arc of modern architecture and its focus on iconic form, the evolution and trajectory of his work sheds light on the closing window of the modern movement.

Photography is encouraged in this exhibition. Post and share your images with us on your favorite social sites!

Become and Museum fan on Facebook (LINK) and take part in our daily competition throughout August. Answer the question: “What am I looking at?” for the chance to win a prize. A BIG thank you to Scott Mortimore of Mortimore Creative for the images and prose!

Exhibition design by Nik Hafermaas, Uebersee (LINK)

CATALOGUE

A fully illustrated exhibition catalogue accompanies the exhibition. The book is introduced by Colin M. Robertson with essays by Curtis Fentress, Alan Hess, Thomas S. Hines, Scott Johnson, Geoff Manaugh, JoAnne S. Northrup, and Elizabeth A.T. Smith. Copies are available for $29.99 in the Museum Store. To purchase a catalogue via phone order, please contact Jackie Clay, Manager, Museum Store at 775.329.3333 ex. 106.

This exhibition is originated by the Nevada Museum of Art and curated by Colin M. Robertson, Charles N. Mathewson Curator of Education, Nevada Museum of Art.

Lead sponsors

Louise A. Tarble Foundation, E.L. Cord Foundation and Nancy and Martin Cohen

Major sponsors

Nancy and Brian Kennedy, Susan and Bill Pereira, Reno Orthopaedic Clinic and Volunteers in Art (VIA)

Supporting sponsors

Dickson Realty, Jan and David Hardie, Eleanor and Robert Preger, and RBC Wealth Management

Additional sponsors

Charlotte and Dick McConnell, MINI of Reno and the Mark E Pollack Foundation

In-kind support

The Irvine Company, LAYAR, and Fortyonetwenty

Media sponsor

KNPB Channel 5 Public Broadcasting