“Sincere,” first recorded in English in the 1530s, is from the Latin word sincerus, meaning “clean, pure, sound, etc.,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Born 1959 in Reno, artist Galen Brown creates work in drawing, printmaking, mixed media sculpture, and photography that embodies the adjective and resonates with intelligence and formal beauty. This exhibition takes a retrospective view of the Carson City-based artist’s work from the 1990s to the present, highlighting process-based bodies of work—including his massive drawings on scrap museum board, like Sine Cere—which he assembles over the course of many years. Educated at the San Francisco Art Institute, Brown’s painstaking and often obsessive practice results in works that demonstrate his commitment to erasing the boundaries between art and everyday life.

Sponsors

Maureen Mullarkey and Steve Miller

The Nevada Museum of Art is known, in part, for its permanent collection that includes artworks with a thematic focus on how humans interact with natural, built, and virtual environments. For many artists, this means responding to how landscapes change as a result of using natural resources to power the world. Today, energy resources are classified as either renewable or non-renewable—and include everything from water, air, coal, minerals and forests, to wind, geothermal, and solar.

The works on view in this exhibition often reveal what is hidden from everyday view: the massive industrial infrastructure needed to power life in the twenty-first century. Increasingly, visual artists have turned their attention to lesser-known sociocultural impacts that such large-scale operations bring about. Taken together, these artistic responses bear witness to the complex system of exchange required for the extraction, collection, storage, and transmission of natural resources.

This exhibition is designed to address the Nevada Academic Content Standards for Science. In grades six through twelve, students are required to explore Human Impacts on Earth Systems. By engaging with the works and themes in this exhibition, students are presented with opportunities to evaluate, explain, debate, and analyze the management and use of our natural resources, and the impacts of human activities on natural systems.

This exhibition features paintings by esteemed wildlife painter John Banovich, alongside historical artworks dating from the 15th through 20th centuries by internationally renowned artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt and George Stubbs, all focused on depicting the extraordinary African lion. An internationally recognized artist who has studied lions for decades, Banovich has created a body of work that is also an homage to these animals. King of Beasts features more than thirty artworks that explore questions about humankind’s deep fear, love, and admiration for these creatures. The exhibition spans nearly twenty-five years of work and assembles his body of work focused on African lions for the very first time.

In Africa, the lion has served as a symbol of strength, bravery, and physical prowess among many cultures. However, today nearly all wild lions are found within small regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, and a tiny population exists in India. Outside of protected areas, the African lion is disappearing at an alarming rate. Conservationists agree that the remaining population must be protected if these magnificent creatures are to survive.

Born 1964 in Butte, Montana, John Banovich is known internationally for his large, dramatic portrayals of iconic wildlife. Today, Banovich’s work can be found in private and corporate collections, as well as museums throughout the world. In addition to his artworks, he uses his paintings to raise awareness about imperiled species through Banovich Wildscapes Foundation. Funds generated from artwork sales are reinvested to support grassroots conservation efforts that promote habitat protection, science-based wildlife management and sustainable tourism.

Sponsors
Bank of America
Victoria Zoellner

Supporting Sponsors
Eldorado Resorts, Inc.
Alan and Nancy Maiss

Additional Support
Baranof Jewelers
Coeur d’Alene Art Auction
Phelps Engineering Services, Inc.
Donald Schupak
Scottsdale Art Auction
E.J. and Emil Solimine and Family

In the second half of the nineteenth century, a group of iconoclastic creators pushed against industrialization to enlighten humanity with their revolutionary take on beauty. Drawn from the collection of the city of Birmingham, United Kingdom, Victorian Radicals brings together more than 145 paintings, works on paper, and decorative objects—many of which have never been exhibited outside the U.K.—to illuminate this dynamic period of British art. 

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the champions of the Arts & Crafts Movement offered a radical vision of art and society inspired by pre-Renaissance culture. Works by pioneering artists Ford Madox Brown, Kate Elizabeth Bunce, Edward Burne-Jones, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, William Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and others, represent the response of Britain’s first modern art movement to the industrialization of the period.  

Artists and designers explored vital concerns of their time—the relationship between art and nature, religious themes, questions of class and gender identity, the value of the handmade versus machine production, and the search for beauty in an age of industry. 

This is the final opportunity to see this unparalleled exhibition before it leaves the West Coast.   

Victorian Radicals: From the Pre-Raphaelites to the Arts and Crafts Movement is organized by the American Federation of Arts and Birmingham Museums Trust. The national tour is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding provided by Clare McKeon and the Dr. Lee MacCormick Edwards Charitable Foundation.

Lead Sponsors

Wayne and Rachelle Prim
The Six Talents Foundation

Major Sponsors

Carole K. Anderson
The Deborah and T.J. Day Foundation

Sponsors

Blanchard, Krasner & French
Barbara and Tad Danz
Nancy and Brian Kennedy
Jenny and Garrett Sutton | Corporate Direct
Whittier Trust, Investment & Wealth Management

Supporting Sponsors

Haynie & Company
Dinah O’Brien
Pat and Marshall Postman

Additional Support

Kathie Bartlett

Promotional Partner

Reno-Tahoe International Airport

In 1980, Ellen Crawford arrived in Australia while working as an itinerant archaeologist. Initially, she worked under the direction of the legendary archaeologist John Mulvaney at the Australia National University, followed by fieldwork under his direction in Western Australia south of Perth, before she ventured to Darwin on the northern edge of the continent.

Most of Crawford’s collection came from Arnhem Land, which lies east of Darwin, but some works in this exhibition—such as the toy woomera and spears, the paperbark collage paintings, and the coolamon originated in the northern reaches of Western Australia known as the Kimberley and the Central Desert. Crawford began collecting Aboriginal objects before the existence of art centers run by Aboriginal communities in remote places such as Maningrida and Yirrkala. She was able to buy a few items from a trading post at Maningrida and other items from commercial galleries elsewhere in Australia.

The objects in the Crawford collection range from paintings and small sculptures through spears, dilly bags (used for transporting food), and coolamon (used for carrying food, but also cradling babies). They illustrate both craft and artistry, their designs reflecting the inherited family responsibilities for keeping alive the stories of ancestral beings in the Dreamtime stories. While not formerly regarded as art objects in Western traditions, now they are seen as objects residing along a cultural spectrum where the lines between utilitarian and ceremonial objects, and painting and sculpture, are less fixed and more permeable.

To commemorate the 150^th Anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, the Nevada Museum of Art presents an exhibition featuring the art of Zhi Lin, who has spent much of his career making artworks that recall the sacrifices of Chinese migrant workers in the Sierra Nevada. The completion of the railroad—which linked the United States from east to west—is often celebrated as the grand achievement of America’s Manifest Destiny and the 19^th-century rallying cry for westward expansion of the United States. Zhi Lin’s mixed-media canvases, video installation, and watercolor paintings honor the nearly 1,200 Chinese workers who lost their lives to accidents, avalanches, and explosions in treacherous Sierra terrain near Donner Summit. While names of most railroad workers have been lost to history, Zhi Lin is part of a growing group of artists and scholars working to weave their stories into America’s broader historical narrative.

Media Sponsor
KUNR Reno Public Radio

Decorative Arms: Treasures from the Robert M. Lee Collection includes more than 190 objects dating from as early as the 1500s through the modern era that showcase the skills of some of the most renowned arms makers and engravers in the world. Featuring historical suits of armor, antique firearms, swords, and modern arms, the exhibition is drawn from the private collection of Mr. Robert M. Lee — known to an international community of enthusiasts as one of the finest arms collections in the United States.

The artistry of embellishing arms is one of the most challenging of all artistic endeavors, with a rich history that reaches back to the Medieval and Renaissance eras. The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to experience the artistry of talented arms engravers from England, Italy, Belgium, and the United States who incorporate historical decorative traditions into their craftsmanship today. The design process involves collaboration among sculptures of steel and wood, goldsmiths, silversmiths, and engravers. These talented artisans create mythological, hunting, and wildlife scenes that are enhanced by ornamental designs on what have often been described as “miniature canvases.”

This exhibition was organized by the Nevada Museum of Art with curatorial support from Conor Fitzgerald, Guy Wilson, and Signa Pendegraft.

To learn more about the exhibition and related programs, read the press release.

Lead Exhibition Sponsor

Whittier Trust, Investment & Wealth Management

Major Sponsors

The Bretzlaff Foundation
The Thelma B. and Thomas P. Hart Foundation
Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority

Sponsors

Anonymous
Clark/Sullivan Construction
John C. Deane
Jackson Family Foundation
Nevada Gold Mines
Jenny and Garrett Sutton | Corporate Direct

Supporting Sponsors

Debbie Day
Matt Day, Sr.
Tammy and Michael Dermody
Lance Gilman Commercial / Industrial Real Estate
Haynie & Company

Additional Sponsors

Anonymous

Media Sponsors

Western Art & Architecture
The Big Reno Show

Reno Engraver Spotlight: Guy Leutzinger

For many years, northern Nevadans entrusted their personal firearms to local engraver Guy Leutzinger (1903-1972) who built a worldwide reputation for his fine craftsmanship and high-quality engraving. An employee of R. Herz & Bro., a family-owned jewelry store owned and operated by Richard and Carl Otto Herz beginning in 1885, Leutzinger worked out of the shop’s Virginia Street storefront servicing the engraving needs of locals and tourists alike.  Leutzinger worked for R. Herz and Bros. from 1947 to 1965 while maintaining his own freelance engraving business. A selection of Leutzinger’s engraved firearms are on loan from his son, Reno resident, Robert Leutzinger.

This exhibition features 24 of Ann Johnston’s large-scale quilts inspired by the Sierra Nevada. Johnston’s quilts—made from cloth that the artist has dyed herself—make creative use of patterns and textures to create literal, abstract, and sometimes completely imaginative representations of the area. Using both machine and hand-stitching, the artist creates dimensional surfaces that reflect the varied geological makeup of the Sierra Nevada.

The collection of work presents subjects that visitors to the Sierra might recognize—bands of colors in the earth, mineral-rich rock layers that have been squeezed and heated over centuries, mountain peaks, lakes, and rock formations. “My creative process has involved both looking at what is there on the land at present, as well as trying to imagine events unseen,” the artist writes. This exhibit also features several new works created by Johnston in the past year.

Sponsors
Sandy Raffealli, in memory of Molly Meeker O’Dea
Volunteers in Art of the Nevada Museum of Art

Supporting Sponsors
Charles and Margaret Burback Foundation
Roger H. Elton

The Inside World: Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Memorial Poles from the Debra and Dennis Scholl Collection presents 94 works by contemporary Aboriginal artists from Arnhem Land. Traditionally, these poles—named lorrkkon in the west and larrakitj in the east —marked the final point in Aboriginal mortuary rites. They signified the moment when the spirit of the deceased had finally returned home—when they had left all vestiges of the mundane “outside” world, and become one with the “inside” world of the ancestral realm. Today, these poles are made as works of art.

The artists included in the exhibition are some of the most respected contemporary artists working in Australia today. These include John Mawurndjul, who was recently honored with a retrospective at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, and Djambawa Marawili, whose work has been included in the Moscow, Istanbul and Sydney Biennales. Yet, it is not art world acclaim that these artists seek. The power of their work comes from its desire to communicate the persistence and beauty of Aboriginal culture to the world, to scratch beneath the surface and show what hides there.

The Inside World is drawn from the collections of Miami-based collectors and philanthropists Debra and Dennis Scholl. The exhibition is the third touring exhibition of their Aboriginal art collections, following the successful exhibitions Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artist from Aboriginal Australia, and No Boundaries: Aboriginal Australian Contemporary Abstract Painting, which toured to 12 museums in North America. All three exhibitions are organized by the Nevada Museum of Art.

Book
Edited by Henry F. Skerritt with contributions by Murray Garde, Louise Hamby, Howard Morphy, Kimberley Moulton, Diana Nawi, Wukun Wanambi, and David Wickens, this book explores the complex histories of memorial poles in Australia.

Scientific naturalists at the dawn of the heroic age of scientific exploration observed and surveyed the farthest corners of the natural world. By necessity, they were artists as well as scientists, leveraging their skills in illustration, painting, poetry, and journaling to record their discoveries and share their passion.

By examining the practices of historically significant naturalists, like John James Audubon, we can begin to explore the ways in which these traditions influenced the next iteration of interdisciplinary thinking and learning. Contemporary artists such as Penelope Gottlieb, Kara Maria, and Donald Farnsworth pick up from where Audubon left off—in new, celebratory, and sometimes critical ways.

This exhibition is organized in conjunction with the 2019 NV STEAM Conference, a statewide education conference focused on ideas and strategies that incorporate Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math education into innovative classroom practices that foster student creativity and innovation. The NV STEAM Conference is presented in partnership with the Desert Research Institute’s Science Alive program and supported by the Nevada Department of Education and the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council.

Major Sponsor

Mario J. Gabelli, CEO Gabelli Funds

Sponsor

Nancy and Ron Remington