Pillows, goat hide, blankets and crushed pearls are only part of what Reno and Las Vegas artists used in the traveling exhibit Still Here Now, which is now showing in the Bristlecone Main Gallery at Western Nevada College in Carson City.
The Nevada Arts Council exhibit includes Hidden Agenda, a unique combination of latex painting and pillow stuffing, mesmerizing portraits including As the Land and Saving Sage, and abstract pieces using acrylic on paper in Every Molecule in My Body and burned goat hide in Star Hide.
NAC describes the artwork as pieces in this show often reference or portray landscape and place, but their stories do not reside there. The experience of landscape is only as important as our own fixed experience in space; these artists reflect on notions of rootedness, permanence, anxiety and survival in their work. The artists use hands, faces and bodies in most of the pieces in various mediums, including textile, paint, wood and resourcefulness with they have discovered.
Still Here Now was organized by the Nevada Arts Council and curated by Stephanie Gibson. It is part of the Nevada Touring Initiative Traveling Exhibition Program. It features the artwork of the 2010-14 recipients of the Nevada Art Councils Artist Fellowship program and reflects the deep breadth of the artistic expertise supported by the NACs fellowship grants.
Contributing artists are Linda Alterwitz of Las Vegas, Chris Bauder of Las Vegas, Ahren Hertel of Reno, Darren Johnson of Las Vegas, Orlando Javier Montenegro-Cruz of Las Vegas, Elaine Parks of Tuscarora, Robin Stark of Las Vegas and Brent Sommerhauser of Las Vegas.
View the exhibit through July 16 in the Bristlecone Main Gallery Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The NAC was established as a state agency in 1967 to enrich the cultural life of the state by supporting, strengthening and making excellence in the arts accessible to all Nevadans.