The old saying goes that One mans trash is another mans treasure.

If you take a peek inside Western Nevada Colleges Main Gallery in the Bristlecone Building, thats obviously what is going on with artist Kyle Karrasch. The 2018 University of Nevada graduate has transformed aluminum cans and other discarded items such as cardboard into his Waste Aeon exhibit.

Karrasch told the Capital City Arts Initiative, which is presenting the three-month exhibit, that I like to describe my art practice like that of a naturalist and a taxidermist. I collect discarded specimens from their resting place and carve into their carcasses, flaying their skins out into recognizable forms.

Regular art gallery visitors may recall his Metallum Terrae exhibit several years ago in which he used aluminum cans and plastics to create landscapes and sculptures.

Karrasch told the CCAI that he enjoys the different phases of creating his exhibits: the collecting items of consumption, transforming them beyond initial recognition and composing them into three-dimensional forms.

(They are) intended to convey my commentary on the current state of consumerism and our environment, he said. Through symbolism and allegory, I use these materials to comment on the impact they have on our environment as well as to highlight the value these objects still have.

WNCs Main Gallery is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday. Waste Aeon will be displayed through Dec. 20.

A reception for Karrasch is scheduled Friday, Sept. 30 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the Main Gallery; hell be introduced at 5:30 p.m.