GEOGRAPHICAL DIVIDES: FINDING COMMON GROUND

Geographical Divides: Finding Common Ground examines Nevada unique visual culture. It is a state labeled with cultural myths like “Area 51,” “The Biggest Little City in the World” and “Sin City” and one that commands the imagination of Postmodernism from the architecture of Las Vegas to the proliferation of Burning Man Festival held once a year. It is comprised of two major metropolitan communities— in the north and south— divided by 300 miles of vast desert. Nevada’s art communities are not separated by distance of travel alone. There are notable differences among artists throughout the state in what is important in their work, most of which connects with where they live. This traversal of Nevada has also led to the realization of how little dialogue there is between artists of the two dominant communities—Reno and Las Vegas—not to mention the artists living in remote territories of the Nevada outback that are sometimes overlooked.  Nevada artists live on different sides of a geographical divide, however those lines are drawn.

Calling upon the printmaker’s sense of community, the sixteen artists featured in Geographical Divides: Finding Common Ground were invited to join in a series of collaborations that would explore these geographical and cultural differences in Nevada, if such differences truly exist. The assembly of printmakers—eight from the north, eight from the south—produced two prints from each collaboration. Each artist produced an initial plate that was sent to their collaborating partner for further surface and conceptual additions, and then returned for completion. Visually exploring connections and disconnections between southern Nevada and northern Nevada cultural attitudes, aesthetics and geographical distinctions—these sixteen artists communicated and visually responded to each other’s unique economic, environmental, political and social settings—further dissecting this notion of a splitting geography and/or communion of Nevada’s polarities.

Collaborating artists include: Maria Arango, Las Vegas/Lynn Schmidt, Reno; Erik Beehn, Las Vegas/Nolan Preece, Reno; Bobbie Ann Howell, Las Vegas/Galen Brown, Carson City; Daryl DePry, Las Vegas/Sharon Tetly, Carson City; Keith Conley, LasVegas/Sidne Teske, Tuscarora; Anne M. Hoff, Las Vegas/Vicki LoSasso, Reno; Jeanne Voltura, Las Vegas/Candace Nicol, Reno; and Juan D. Varela, Las Vegas/Ashlea Clark, Reno.

CURATED BY
Anne M. Hoff, College of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas, & Candace Nicol, Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno

GALLERY NOTES BY
Fred Sigman, Art Historian, Las Vegas