New OXS exhibit highlights environmental challenges

CARSON CITY, Nevada – (June 12, 2017) Nevada artists Scott Hinton and Paul Ford share a common concern for the environment, though they express their views in unique and contrasting ways.

Hinton, a photographer and educator who serves as the coordinator of photographic research at the University of Nevada, Reno, has spent the past 20 years documenting urban sprawl through the use of panoramic photographs.

Ford, who graduated from San Diego State with a degree in sculpture and print making, has incorporated a lifelong interest in anthropology into his artwork. He mixes natural elements, such as sand and sticks – along with some unnatural elements – plastic bottles and other man-made objects – into his art.

Both artists have been honored with Governor’s Arts Award commissions and their work is being shown together at a new exhibit titled “Environmental Perspectives” at the Nevada Arts Council’s OXS Gallery in Carson City.

The exhibit opened Monday, June 12, and will be in place through Aug. 18. Managed by the Nevada Arts Council’s Artist Services Program, the gallery is located at 716 N. Carson St., Suite A, Carson City and is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

An artists’ reception and talk is scheduled for Aug. 8 from 5 to 7:30 p.m.

Hinton said his ongoing fascination with panoramic photography started with the first photo he made in 1995.

“Through multiple format changes over the years the 360 panoramic images that I have been producing since 2002 removed the formulaic base of a tripod and allowed for the movement of the eye to rise and fall as the camera rotates around a central point,” he said. “Each of the views look out upon the landscape to record places that have been altered by humans.”

His landscape research documents and advocates for open space preservation in a time of development densification and growth transformation in the once unspoiled scenic vistas of the rural American West.

Ford uses materials in his art to emphasize the challenging environmental circumstances the planet faces.

“There is a high level of certainty the environment is at risk, whether it be simply our backyards or the planet itself,” Ford said. “For nearly 50 years I have studied the objective, scientific research on climate change and have made art about the impact of the human era. At present, global warming is accelerating at an alarming pace yet, at the same time, the environmental progress that has been made during the last five decades is being challenged. I chose to come out of retirement and again use art as my pen to express myself for what I perceive as the greater good.”