Two award-winning artists display work in new OXS exhibit opening Sept. 28
Sept. 18, 2015
Two award-winning artists are featured in the Nevada Arts Council’s OXS Gallery Sept. 28 to Dec. 18. Reno artist Walter McNamara uses recycled material in many of his collages and sculptures on display. Lynda Yuroff, also from Reno, focuses on a trickster figure of Native American mythology as she studies the changes that occur during the act of painting.
A reception is set for 5 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3 with artist talks at 6:15 p.m. The OXS Gallery is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 716 N. Carson St. in Carson City and admission is free.
McNamara’s process begins by collecting visually interesting and typically discarded stuff. In “Recycled Habits,” his pieces are manipulated and transformed, combined with other bits and pieces, and worked into the service of visual statements. The results are personal myths that mix satire, puns, and storytelling.
McNamara studied art at the University of Nevada, Reno, and later became the curator of the Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery at UNR from the early 1960s until 1992 when he retired to pursue his art full-time. He is a recipient the City of Reno’s C.I.T.Y 2000 Arts Commission in 1993; and received the 4th Annual Governor’s Arts Award in 1983; GAA Visual Arts Commissions in 1986, 1987, and 1988; and the Artist Fellowship in 1989 from the Nevada Arts Council.
In “Trickster Ways,” a trickster or creature appears in Yuroff’s work in one form then another, creating order out of chaos and the reverse. Methods the artist employs while creating artwork include adding and removing paint, defining the object, then obscuring and re-defining the piece.
“A good painting always has an unexpected resolution,” she said. The forms, shadows, and shapes suggest themselves. For the relief sculptures, the layering of materials such as paper pulp made from old denim, sage wood, and gold leaf adds textural depth and shape to the pieces while hinting at what lies beneath.
Yuroff attended Illinois State University in Normal, IL, studying studio art and painting. She has been a graphic designer and illustrator with illustrations appearing in the Reno Gazette Journal and the American Shotgunner Magazine. She is on the board of the David J. Drakulich Art Foundation. She has taught in residency programs for the Nevada Arts Council and Sierra Arts Foundation in Reno. Yuroff received the Governor’s Arts Award Visual Arts Commission in 2003 and 2009 from the Nevada Arts Council.