The 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art presents Plural: Meet the Artists, an evening of conversation with Las Vegas artists whose work appears in the Barrick’s current group exhibition, Plural. The event takes place from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, May 10, and is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
What does it mean to make art in Las Vegas today? As the multi-voiced Plural exhibition comes to an end the artists will talk about the ideas that inform their work and how that affects everything from the materials they use to the conversations they want to provoke.
Attendees are invited to join the Barrick Museum’s director, staff, and curators, as Linda Alterwitz, Diane Bush, Gig Depio, Andreana Donahue, Nancy Good, Brent Holmes, Bobbie Ann Howell, Wendy Kveck, Krystal Ramirez, JK Russ, Aaron Sheppard, Lance Smith, and Mikayla Whitmore lead us through their practices in the gallery with the art they created.
LINDA ALTERWITZ
Las Vegas-based artist Linda Alterwitz juxtaposes scientifically generated imagery with traditional and digital photographic techniques, searching for new ways to stimulate ideas about human frailty and wonder. She has exhibited internationally in both traditional and site-specific installations including Life is Beautiful in Las Vegas; Yixian Photo Festival, China; and Mayo Clinic, Florida. In 2014, she was awarded the Fellowship for Visual Arts by the Nevada Arts Council. Her mid-career retrospective, While I Am Still, took place in Las Vegas at The Studio at Sahara West in 2015.
DIANE BUSH
Las Vegas-based photographer, mixed media artist, and grassroots activist Diane Bush reflects — often satirically — on aspects of contemporary life, working to connect the concerns of art to problems of society and politics. Her work has been published and exhibited internationally, including shows at The Photographers Gallery, London; the Soho Photo Gallery in New York; Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts; and the Albright- Knox Art Gallery in New York. Her work is included in collections at the Tate Modern in London; Helmut Gernscheim, Germany; and the Cirque du Soleil art collection in Montreal. Her monograph WARHEADS was published by KUDA editions in 2005.
GIG DEPIO
Las Vegas-based painter Gig Depio presents the intersections of contemporary and historical forces in the form of intense, often large-scale, figurative compositions. Recipient of the 2016 Nevada Arts Council Fellowship Grant in Painting, he has exhibited across Nevada, with shows at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno; the Nevada Arts Council OXS Gallery in Carson City; and the Clark County Winchester Cultural Center Gallery, Las Vegas. In his native Philippines, he worked for several years as an apprentice to his father, artist and professor Gig C. De Pio Sr.
ANDREANA DONAHUE
Las Vegas-based mixed-media artist Andreana Donahue tests the history and context of landscapes by committing found materials to intensive analog processes. Her work has been exhibited across the United States and internationally, with shows in Alaska, California, Nevada, Illinois, Texas, South Carolina; and Bluonduos and ReykjavÃk, Iceland. Donahue is the co-founder of Disparate Minds, a project dedicated to the work of marginalized self-taught artists.
JUSTIN FAVELA
A native Las Vegan, Justin Favela creates sculptures, installations, and performance works that address ideas about culture, nostalgia, and self-identification. Favela’s work has been exhibited at Denver Art Museum; New Mexico Museum of Art; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas; the MAC Belfast, Ireland.; and the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. Along with his co-host, Emmanuel Ortega, he is the founder of the popular podcast, Latinos Who Lunch.
NANCY GOOD
Las Vegas-based artist Nancy Good experiments with photography and other media in the search of an intangible sense of atmosphere. She has exhibited at locations in Tennessee, New York, Montana, California, and Nevada, including the Nashville International Airport in Tennessee; St. Mary's Retreat & Art Center in Virginia City, and Las Vegas’ Life is Beautiful Festival.
BRENT HOLMES
Las Vegas-based sculptor and photographer Brent Holmes investigates the margins of our urban landscape for the places where ancient philosophy finds an echo in contemporary mores. He has exhibited in galleries across Las Vegas; at Light and Space Contemporary, Manila, Philippines; and Torrance Art Museum in California.
BOBBIE ANN HOWELL
A native Nevadan, Bobbie Ann Howell translates current events, the lives of women, and elements of the western landscape into cut paper imagery, photographic explorations, and other media. She has exhibited at locations across Nevada, including the Lost City Museum in Overton; Great Basin College, Elko; and the Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery at 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ. Her works are held in public and private collections across the United States.
WENDY KVECK
The paintings, drawings, and live performances of Las Vegas-based artist Wendy Kveck explore cultural depictions of women as markers of vulnerability and chaos. Kveck, who earned an MFA from 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ in 2007, has exhibited at galleries and institutions in Nevada, California, Illinois, Arizona, Texas, Oregon, and Florida; with shows at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art and in Tilting the Basin: Contemporary Art of Nevada at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, and downtown Las Vegas.
New Zealander JK Russ has lived and worked in Las Vegas since 2010. Inspired by the visual language of burlesque shows and vintage pornography, her collages and installations perform a surreal investigation into the erotics of public display. She has exhibited in New Zealand, Australia, and the Philippines; as well as the Nevada Museum of Art and El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe. Russ has created collaborative collage projects for the City of Las Vegas, the Life is Beautiful festival, and P3 Studio at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
AARON SHEPPARD
Ludic and raw, the performances, drawings, paintings, and assemblages of Aaron Sheppard offer the viewer a world in which identity is fluid and experimentation is open to everyone. He has exhibited or performed at Western Project in California; DUMBO Arts Center in New York; Trifecta, Las Vegas; and the Mermaid Parade of Joshua Tree, CA. Sheppard earned an MFA from 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ in 2009.
LANCE SMITH
Attentive to the fluidity of memory and representation, Las Vegas artist Lance Smith uses drawing, painting, and performance to highlight the profound reality of marginalized experiences. He has exhibited at numerous venues across Las Vegas, including Blackbird Gallery, Brett Wesley Gallery, The Studio, and VAST Space Projects. He earned an MFA at 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ in 2011.
MIKAYLA WHITMORE
Las Vegas photographer and installation artist Mikayla Whitmore uses the phantom realism of the photographic image to explore the elusiveness of place, time, and human memory. A resident artist at both the Cosmopolitan (2015) and the Neon Museum (2016), she has exhibited her work at Torrance Art Museum in California; Humble Arts Foundation in New York; and in galleries and other venues across Las Vegas. She earned an MFA at 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ in 2010.
Plural features recently donated artworks from the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art’s permanent collection that explore complex aspects of human identity through a range of traditional and unconventional media. Memory, passion, voice, excess, race, gender, and intersectionality all are brought into question as we search for ways in which a museum collection can reflect our own multifaceted understanding of who we are. It continues through Saturday, May 12.
