Ginny Ruffner: a not so still life

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

Saturday July 9 / 2 – 4 pm

In anticipation of her trip to northern Nevada, Ginny Ruffner said "I'm really looking forward to being in Reno and especially to meeting the local creative community. That landscape is particularly inspiring." Following the film, Ms. Ruffner will visit with the audience and answer questions.

The documentary film, a not so still life, peers into the kaleidoscopic mind of Ginny Ruffner, an artist as beloved for her magnanimous spirit as for her evolving "visual thought experiments." Director Karen Stanton explores the full span of Ginny's fascinating journey, from her childhood in South Carolina to her emergence as a world-­renowned artist. Meet the luminaries in her orbit, including Dale Chihuly, Graham Nash, and Tom Robbins. Witness Ginny's determination to recover from the accident that nearly claimed her life, but barely even slowed her constant re-­invention of the world around her.

Tickets for the film may be purchased at the Museum's website: $10/$8 members. For additional information, contact Colin Robertson at NMA: colin.robertson@nevadaart.org

[image from a Goggle search for the artist; text from the Museum and the film's producers]

Save the Date: Saturday, July 9 to meet Ginny Ruffner

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

Save the Date to meet the artist and to see the documentary film, a not so still life, about artist Ginny Ruffner, Saturday July 9 / 2 – 4 pm

Presented by the artist herself, this film explores the mind of Ginny Ruffner who is hailed for her magnanimous spirit and determination to recover from a near-fatal accident. Ruffner will answer questions following the film’s screening.

Ginny Ruffner, can't be summed up in one word, but the most commonly used term is "inspiring." A world-renown artist at the age of 39, she was involved in a near-fatal car accident, which left her in a coma for five weeks and confined to a hospital for five months. Doctors were convinced that she would never walk or talk again, but true to her indomitable spirit, Ginny Ruffner transformed a potentially tragic accident into a career of even more imaginative creations. From pop-up books, to room-sized installation pieces, to public works, Ruffner's art has blossomed and continues to expand.

Tickets may be purchased at the Museum's website: $10/$8 members
For additional information, contact Colin Robertson at NMA: colin.robertson@nevadaart.org

[image and text from the Museum's website and from the film's producers]

Nevada Museum of Art: To Live Forever

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

June 11, 2011 - September 4, 2011

Feature Gallery South

Explore ancient Egyptian beliefs about life, death, and the afterlife in To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum. Featuring more than 100 objects including mummies, statuary, sarcophagi, coffins, gold jewelry, and elegantly-crafted vessels, the exhibition includes some of the greatest masterworks of Egyptian artistic heritage. The exhibition also helps to explain the process of mummification, the conduct of a funeral, and different types of tombs—answering questions at the core of the public’s fascination with ancient Egypt.

Two of the main ancient Egyptian cultural beliefs that have endured for thousands of years are a belief in the afterlife, and the view that death was an enemy that could be vanquished. To Live Forever features objects that illustrate a range of strategies the ancient Egyptians developed to defeat death, including mummification and various rituals performed in the tomb. The exhibition contains funeral equipment used by the rich, the middle class, and the poor, and also reveals what the Egyptians believed they would find in the next world. The economics of the funeral are examined, including how the poor tried to imitate the costly appearance of the grave goods of the rich in order to ensure a better place in the afterlife.

Specially-designed interpretation for this exhibition acknowledges the recent political revolution in Egypt and includes speculative conjecture from best-selling science fiction author Bruce Sterling, accompanied by an 80-foot panoramic mural depicting a possible future Egypt. In much the same way that the antiquities on display offer only traces of historical evidence helping us to understand Egypt’s past, Sterling’s contribution and the accompanying mural illustrates one of many possible outcomes for the future of this dynamic and rapidly-changing country.

Continue your journey into Egypt with "Mystery of the Nile," the full-dome film at the Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center showing daily at 3pm, June 3 – September 5, 2011. Navigate the 3,260-mile Blue Nile journey from Ethiopia to the Mediterranean Sea in 16-foot rafts and some of the most extreme white-water rapids in the world. For tickets and details call (775) 784-4812, or visit www.planetarium.unr.edu.

For information on the Museum's related programs and events, please visit www.nevadaart.org To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum has been organized by the Brooklyn Museum.

[image and text from the Nevada Museum of Art's website]

Performing Villareal with Jean-Paul Perrotte

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno


Performing Villareal's Animating Light
with Composer Jean-Paul Perrotte

Thursday, April 28, 6 – 8pm
Cost $10 / $8 Museum members

Experience the fluid, erratic, and astonishing movements of Leo Villareal’s works in Animating Light as they come to life through composer Jean-Paul Perrotte’s musical score. Perrotte’s improvisational electronic score responds to the patterns of light manifested by the computer codes of Villareal’s light sculptures. This is the second in a series of three programs designed to interpret Villareal’s work.

Animating Light, now at the Nevada Museum of Art, is the first museum survey of the groundbreaking work of Leo Villareal, whose stunning manipulations of light and color are internationally renowned. Villareal is the most prominent light sculptor of his generation. In 1997, he abandoned his work with interactive television and began creating sculptures in which he combined strobe lights, neon, and most recently, LED bulbs activated by the artist’s own custom-made software.

Animating Light will be at the Museum through May 22, 2011.

[image and text from the museum’s website]

Nevada Museum of Art 2011 Scholastic Awards

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

Saturday March 12 9 - 10:30am

The Nevada Museum of Art has hosted the Scholastic Art Awards since 1999 and is proud once again to showcase the outstanding talent of our local youth, including middle and high school students from 13 northern Nevada counties. Celebrate the artistic achievements of the students at the exhibition opening reception Saturday, March 12; the exhibition is free and open to the public.

[information & image from the museum's website: Savannah Gossier, Olivia, 2010]

Wondrous Cold

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

Wondrous Cold, An Antarctic Journey
Photographs by Joan Myers

"...an exhibition of 50 spectacular color and black-and-white photographs, juxtaposes large panoramas of Antarctica’s beauty and desolation with scenes of wildlife, people, and the abandoned historic huts of early explorers. Smaller images document the scientists who conduct research at McMurdo Station -- one of several American scientific research stations built in the 1950s and still active today -- and the support staff who keep the station functioning.

Award-winning photographer Joan Myers, recipient of an Antarctic Artists and Writers Program grant from the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs, spent four months photographing scientific study and daily life at McMurdo Station working in below-freezing temperatures with wind chills as low as -60 degrees. She also made trips to the interior by plane, helicopter, and snowmobile.

Through April 3

more

[text and graphic from museum website. Click on image to enlarge.]

Ben Hoffman:The Cartesian Medium

Nevada Museum of Art
Media Gallery
160 W. Liberty Street
Reno

Ben Hoffman: The Cartesian Medium

Through February 6, 2011

"Mathematics and art are intimately linked in the innovative work of Nevada artist Ben Hoffman. Having always been interested in mathematical parallels to the world he sees around him, Hoffman began investigating techniques for math visualizations several years ago. Hoffman calls his method of artmaking “the Cartesian Medium” — a term he coined himself.

The mathematics behind Hoffman's visualizations normally consists of a large number of fairly simple mathematical elements that are layered together to create the result he desires. Hoffman's final equations ultimately describe the images by defining quantifiable elements such as position and color."

[Text and graphics from Nevada Museum of Art website.]

The Fishman Project

Nevada Museum of Art
Center for Art and Environment Gallery
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

John Reid: The Fishman Project

"In 1988 Australian artist John Reid captured on film the blurred image of what appeared to be a hominid creature underwater. The location was a remote cave high in the mountains of New South Wales, a region of ancient forest under threat from logging. For sixteen years, Reid explored the mountains in order to track down what he describes not as a scientific discovery, but an artistic one.

When Reid made public his discovery, he received national media attention for his images of what he called “Fishman,” a previously undiscovered hominid. In the process, he drew attention to the plight of the forests, which have since been preserved in a string of parks, in particular the Monga and Deua National Parks, which holds the Wyanbene Caves where he first encountered the Fishman.
Reid’s photographs trace his effort to track down the elusive creature, as well as document some of these forested valleys that are so steep and deeply forested that Australian artists since the 18th-century have had difficulty in portraying them."

Through January 9, 2011

[Text and graphic from the Museum website. Click on image to enlarge.]

Reno Punk and Hardcore Music

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

The Wrong Side of Reno
Three Decades of Punk and Hardcore Music in the Biggest Little City

Through March 6, 2011

"… the first exhibition to present a comprehensive anthology of vinyl records that have been pressed in Reno during the city’s long and intimate history with underground music.

Early pioneers of hardcore, the Reno punk band 7 Seconds released their first vinyl 7” record in 1982, establishing Reno as a creative voice in what would quickly become a global subculture. The community they helped create still thrives in Reno today, sequestered in basements, home-recording studios and independent record shops -- proof that the spirited anger of Hardcore Punk is as resilient and vibrant as ever.

Over 150 albums will be on display from bands such as Iron Lung, Zoinks, Crushstory, The Atomiks, and This Computer Kills. All of the albums on view in the exhibition are from the private collection of Mac Schopen. A book, edited by Jeanne Jo and Mac Schopen, will accompany the exhibition."

[CCAI extends congratulations and best wishes to former CCAI Board Member Jeanne Jo. Text and graphic from museum website. Click on image to enlarge.]

Pablo Picasso Musical Instruments

Pablo Picasso Musical Instruments

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

Cubism at its finest.

"In Picasso’s Musical Instruments and Fruit Bowl on a Pedestal, fragments of a traditional still life composition are identifiable: a violin, sheet music, and decorative furniture components are enveloped among other flattened, colorful geometric shapes. This experimental and innovative approach to making art revolutionized the artistic scene in Europe and eventually influenced artists working in the United States."

Learn more about Cubism.


Through November 28

[Text and graphic from Nevada Museum of Art website. Click on image to enlarge.]

Explorer, Naturalist, Artist: John James Audubon and the Birds of America

Opening November 7

Nevada Museum of Art
Feature Gallery South
160 W. Liberty Street
Reno

Explorer, Naturalist, Artist:
John James Audubon
and the Birds of America








Considered "one of the most important artists of the nineteenth century. From 1820 to 1838, he traversed the eastern and central United States to depict nearly five-hundred species of birds—giving special attention to the complex interrelationships between the animals and their natural habitats. In 1863, about ten years after Audubon’s death, his wife Lucy sold the family’s core collection of Audubon material to the New York Historical Society, including hundreds of Audubon's original watercolors, many of which were the basis for his Birds of America series. This exhibition features fifty of Audubon’s most dramatic and life-sized watercolor depictions from the first-edition printing of The New York Historical Society Edition.
The works in this exhibition are drawn from The Dana Rose Richardson Memorial Collection of Audubon Prints at the Nevada Museum of Art."

Through February 13, 2011

[Text and graphics from Nevada Museum of Art website.]

Binh Danh: Ancestral Altars

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

Binh Danh
Ancestral Altars

"Vietnamese-American artist Binh Danh uses an innovative photographic process that employs organic matter and sunlight to make haunting images that memorialize victims of the Khmer Rouge."


Through November 28.

[Text and graphic from museum website. Caption: "Ancestral Altar #21, 2006." Click on image to enlarge.]

Natural Conflict

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

Natural Conflict
Video and Photography from Israel

"Natural Conflict showcases work by seven established Israeli artists who explore issues that have been ongoing in Israeli society for years. Through the media of video and photography, the artists Shelly Federman, Avi Holtzman, Elyasaf Kowner, Ori Gersht, Roi Kuper, Shai Kremer, and Sharon Glazberg reveal the way that Israeli military presence, booming real estate development, and other environmental issues have both physically and metaphorically impacted the Israeli landscape.

While environmental conflicts such as these are universal and enduring, in Israel the relative impact is greater due to its diminutive size and limited open space. Although environmental awareness exists, clear policies for protecting natural resources have evolved slowly and are sometimes challenged by powerful private interests and the needs of the military. This exhibition endeavors to survey the varied visual and environmental realities in Israel through the eyes of the seven artists. Comprised of loaded symbols of the Israeli landscape and culture, common sights, and hidden or unfamiliar places, the works grapple with the real, potential, and endangered beauty of the Israeli landscape with a blend of criticism and subtle sorrow."

Through December 5

[Text and graphic from museum website. Click on image to enlarge.]

On Earth as It Is in Heaven

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

August 14, 2010 - October 17:

Chester Arnold
On Earth as It Is in Heaven

"For Chester Arnold, painting is as much about social responsibility as it is about crafting luscious large-scale oil paintings in the tradition of 19th-century European artists. Since he began painting over three decades ago, Arnold has cleverly confronted a range of challenging subjects ranging from land use and environmental issues to the global impacts of human and industrial consumption, accumulation, and waste. The paintings united in this exhibition ask viewers to consider the implications of unchecked economic development and industrialized growth on the natural environment. Often, Arnold's work is infused with a dose of religious or political inflection that generates passionate dialogue about the topics he tackles. "If this is God's will," Arnold once remarked while referring to one of the abused landscapes he depicted on canvas, "something is wrong."

more

[Text and graphic from Museum website. Click to enlarge.]

Physiocartographies

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

Center for Art + Environment

Bill Gilbert
Physiocartographies

Using a GPS unit and a compass, New Mexico-based artist Bill Gilbert attempts to walk carefully pre-determined routes in both space and time across landscapes in the American West. His carefully-made plans are invariably disrupted by the realities of terrain and the limitations of the human body. In the tradition of British artists such as Richard Long and Chris Drury, Gilbert's "Physiocartography" performances chart the distance between the map and the terrain, and are documented in drawings, video, and audio recordings.

Through September 26.

[Text and graphic from Museuem website. Caption: "Bill Gilbert. 'For John Wesley Powell, Attempts to Walk the Grid, Sand Canyon, September 27, 2006.'  Digital print, 40 x 40 inches, one-hour walk in each cardinal direction, orientation: magnetic north." Click on image to enlarge.]

The Baroque World of Fernando Botero

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

The Baroque World of Fernando Botero

'Alternately wry and deeply emotional, Colombian artist Fernando Botero blends beauty, violence, tradition, and modernity in his effort to convey the glories and miseries of contemporary life, particularly in Latin America. With 100 paintings, drawings, and sculptures drawn from the artist's private collection the exhibition examines Botero's indebtedness to European artists such as 19th century French painters Dominique Ingres and Eugene Delacroix and Italian Renaissance artists Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca. It also acknowledges his interest in Mexican artists Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and José Clemente Orozco and the great Spanish painter Diego Velazquez. In his earlier works from the 1950s, Botero's struggle to define his own style is still evident, but eventually the artist's mature style in the form of enlarged volumes and distinctive, buoyant figures emerges. The Baroque World of Fernando Botero offers insight into the artist's many worlds: be it his role as a social critic, re-interpreter, cultural force, or product of the artists who preceded him."

Through July 25

[Text and graphic from museum website.]

In the Desert

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

June 26, 2010 - September 26

Lewis Baltz: In the Desert

"... featuring 28 photographs by the internationally-renowned photographer recognized as an icon of contemporary photography due to the pivotal role he played in the New Topographics photography movement that emerged in the mid-1970s.

Two series of photographs "Nevada" and "Near Reno" will be included in the exhibition. These series consist of black-and-white photographs that Baltz took of construction sites and abandoned areas in the northern Nevada desert region between 1977 and 1986.

Many of the images in the exhibition are those for which the artist became best known. The Nevada portfolio was completed while Baltz worked as an artist-in-residence at the University of Nevada, Reno under the Nevada Arts Council Artist-in Residence Program. Nevada includes images of stark desert terrain and the discarded objects and relics often found in the desert.

Near Reno is a suite of photographs Baltz made when he returned to northern Nevada in June of 1986. The series examines various construction sites and documents evidence of human influence on the surrounding landscape. Both series prove that the American West was a source of continual inspiration for Baltz, and that he returned time and again to the region, even though he had already achieved national and international success as an artist.

The works in this exhibition are from the Nevada Museum of Art's signature Altered Landscape photography collection, which includes over 700 photographs addressing issues such as suburban development, the mining industry, military installations, and the nuclear legacy in the American West."

[Text and graphic from museum website: Caption: "Lewis Baltz, Night Construction, Reno, from the Nevada portfolio, 1977. Gelatin silver print, 8 x 10 inches. Collection of the Nevada Museum of Art, The Altered Landscape, Carol Franc Buck Collection." Click on image to enlarge.]

The Baroque World of Fernando Botero

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

May 1, 2010 - July 25

The Baroque World of Fernando Botero

"Alternately wry and deeply emotional, Colombian artist Fernando Botero blends beauty, violence, tradition, and modernity in his effort to convey the glories and miseries of contemporary life, particularly in Latin America. With 100 paintings, drawings, and sculptures drawn from the artist's private collection the exhibition examines Botero's indebtedness to European artists such as 19th century French painters Dominique Ingres and Eugene Delacroix and Italian Renaissance artists Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca. It also acknowledges his interest in Mexican artists Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and José Clemente Orozco and the great Spanish painter Diego Velazquez. In his earlier works from the 1950s, Botero's struggle to define his own style is still evident, but eventually the artist's mature style in the form of enlarged volumes and distinctive, buoyant figures emerges. The Baroque World of Fernando Botero offers insight into the artist's many worlds: be it his role as a social critic, re-interpreter, cultural force, or product of the artists who preceded him.

[Text and graphics from Museum website. Caption: "The First Lady, 1989. Oil on canvas, 80 x 65 inches;" "Still Life with a Mandolin, 1998. Oil on canvas, 38 ½ x 46 ½ inches. Click on images to enlarge.>

Eric Strain | BRDI | NMA

Black Rock Design Institute at the Nevada Museum of Art

January 21
Social hour with Silver Peak Beer at 5 pm. Lecture at 6 pm.

more

Lucy Raven | China Town

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

Center for Art + Environment

Lucy Raven: China Town

"Begun while working as an artist-in-residence at the Center for Land Use Interpretation, Lucy Raven's video China Town traces copper mining and production from an open pit mine in East Ely, Nevada to the Yangtze River in China, where the semi-processed ore is sent to be smelted, refined, and spun into wire and used to electrify the nation. The video consists of an animated sequence created from more than 7,000 photographs, along with ambient sound that Raven recorded along her journey across the globe. China Town offers a stunning view of the relationship between the industrial landscapes of two countries, whose economies are intimately linked due to China’s increased demand for resources and electricity."

Through May 9

NB: Matt Coolidge, Center for Land Use Interpretation Director, will be part of CCAI's March 2010 Nevada Neighbors project, and will give a public talk on Wednesday, March 31 at 7 pm at the Carson City Library.

[Text from Museum website. Graphic from Mass MoCA web site. Click on image to enlarge.]