Reno/ Las Vegas

A new survey shows the range of contemporary art in the Silver State.

- Cherie Louise Turner

This summer, the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno is presenting (through October 23) what should prove to be a nationally recognized and eye-opening exhibition, as it is the first survey of contemporary art created throughout Nevada (the show will travel to a yet-to-be-named location in Las Vegas next year). The only previous exhibition to exclusively feature current art made by artists in the state was the very specific “Las Vegas Diaspora: The Emergence of Contemporary Art from the Neon Homeland,” curated by the renowned art writer and then UNLV professor Dave Hickey. That exhibition, which took place at the Las Vegas Art Museum (now closed) focused on Las Vegas, and featured only Hickey’s students. Oh, how things have changed.

When asked how this exhibition differs from Hickey’s, as well as how the area’s art scene has changed over the past decade, Michelle Quinn, the show’s co-curator and a Las Vegas–based art consultant, points out that not only does “Tilting the Basin” feature work made across the state, but also that the artists are committed to living and working in Nevada (as opposed to just having gotten their degree there). As such, it aims to “bridge the divide” between the state’s two major cities—Las Vegas and Reno—and represent the wide range of work being made from north to south. “It’s hard to compare [the two exhibitions], because that was a one-scene show; it didn’t have the diversity. It featured one aesthetic.” She adds, “We don’t just have one conversation happening now. There are lots of artists doing lots of different things. When Hickey left, it created a vacuum in the art world here, creating room for so many more different ways to work.”