Local arts stands out, inject natural inspiration in Reno's second annual int'l show.
2023 Reno Tahoe International Art Show
Reno-Sparks Convention Center
Reno, NV
Sept. 14 – 17, 2023
The sounds of connection wafted through the hall as I meandered through the art in Hall 3 at the Reno Sparks Convention Center on Sunday afternoon.
“This piece is about my brother who died of a fentanyl overdose,” one artist said to two attendees.
“It’s just so fun to see all these styles,” a different artist said to another.
The event, the 2023 Reno Tahoe International Art Show, fostered artistic connections across place and style. The second annual show expanded its footprint this year but also increased its liveliness through an improved setup and increased visibility of local art. Sections dedicated to Burning Man art, local working artists, and those who used to ply their trade in Reno shined alongside national and international studios. For the sake of reviewing a show that has over 200 artists showing and selling their work, I stuck mostly to the local art sections of the event. The tagline for this show is “Reno, NV … Who Knew?” after all.
It was a treat to see so much talent on display, with many offering inventive, unique takes on nature. That was a dominant thematic throughline. For many, finding nature as an inspiration meant also acting as a documentarian of it.
Andrea Laue’s Place Moment series was originally conceived after 2021’s Caldor and Tamarack fires in the Sierra Nevada as a way to capture her experiences outdoors. The abstract, pointy watercolors don’t bear many pictorial similarities to the moments they describe but they’re full of life and color just as a springtime hike might be. Laue hopes to capture those encounters in natural places before those places change completely, like the forests of the Mokelumne Wilderness that burned in the Tamarack Fire. The layered lines and colors evoke a new view of overlapping time and place that those fires brought to the forefront.
Kimbo Franke’s work offered an opposite take on a similar idea. Her oils include Tahoe vistas, granite canyons, and cholla-filled valleys. But all the landscapes have a cartoonish feel, enhanced by bright light and large, deep shadows. That’s especially true in Jumping Cholla with Cloud Void where the poofy chollas sway in a sandy valley. The light tan outline around the tips of each cholla imbues them with a paradoxical fragility and vivacity. I’m standing there half expecting a little desert critter to scamper across the scene under the spines of the chollas. Franke gives these prickly cacti a softer feel that reminds us that they need our protection and attention, too.
Others acted more as interpreters of the nature they painted. Susan Christopher’s acrylic abstractions included dreamy representations of flowers like those you might find in your neighbor’s well-kept garden. In a statement next to her paintings, Christopher wrote that she aspires to capture pulse and memory in her textured, colorful works. They reminded me of sitting on a back porch in the light of a late summer afternoon and admiring the simple, everyday nature around. Christopher represents the feeling we humans get from interacting with our environment.
Denise Miller showed five oil landscapes offering a different take on the Sierras and Eastern Nevada’s Ruby Mountains. More representational than Christopher’s work, Miller also tries to paint the memory and feeling of the place. Her style of layered color and wavy lines reminds me of Phyllis Shafer’s Western landscapes. Miller’s waviness allows us to imagine the breeze in the trees. The swirls of snow atop Tahoe’s peaks breathe life into their craggy faces. She strives to create a visual poem but, for me, her treatment of the plants, peaks, and lakes creates a more symphonic composition by showing the forces of weather. And, therefore, letting us hear sounds we’ve heard out on our walks and ski runs.
Looming large over the Reno section and dominating the outdoor entrance was post-playa art from this year’s Burning Man. The week-long desert art and music festival plays an integral role in the visual scene of this closest metropolis. Neon and weathered metal sculptures, like Mark Rivera’s Jíbaro soy…, caught my attention. Jíbaro soy… is a roughly twenty-foot-tall metal sculpture of a Puerto Rican peasant farmer wielding two machetes and neon-accented pants. But little multicolored homes and mini road signs from towns on the island fill the space where the farmer’s torso should be. It’s a beautiful representation of place and strength.
At the farmer’s feet, a trio of cats welded out of metal circles, lit with colored lights, and wearing tutus stretched out as if they’ve just woken up from a nap. Collectively, they’re titled Trust. Paige Tashner’s sculptures brought a lightness and fun to the show while still displaying remarkable craftsmanship.
That stellar craftsmanship across styles and materials in such a large quantity is what makes this show unmissable and unlike anything else in the Truckee Meadows. It reminded me how much talent resides here and how much art this region inspires. We should count ourselves lucky.
