I can now officially admit to my collaboration with Meow Wolf Las Vegas, opening early 2021!

Read more about the project in the Los Angeles Times article here.

“Omega Mart will be unlike anything visitors have seen before, with an even richer storyline than Meow Wolf’s previous installation in Sante Fe, the THEA Awarding-winning international sensation House of Eternal Return. The team behind Meow Wolf Las Vegas is working with hundreds of creatives on staff and more than 50 collaborating visual and musical artists and artist groups from all over the world, including local Las Vegas residents like Eric Vozzola, and world-renowned artists like Amon Tobin, Shrine, and Claudia Bueno, to create a one-of-a-kind grocery store experience that will anchor AREA15.”

Omega Mart details may appear at Omegamart.com.

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Table describing itself, Altered wood table, 30″ x 36″ x 33″

Still Here Now features the works of a selection of 2010-2014 recipients of the Nevada Arts Council’s Artist Fellowship program. The pieces in this show often reference or portray landscape and place, but their stories do not reside there. Beyond the depiction of land and nature, the presence of people is paramount. Bodies, psyches, and emotional connections inhabit the forefront of examination for the artists. The experience of landscape is only as important as our own fixed experience in space; these nine artists reflect on notions of rootedness, permanence, anxiety, and survival in their work.

The selected works reflect the deep breadth of artistic expertise supported by the Nevada Arts Council’s fellowship grants. Hands, bodies, and faces permeate the pieces in this show, never entirely abstracted, yet never completely revealed. Each artist demonstrates a commitment to the investigation of a given medium, be it textile, paint, wood, or found objects, as their work presents a perspective on the psyche and anxiety of being human. Still Here Now provokes thought on art, our bodies, and the environment, and our uneasy place within this paradigm.

This exhibition highlights the distinctive practice of each artist while reflecting on a larger theme of an embodied presence in a place. How does one navigate and survive in the wilderness? How are we to thrive in an ominous time with an unpredictable and changing climate? How do we assert ourselves? How is our presence relational to the night sky? These are the deliberations of Still Here Now. Each artist presents work with a unique point of view, offering a compelling narrative about the unsettled feeling and contemporary anxiety of residing in an environment we don’t entirely grasp.

Exhibition artists include: Linda Alterwitz, Photography, Las Vegas; Chris Bauder, Sculpture, Las Vegas; Ahren Hertel, Painting, Reno; Darren Johnson, Painting, Las Vegas; Orlando Javier Montenegro-Cruz, Painting Las Vegas; Elaine Parks, Sculpture, Tuscarora/Los Angeles; Robin Stark, Ceramics, Las Vegas; and Brent Sommerhauser, Sculpture, Las Vegas.

The pieces in this show often reference or portray landscape and place, but their stories do not reside there. Beyond the depiction of land and nature, the presence of people is paramount.
Traveling February 2019-June 2021                                                                                          View the schedule here.

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Studio 200 presents the pop-up group exhibition ‘Dissolving Artifacts’, in Dumbo New York.

The show features works by Jerry J Adams, Aylon Ben-Ami, Annabel Daou, Damien Davis, Olivia Divecchia, Erik Doty, Nick Doty, Diana Drake, Will Epstein, Zac Hacmon, Tristan Higginbotham, Rocky Horton, Harry Kleeman, Zaq Landsberg, Chris Lee, Amelia Marzec, Carol Peligian, Ada Potter, Zack Rafuls, Joshua Raiffe, Cordy Ryman, Aubrey Saget, Lara Saget, Eric Santoscoy-Mckillip, Erin Schiller, Solo, Brent Sommerhauser, Amanda Turner Pohan, Jason Tomme, Matthew Whitenack, and Virginia Yearick.

Gallery Hours: Friday – Sunday 1 – 7 pm
Monday – Thursday by appointment. January 9th – April 12th
infostudio200@gmail.com          studio200nyc.com          @studio200nyc

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Tilting the Basin, Las Vegas

Tilting the Basin:
Contemporary Art of Nevada

March 17, 2017 – May 14, 2017
920 Commerce Street, Las Vegas

920 S. COMMERCE STREET HOURS: WED – SUN / 10 am – 6 pm | FRIDAYS until 9 pm

Contact: 702.201.4253

FREE Admission provided by MGM Resorts International.

Please note that S. Commerce Street is under construction, but is open for business. The road is only accessible from Main Street. If you are driving north on Main, turn left at Gambler’s General; heading south on Main, turn right at Gambler’s General. Drive forward and look for the colorful Tilting the Basin graphics on the building. 

The Art Museum at Symphony Park (AMSP), the group advancing a future art museum in Las Vegas, and Reno-based Nevada Museum of Art, the state’s only accredited art museum, have partnered to present an exhibition showcasing the most significant contemporary artists living and working across Nevada today. Tilting the Basin: Contemporary Art of Nevada bridges the divide between Northern and Southern Nevada communities, providing a broad overview and deep understanding of the most accomplished work being created by more than thirty artists living and working in the Silver State. The exhibition is co-curated by Nevada Museum of Art Curatorial Director and Curator of Contemporary Art JoAnne Northrup; and Las Vegas-based art advisor Michele C. Quinn, owner of MCQ Fine Art, LLC.

Tilting the Basin: Contemporary Art of Nevada opened to much acclaim in northern Nevada, showcasing the vibrant creative fabric binding the Silver State. On the heels of the wildly successful Ugo Rondinone: Seven Magic Mountains, co-produced by Nevada Museum of Art and Art Production Fund, a dialogue emerged about the future of visual arts across the state. To further develop that conversation, Nevada Museum of Art and members from the Seven Magic Mountains Las Vegas committee envisioned an exhibition that would look inward, and celebrate the serious work being generated by talented artists spanning the Great Basin. Those discussions led Quinn and Northrup to curate Tilting the Basin. Concurrently, The Art Museum at Symphony Park effort was underway in Las Vegas, and AMSP president Katie O’Neill, along with Nevada Museum of Art Executive Director and CEO David Walker, crafted a plan to bring the exhibition to Las Vegas.

Tilting the Basin highlights the work of six artists in depth, showing several examples from each in a variety of media. Featured artists include Galen Brown, Justin Favela, Katie Lewis, David Ryan, Brent Sommerhauser, and Rachel Stiff. The remaining artists’ work gives visitors a wide-ranging picture of the art being created across Nevada today, including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, mixed media, street art, installation, sound performance, fiber arts and new media. Some work will live exclusively on social media; others, exclusively as a street mural.

Northrup and Quinn sought to bring together Northern and Southern Nevada artists whose work has not been prominently displayed at the Museum in the past. Exhibition artists include:

Chris Bauder; Megan Berner; Rebekah Bogard; Mark Brandvik; Galen Brown; Erik Burke; JW Caldwell; Nate Clark; Tim Conder; Matthew Couper; Joseph DeLappe + Pete Froslie; Gig Depio; Russell Dudley; Jeffrey Erickson; Justin Favela; Sush Machida Gaikotsu; Jen Graham; Ahren Hertel; Brent Holmes; Katty Hoover; Shawn Hummel; Eunkang Koh; Wendy Kveck; Nick Larsen; Katie Lewis; Sarah Lillegard; JK Russ; David Ryan; David Sanchez Burr; Sean Slattery; Brent Sommerhauser; Omar Pierce; Krystal Ramirez; Rachel Stiff

During the show, AMSP and Nevada Museum of Art will host several public and educational programs designed to foster community dialogue surrounding the various exhibition themes, including what it means to consider a future, permanent art museum in Las Vegas. More information can be found at http://www.nevadaart.org/exhibition/tilting-the-basin-contemporary-art-of-nevada/

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Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, USA
Opening Reception: August 4, 2016
August 5, 2016 – October 23, 2016

Nevada Museum of Art Director of Contemporary Art Initiatives JoAnne Northrup has partnered with Las Vegas-based art advisor Michele Quinn to co-curate ‘Tilting the Basin: Contemporary Art of Nevada’. The exhibition bridges the divide between Northern and Southern Nevada communities and provides a wide-ranging overview and understanding of the most accomplished work being created by more than thirty artists living and working in Nevada today.
The first nationally significant exhibition presenting art made in Nevada occurred in 2007 with Las Vegas Diaspora: The Emergence of Contemporary Art from the Neon Homeland, on view at the Las Vegas Art Museum, which has since closed. Organized by the well-respected art critic and curator Dave Hickey, the exhibition celebrated the work of twenty-six artists, all of whom received their degrees from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and studied with Hickey between 1990 and 2001 when he taught art theory and criticism in the Department of Art at UNLV.

Fast forward almost ten years later. After more than fifty artist studio visits in both Northern and Southern Nevada across Nevada, spanning Las Vegas to the south, Reno and Carson City in the north. Northrup and Quinn’s research revealed that the Nevada contemporary art scene does not evidence a singular aesthetic permeating artists’ work, but rather a wide array of practices and media. Nevada artists are creating innovative work ranging from painting, sculpture, and installation, to photography, interactive, and sound art. Their work is informed by popular culture, the natural environment, and landscape, as well as cultural identity, politics, and current events.

Tilting the Basin: Contemporary Art of Nevada aspires to provide contemporary dialogue aimed at enlightening our broader audiences to the richness of our entire arts community and how it can be a powerful tool in the growth of the great state of Nevada. The exhibition highlights the work of six artists in depth, showing several examples from each in a variety of media. Featured artists include Galen Brown, Justin Favela, Katie Lewis, David Ryan, Brent Sommerhauser, and Rachel Stiff. The remaining artists’ work will give visitors a wide-ranging picture of the art being created across Nevada today, including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, mixed media, street art, installation, sound performance, fiber arts and new media. Some work, like that of Reno photographer Megan Berner, will live exclusively on social media. Berner plans to take daily photographs of the Northern Nevada sky for the eleven-week duration of the exhibition. The images will post to the Nevada Museum of Art Instagram account, allowing the community to view the body of work as it develops over time.

Additional collaborations and offsite installations are planned as well. Las Vegas-based artist Brent Sommerhauser will collaborate with Reno-based Holland Project and Nevada Museum of Art E.L. Cord Museum School to create small ‘sketches’ in glass by layering rich color combinations of glass powder, glass strings and other glass elements over handmade glass tiles that Sommerhauser will fire on-site in his kiln. The resulting tiles will be photographed and shared on the Nevada Museum of Art Instagram account and displayed in the E.L. Cord Museum School. The combined tiles will contribute to a growing work that will serve as a participant record. Performance art elements of the show include Justin Favela’s Family Fiesta.

Tilting the Basin: Contemporary Art of Nevada will be reprised in Las Vegas in 2017 at a venue to be determined. Artists chosen for the exhibition have not before had work prominently displayed at the Museum:
Las Vegas: Chris Bauder, Mark Brandvik, Jw Caldwell, Matthew Couper, Gig Depio, Justin Favela, Sush Machida Gaikotsu, Shawn Hummel, Wendy Kveck, JK Russ, David Ryan, David Sanchez Burr, Sean Slattery, Brent Sommerhauser, Brent Holmes, Krystal Ramirez, Rachel Stiff

Reno/Carson: Megan Berner, Rebekah Bogard, Galen Brown, Erik Burke, Nate Clark, Tim Conder, Joseph DeLappe, Russell Dudley, Jeffrey Erickson, Jen Graham, Ahren Hertel, Katty Hoover, Eunkang Koh, Nick Larsen, Katie Lewis, Sarah Lillegard, Omar Pierce

Premier Sponsor: Stacie Mathewson and Doors to Recovery
Lead Sponsors: Wayne and Miriam Prim | Major Sponsors: Jacqueline Black | Supporting Sponsors: Maureen Mullarkey and Steve Miller; The Private Bank by Nevada State Bank | Sponsors: Kathie Bartlett; Elaine Cardinale; Barbara and Tad Danz; Dolan Law; Sari and Ian Rogoff

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BRENT SOMMERHAUSER: P3STUDIO ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE

@P3GlassArt

August 12 – September 13, 2015

Hours: Wednesday & Thursday | 5 – 10PM; Friday – Sunday | 6 – 11PM

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, in partnership with Art Production Fund, is pleased to announce P3Studio artist-in-residence Brent Sommerhauser. Although glass is all around us, its use as an art material has an air of mystery. Inside P3Studio, Sommerhauser will introduce guests to kiln-formed glass, demonstrate the process of working with it and showcase the potential of this dynamic art-making material.

Guests will have the opportunity to create small ‘sketches’ in glass by layering rich color combinations of glass powder, glass strings and other glass elements over Bullseye handmade glass tiles that Sommerhauser will fire in his Olympic glass kilns. The resulting tiles will be photographed and shared on his Instagram account @P3GlassArt. Then, the tiles will be combined and contribute to a growing work that will serve as a record of those that participated, filling P3Studio with light, color and pattern.

Kiln-formed glass is created by assembling and heating opalescent and transparent glass elements in a kiln to around 1,500 F until it softens and fuses together into single sheet of glass that can have exceptional color definition, richness and saturation. While the actual design process can be quite direct, the fusing process generally takes days to become fully realized. After the initial fusing, the glass can be further manipulated, layered and fused again and again until the desired form and color is achieved. Kiln-glass is especially rich territory for artists because it encompasses an enormous range of working methods including drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture and more. Although shapes and patterns may be repeated, each kiln formed glass work is completely unique since the glass is handmade and evidence of the process is often visible in the final product.

Brent Sommerhauser, a Las Vegas-based artist, received his Master’s of Fine Art from The Ohio State University and has since exhibited in group and solo exhibitions across the United States and abroad. Notably, his sculpture was included in the 2004 Windsor Biennial and was selected for New Glass Review 26, featuring innovative works in glass worldwide. He is also a participant in the Telegraph Art Collective, which originated in Detroit and functions as a running conversation, typically conducted at long range. Occasionally the group materializes and collects in one location to collaborate on projects and exhibitions.

Although Sommerhauser works in a variety of art materials and process, he has over 20 years of experience in a wide range of glass-forming processes including glassblowing, casting, kiln forming, sculpture and vitreography. In addition to his own glass work and teaching, he has assisted a number of artists realize their vision in glass through sculptural, architectural and public works. He recently returned from assisting with a special project in Murano, Italy, the fabled island in the Venetian Lagoon where glass has been made for more than 700 years. He has taught at Pilchuck Glass School, one of the world’s most comprehensive centers for glass art education.

The artist-in-residence program at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas represents one component of its larger art program, in which artists create projects that are interactive and participatory, giving guests the opportunity to connect at an authentic and personal level. Developed and curated in partnership with Art Production Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to producing ambitious public art projects, it strives to reach new audiences and expand awareness through contemporary art.

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