Spring Art Features Water and the Desert

Candace Garlock
Burning Man Festival Photograph

Photo is courtesy of the Burning Man Project, a nonprofit organization.

The Visual Arts Department at Truckee Meadows Community College is hosting Spring art exhibits from Feb. 15–Mar. 30.

Matthew Rangel will present “Linear Referencing”, a talk about his art and process on Wednesday, Feb. 15, at 5:30 p.m., during the reception which takes place outside of the Main Gallery in the V. James Eardley Student Center, Dandini Campus. Refreshments will be served at the event from 5–7 p.m., and the reception is free and open to the public. 

Main Gallery

The TMCC Main Art Gallery will feature "Watershed Project," an interdisciplinary look at how water and land use is maintained, recorded and viewed.

The Main Gallery will feature Matthew Rangel's "Linear Referencing", Erin Shearin's "New Species in Lake Tahoe" and the Rocky Mountain Printmaking Alliance "Watershed Print Portfolio." Outside the Main Gallery, students from TMCC classes will be contributing research visuals that begin to build a watershed installation.

This project is part of the Faculty for Radical Empowerment and Enlightenment (FREE) Collaboration and is sponsored in part by a TMCC Foundation Innovation Grant. Faculty members involved include Corina Weidinger, Megan Burner, Tanja Hayes, Joylin Namie, Maria Giren-Navarro, Micaela Rubalcava, Nancy O'Neal, Candace Garlock, Aimee Kelly, Erin Shearin, Gail Ferrell, Julia Hammett, Blisin Hestiyas and Sameer Bhattarai.

Red Mountain Gallery

The Red Mountain Gallery will feature "More Wabi Sabi," monotypes by Joe Zuccarini. Zuccarini creates assemblages of found and fabricated objects such as steel, broken glass, water, oil and fabric and transforms them into meditative, ritualistic pieces, often incorporating dripping water. His palette of brown, orange rust, pale yellow and black conjures earthly elements, mortality, deterioration and the passage of time. Zuccarini often creates site-specific installations on a human scale. His sculptures, monotypes, drawings and videos are based on similar concepts that suggest a connection to the Nevada desert.

Zuccarini was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and studied television and film at Temple University. In 1980 he moved to Reno, surrounded by the high desert. The brown, dry, minimal landscape has had a strong influence on his work. He received his formal art education at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Red Mountain Student Gallery

The Red Mountain Student Gallery will feature “Power of Reason,” art and design work by Haley Deiro, currently attending TMCC and working towards her Associate of Art with an emphasis in Fine Art.

In recent years she has pursued a career in graphic arts and has discovered that, although her work as a designer and fine artist are created for distinct purposes and interpreted differently, the two practices are interrelated. She uses a combination of painting, stencil art and digital photography to elicit an emotional response; beckoning viewers to question human tendency and address the ongoing desire for satisfying answers in a very uncertain world.

Deiro’s work has been shown in the Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition and the Heritage Gala Event at TMCC. She has contributed to public art for the City of Reno and the College’s permanent collection entitled “Color Blinders."

Erik Lauritzen Gallery and Atrium Gallery

The Erik Lauritzen Gallery and Atrium Gallery features "The Pinhole Project: Burning Man." Since 1999, a group of enthusiastic pinhole photographers has been harvesting interaction, preserving history, and challenging conventional assumptions about photography at Burning Man. Their aim is to document the people, art and events at Burning Man each year, while teaching others to explore their creativity through this one hundred year-old technique of pinhole photography.

With pinhole photography, the “lens” is merely a pinhole, created from a thin sheet of aluminum, and affixed to the camera body.

The Pinhole Project exposes 30 by 40 inches-wide sheets of light-sensitive gelatin silver paper. Twelve pinhole cameras are used—the cameras are created from 50-gallon cardboard barrels. This size is uniquely suited for capturing the incredible scale and immense diversity of art and culture at Black Rock City.

Meadowood Gallery

The Meadowood Gallery features "A Splash of Color," photographs by Chelsie Pruitt.

Reno is part of the Great Basin and only receives an average rainfall of 7.48 inches of rain a year—therefore rain and water are invaluable to people living in the area.

Pruitt has created photographs of rainfall, as well as rivers and lakes in Nevada, to show the beauty of water and how it reflects its surroundings. Each photograph is in black and white with the highlight of color emphasizing the importance of water.

Building Locations

TMCC Main Art Gallery, The Red Mountain Galleries, and Erik Lauritzen Gallery are located at 7000 Dandini Blvd., in Reno, Nev. Meadowood Gallery is located at 5270 Neil Rd., in Reno. The galleries are open and closed according to building hours.

For more information, please contact Candace Garlock, Art Galleries Curator and Art Instructor, at the Dandini Campus, Red Mountain Bldg., room 334C, call 775-674-7698.