We he(ART) Bikes Art Show, Gray Space Gallery, Reno, April 26, 2008

Grayspace Gallery and Holland HQ We he(ART) Bikes Art Show The Reno Bike Project presents its second annual bike art show and fund-raiser.

Join us at Grayspace Gallery and Holland HQ and enjoy a variety of bike-themed art. Purchase paintings, photos and multi-media pieces from artists such as Ahren Hertel, Chris Carnel, Candace Nicol, Rossitza Todorova and many more. Profits help support Grayspace, The Holland Project and the Reno Bike Project, a nonprofit group that encourages cycling in the Truckee Meadows.

We will be auctioning off a bicycle rack made by Anthony Alston out of an organ.

Support provided by the Sierra Arts Foundation, the Nevada Arts Council and New Belgium Brewing.

When: 6 p.m. Sat., April 26.

Where: 26 Cheney St. Turn east at Recycled Furniture on South Virginia Street; next door to Salon 7.

Chalk the Walk, Harrah's Plaza, Reno, June 19 - 21, 2008

Chalk the Walk
Harrah’s Plaza, Reno June 19 - 21, 2008

By Jessica Santina
This article was published in the Reno News and Review on 06.19.08.

Around Reno, artists have spent weeks getting their bodies into tip-top shape. Hopefully, they’ve stocked up on gloves, sunscreen, hats and knee-pads. Because they’re about to spend three days performing a labor of love for the second annual Chalk the Walk Street Painting Festival.

As founder and director Erika O’Malley explains, street painting is an Italian Renaissance tradition in which artisans (madonnari) painted religious depictions on the streets in front of city churches. Street painting has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, due in part to successful events like Santa Barbara’s I Madonnari Street Painting Festival. After O’Malley, an art historian and native of San Antonio, Texas, moved to Reno a couple of years ago, she came to believe such an event could succeed here.

“We have so many talented artists here, and they’re always looking for ways to get their art seen by the public,” she says. “And we have great weather.”

After securing a sponsorship from the Reno Rodeo, several prominent regional artists were commissioned, and by the summer 2007, the inaugural Chalk the Walk kicked off at the City Plaza downtown.

This year’s festival runs three days, June 19-21, and will take place at Harrah’s plaza. Portions of the nearly 12,000 square feet of chalk-able space will be allotted to six commissioned artists, with the remainder being available to anyone who wants to participate, from accomplished artists to families looking to get outside together. Public plots range from 2 feet to 8 feet across; commissioned spots are 8-feet-by-12-feet. Always a western-themed event, this year’s festival celebrates “Where Art Meets West,” honoring artists of the American West, such as Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams.

Several commissioned artists are returning this year, including Genna Panzarella, an acclaimed international artist and teacher whose street paintings won top prize in a 2002 international competition in Italy. Also commissioned are Reno’s Youth ArtWorks organization; Wes Lee, a local artist and UNR instructor; Derrick Jackson of Sacramento; and Larissa Soklova, a Reno-based artist whose 3-D illusions have earned her two awards at the Tahoe Arts Festival Street Painting Competition.

Additionally, local artist Ray Valdez will return. With more than 30 murals throughout Nevada and a successful fine art gallery in Reno, Valdez is a certified art instructor who recently led a free pre-festival workshop on basic street painting techniques.

Street painting, Valdez explains, takes enormous physical stamina. It involves hours upon hours, knees on cement, with the hot summer sun beating down on your back as you sit hunched over.
“It’s hard work,” says Valdez, “You’re gonna get beat up a bit. I’ve seen artists use gloves, but when it gets down to it, your fingers are best. So they’re gonna get raw.”

Such physical issues, as well as artistic tips, were subjects of the workshop.

Valdez himself has been planning his own piece for weeks, intending to complete it before the morning of Saturday, June 21, and the Reno Rodeo Parade. The idea of such a grueling task makes one wonder: Why invest so much time and energy on something that’s only temporary?
To illustrate, he likens street painting to the Native American tradition of ceremonial sand painting.

“For ceremony, they grind the stone by hand to get those vibrant colors, and that’s even more work. But then, after they pray on it, they give it away. It doesn’t hurt to let it go. It’s about the experience, and it’s not meant to be permanent. It’s about the process of giving of yourself.”

Copyright (c) Reno News and Review. All rights reserved.

Selections from Dada Motel

Selections from Dada Motel
UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum, Las Vegas Jan 25 – March 21, 2008

Visitors to UNLV’s Marjorie Barrick Museum will have a chance to experience the work of Northern Nevada artists who took over downtown Reno last summer for what they called “a celebration of Reno's unlimited potential for absurdity.”

“Selections from the Dada Motel” features the work of 28 artists—representing media ranging from photography and animation, to sculpture and eggs—who participated in an independently organized three-day celebration of Reno art, dubbed “The Dada Motel,” last summer. Participants rented hotel rooms in and around the El Cortez Hotel in downtown Reno and organized eclectic displays of their work by turning the rooms into impromptu art galleries.

The exhibit runs from Jan. 25 through March 21 and is curated by Dada Motel participant Chad Sorg.

Bridges and Lakes, Backseat Gallery, Carson City April 1 – April 30, 2008

Bridges and Lakes Backseat Gallery, Carson City, April 1 – April 30, 2008

“Bridges and Lakes” an exhibit of small landscape drawings on paper by Reno artist Rossitza Todorova will be on display at the Backseat Gallery April 1 – April 30, 2008.

An Artist Reception will be held on Wed, April 2, 2008 from 5-7pm.

The Backseat Gallery is located inside Comma Coffee in Carson City's historic downtown district at 312 South Carson Street, across from the State Legislature Building

Sheppard Gallery Valentine’s Day Art Auction

Show some love
Sheppard Gallery Heart Art Auction
By Cherie Louise Turner
This article was published in the Reno News and Review on 02.07.08.

Every other year for the past 18, a special event has taken place around Feb. 14 that has everything to do with heart, art and giving, but nothing to do with awkward dates or diamond jewelry. It’s the Valentine’s Day Art Auction, a silent auction and raffle to benefit UNR’s Sheppard Gallery. It’s the gallery’s only fundraiser.

This year, for the ninth biennial auction, roughly 90 artists are represented. All work is currently on show at the gallery. Most of the artists, like Eunkang Koh, Tamara Scronce, J. Damron, Robert Brown, Anthony Alston, Ahren Hertel and Rebekah Bogard are from Northern Nevada, though a handful of out-of-towners, like Polly Apfelbaum and Fawn Krieger, have contributed as well.

Each artist has donated an original piece of work that will go to the highest bidder, with the proceeds going to Sheppard Gallery.

Though artists are allowed to create whatever they wish, many stuck to a heart theme. Works range from handmade books to sculpture, paintings to prints.

Larry Williamson’s piñon pine creation, “Hearts ‘o’ Plenty–Great Basin Cupid with a Little Touch of the Devil,” is a wood-carved wall sculpture featuring red hearts and a figure with arms open and placed at center.

Hertel’s painting, “Puncture” depicts a hummingbird poking at the bubbly output of a tentacled water creature. Apfelbaum created the flowery, “Valentine Bouquet.”

Leah Ruby donated a handmade book titled Wallpaper Sample Book for Couples. The pages resemble Rorschach inkblot tests—mirror images joined in the middle.

A limited edition print by artist and UNR professor Michael Sarich will be put up on the block.
The artist Renate’s piece, “Delicious,” is “a series of five sets of wax lips on which shiny little beads have been carefully adhered.”

A number of pieces point toward the harsher, darker side of the emotional scale; several featuring bullet imagery. Among such fierce works is Damron’s “Untitled,” from the series Red Lips, War Paint, Half a Horse, which makes its pointed statement with a finely crafted spike atop a beautiful block of oak.

Bidding starts at $45. At the last auction, the highest winning bid for any work was $400. Given the quality of the work and résumés of the artists represented, such cash outlays practically constitute a fire sale.

Not surprisingly, this is a great event at which to cut your art-buying teeth, and for the more involved art collector, it’s a fabulous chance at some stunning buys. To win, you should be present and ready to bid, though you can send a representative, or give the gallery your highest bid in cash or check beforehand.

Event organizer Kathy Wood expects a crowd of 300 or more and, she says, the bidding gets wild up to the last seconds.

Raffle prizes include dinner at the Peppermill or Sushi Pier 2, a gift certificate to Se7en Teahouse, Steamboat Springs, or a bottle of wine from Whispering Vine.

Bidding goes all week starting Feb. 4, with the auction, raffle and party starting around 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 8.

copyright © 2008 Reno News and Review

Ether on exhibit at the Front Door Gallery, November 29 - December 12, 2007

Ether
a show dealing with the concepts of space; both figurative and literal explorations by local Reno artists. Not just a show about space ships- it's about the interaction with the existence of the intangible.

On display at the Front Door Gallery
November 29 - December 12, 2007

Opening Reception:
Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 6:30 pm

Featuring artwork by:
Anthony Arevalo
Melanie Berner
Evan Dent
Nick Larsen
Candace Nicol
Nolan Preece
Rossitza Todorova

Ether exhibit curated by:
Rob Brown, Rebecca Holmstrom, Aby Henry, Emily Guillen

Front Door Gallery
Church Fine Arts Building
University of Nevada, Reno
Reno, NV 89557
775.784.6658

Ether
3. the upper regions of space; the clear sky; the heavens.
4. the medium supposed by the ancients to fill the upper regions of space.
5. Physics An all-pervading, infinitely elastic, massless medium formerly postulated as the medium of propagation of electromagnetic waves.

Ethereal Space
1. light, airy, or tenuous: an ethereal world created through the poetic imagination.
2. extremely delicate or refined: ethereal beauty.
3. heavenly or celestial: gone to his ethereal home.
4. of or pertaining to the upper regions of space.
5. Chemistry. pertaining to, containing, or resembling ethyl ether.

The concept for the show was formulated out of a series of critiques given by Margo Pelletier and Lisa Thomas, the directors and producers of the documentary Silvia, who were visiting artists at the University of Nevada, Reno in February of 2007. Ms. Pelletier, after seeing a handful of student work, made the comment about how interesting it was that a lot of artwork dealt with “ethereal space” and how interesting that was both in relation to culture and this generation.

The artwork involved in the show involves different media and diverse artists. Ranging from invented photographic processes to traditional drawings, they allt question the idea of ethereal space: its bounds, depths, and dimensions.

'Where skyscraper meets sagebrush'

April 18, 2007

Reno Gazette-Journal: Neighborhoods

'Where skyscraper meets sagebrush'

Artist finds inspiration in man-made features

By Kristin Larsen

klarsen@rgj.com

Where others might look at the unfinished bridge in Washoe Valley and see a construction project, artist Rossitza Todorova sees an abandoned relic akin to ancient Greek structures. She jokingly calls them "pre-ruins."

It's the inspiration for her drawing "Highway and Bridge Stand Unfinished" featured in the Northwest Reno Library Gallery. "Windscapes" - Todorova's exhibit of black, white and gray drawings created with brushes, pens and ink will be featured through May 25.

Todorova discovers her artistic inspirations locally. She moved from Bulgaria to Northern Nevada 10 years ago, and said she's fallen in love with the desert and how it changes.

"Man leaves a mark on the landscape," Todorova said. "Unlike many, I find that to be beautiful - where skyscraper meets sagebrush."

Above the tunnel's mouth

Another experience instigated the creation of her piece titled, "Sitting above the tunnel's mouth." In an area of rural Nevada, Todorova said the roar of a train hurtling down the tracks gave her enough warning to run to the train tunnel's roof just in time to watch the train passing below.

"You can sit on a concrete block with nature all around, and watch this force of man beneath your feet," Todorova said. "You don't often get to experience machinery that close."

The unpredictable kinks and curves of nature appear woven throughout architectural lines to create vast, overlapping landscapes. Todorova said every landscape has wilderness in it for her.

"I don't think you can think of landscape without nature, even though man has a finger in it," Todorova said.

No focal point

You won't find a focal point in Todorova's art. She wants your eye to move through the piece and not find a resting spot.

She said she allows viewers' minds to fill in the vacancies and tries to draw their eyes to shadows with dense details - and "hopefully, you find a different path every time."

Todorova said she had to reinvent her art after she graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno in December 2005 with a bachelor's degree in fine arts. That's when she created the first piece in the exhibit, "Crossroads," a chaotic mishmash of lines and shadows.

Noticing surroundings

Todorova said she began noticing her surroundings - clouds and sagebrush - more after seeing Phyllis Shafer's paintings of Nevada's landscape at the Stremmel Gallery on South Virginia Street.

Todorova hopes the audience will sense motion in her art. She weaves lines that pass over and behind each other in an effort to create optical illusions, so the viewer never quite knows what is closest and what is farthest away.

From Todorova's perspective, motion isn't limited to nature or mechanical objects. Civilization is like a dirt road in the wilderness - if a path isn't used constantly, it will be reclaimed by its surroundings. That's the idea behind her work "The Metal Was Solid But the Ground Sunk Beneath Our Feet."

"Man is constantly reclaiming land, but nature is also," Todorova said. "Just because the building is solid, doesn't mean it doesn't move."

Todorova adores art so much that when she's not creating her own, she's stewarding the art of others by working for the Nevada Arts Council as an assistant. The council tries to bring exhibits to populations that wouldn't normally get to enjoy them.

"(Art) takes from the world and shows the world back to you," Todorova said. "You may not be able to see the world without art."

Copyright (c) Reno Gazette-Journal. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.