Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) Art Galleries are exhibiting four new exhibitions by local artists. The exhibitions run Monday, Nov. 13 –Thursday, Dec. 7, at locations on the Dandini Campus. There will be an opening artists’ reception and artist’s talk given by Robert Post on Wednesday, Nov. 15, from 5-7 p.m. at the V. James Eardley Student Center and Red Mountain Gallery on the 3rd floor in the Red Mountain Building on the Dandini Campus. Refreshments will be available, and exhibitions are free and open to the public.
The TMCC Main Gallery will be featuring On the Edge by Robert Post. Born in El Monte, California, Post has been a Reno resident for the past two years whose primary subject matter is the human figure. Post showed artistic intrigue at the age of six but, at the age of ten, was inspired to pursue the path to become an artist by his brother-in-law working for NASA as an artist. Post’s brother-in-law began showing him different painting techniques that hooked him. Post continued creating until he was 18 when he received a work scholarship at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, where he received an Associate of Arts Degree. Recently, Post has shown at the Sierra Arts Foundation, Station 9, Reno Tahoe International Art Show, Wild River Grille, the Lieutenant Governor’s Office, and Artech. Post teaches art in different mediums for the DJD Foundation to local Veterans. Post also collaborated with the artists at Color of Neon to create an 8-foot-high neon sculpture that has spent time at Burning Man, Sierra Arts Foundation and now resides at Reno Public Market.
“Robert’s show is a culmination of his work over the past two years, its influence on the human figure, and Post’s extensive knowledge of art history. Large, vibrant, exaggerated figures fill the space. Within the symbolic images, viewers will find the artistic styles of artists such as Egon Schiele, Picasso, and Francis Bacon melded with Post’s unique style,” said Kyle Karrasch, Art Galleries Curator and Visual Arts Instructor.
The Red Mountain Gallery, located on the third floor adjacent to Admissions, features Lightning in Bottles: Cámera Galletita Lumen Still Lives by Sonny Rosenberg. He taught Ceramics and Animation for many years at high school, university, and college levels. Currently, he teaches stop-motion and digital animation here at TMCC. Sonny is an avid experimental photographer. He teaches workshops on cameras and photochemistry and builds and uses his homemade cameras regularly.
“Rosenberg’s work is the experimentation with a homemade long exposure camera he dubs the ‘cracker’ camera or, more appropriately called, the cámara galletita. The exposures could take over eight hours to produce richly colored works bordering somewhere between cubism and abstract. The works produce an iridescent feel when viewing pieces from different angles printed on aluminum sheets, providing a captivating spectrum of light and color,” said Karrasch.
The Erik Lauritzen Gallery, located on the third floor of the Red Mountain Building near office 321, features Desert City by Bobby Lee. Lee is a photographer and book artist interested in landscape, nature, and conceptions of place. Originally from Southern California, he loves to travel and explore deserts, mountains, and cities with equal curiosity.
“Lee’s photographic exhibition highlights the stark contrast between the urban development of Las Vegas and the desert landscape of the Mojave Desert. Two colliding worlds exist next to each other. Each has a deep connection to the water, or the lack of it, and what the future brings. Urban sites, homes, and the Las Vegas strip capitalistic desire fill Lee’s images on a linear path on the gallery wall. Also included in Lee’s show is an intricately created accordion-style book containing the same thought-provoking work on display in the gallery’s walls,” said Karrasch.
The Red Mountain Student Gallery also features Shock and Awe by Matthew Leue. Leue is a mixed-media artist currently working in photography. Leue will complete his Associate of Arts, Fine Arts degree from Truckee Meadows Community College in Fall 2023. After his military service, Leue studied painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography at TMCC. Leue’s work often incorporates dark humor, bringing attention to serious topics like the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War.
“Leue, set to graduate TMCC this fall, has produced an exhibition sure to make any viewer stop and contemplate the visual language his photographic work exudes in his first-ever solo show. The content and context contained in Leue’s work are both shocking and horrifying to see how U.S. veterans have been treated once out of their military service. Leue, himself a combat veteran, seeks to bring to light the many issues that have plagued vets, such as mental health, homelessness, and suicide,” said Karrasch.
“Having had Leue as a student myself and seeing his passion and artistic style grow into the culmination of work that is his show Shock and Awe, it is not an exhibition you want to miss seeing. There is a narrative contained in his work that is vitally important. Especially as the coming Veterans Day holiday approaches,” continued Karrasch.
All art galleries are located at 7000 Dandini Boulevard, Red Mountain Building, Reno, NV, and are open with building hours. For more information, contact Kyle Karrasch at 775-674-7681 or visit the Art Galleries website.