Arts Notes: Exhibit honors early LV residents

Friday, Nov. 25, 2005 | 9:11 a.m.

No Bugsy. No Howard. No Frank Sinatra.

In "Keepers of the Flame," a centennial exhibit opening Tuesday at the West Las Vegas Arts Center, artists pay homage to lesser-known Las Vegas residents: the ranchers, immigrants, laborers and showgirls who settled here.

Created by artists from the Left of Center Gallery, the work focuses mostly on stories by members of American Indian, Hispanic and black communities.

Artists include Vickie Richardson, Dayo Adelaja, Sylvester Collier, Adolfo Gonzalez and William Pajaud. Each artist did their own research. Some of the works are based on oral histories.

"We felt a need to put this exhibit together because with all of the other centennial projects, no one was focusing on immigrant and minorities and their contributions to the city," said Jennifer McKeon, gallery assistant at Left of Center.

The exhibit was curated by Richardson, owner of Left of Center gallery, and is dedicated to the memory of Cochise Couyette, a Nevada artist who died in May.

The exhibit has been on tour throughout the year. Its showing at the West Las Vegas Arts Center at 947 W. Lake Mead Blvd., through March 4, is the final stop.

An artists reception will be from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 3.

Gallery hours at the West Las Vegas Arts Center are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free. For more information, call 229-4800.

Ah, the humanity

Artist T.F. Chen, who works to unite East and West, past and present, philosophical and pop -- sometimes in one painting -- has his work on display in lobby of the Grant Sawyer Building, 555 E. Washington Ave., through Dec. 5.

Chen mixes styles and images from varying art periods to create new interpretations and reference historical events. In a collection of work that pays homage to Van Gogh, Chen incorporates Warhol, Matisse and Gauguin, as well as pop art and impressionism.

In the painting "East vs. West" he explores historical contrasts between the two worlds by combining a fleshy, erotic rendition of Picasso's reclining nude and stoic images from Chinese folk art.

Now Chen is using that same style to paint Las Vegas. The display at the Grant Sawyer Building includes recent paintings of Las Vegas and surrounding areas, as well as the artist's previous works.

The Taiwan-born artist plans to work in Las Vegas through the summer and use the city as a beginning for his proposed Arts For Humanity world tour. His nonprofit T.F. Chen Cultural Center in New York City is designed to promote tolerance and peace through cultural exchange.

Real it in

Poet and novelist Karen Brennan will read from her new collection of poems,"The Real Enough World," (Wesleyan University Press, 2005) at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in UNLV's Marjorie Barrick Museum of Natural History auditorium as part of the New West Writers Series.

In "The Real Enough World," Brennan, a professor of English at the University of Utah, takes readers through personal narratives, philosophical reflections and various moods. Her other books include "Here On Earth," "Wild Desire," "The Garden in Which I Walk" and "Being With Rachel."

Brennan's reading is the final event of the fall New West Writers Series that was sponsored by the International Institute of Modern Letters, Nevada Humanities and the UNLV English Department Creative Writing Program.

The event is free and open to the public. A book signing and reception will follow the reading. For more information, call 895-4366.

Kristen Peterson can be reached at 259-2317 or kristen@lasvegassun.com.