Reafsnyder exhibit signals new era at Las Vegas Art Museum

By Kristen Peterson

Sunday, Oct. 30, 2005 | 8:10 a.m.

It seemed risky.

At first Libby Lumpkin thought that the Las Vegas Art Museum wasn't quite ready for the work of contemporary artist Michael Reafsnyder.

His work is edgy and far more complicated than the conventional shows in the past.

But Lumpkin, the museum's consulting executive director, had a hole in her exhibit schedule. And since she had already secured Reafsnyder for sometime in the future, she went ahead with the show.

It was the first exhibit to signal the new direction of the museum at 9600 W. Sahara Ave.

"I thought it would be too much, too soon," Lumpkin said while standing in the museum's main gallery. "I was wrong. It had an overwhelmingly positive response."

The opening lured visitors from Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Houston. They speckled the gallery already filled with longtime local supporters. Collectors were there, as were Lumpkin fans, curious to see her new exhibit.

"They just showed up in droves," Lumpkin said. "It attracted a whole new demographic to the museum."

Dubbed a comprehensive survey of the artist's recent work, "MORE: Michael Reafsnyder, Painting and Sculpture 2002-2005" is on display through Dec. 31 in two of the museum's galleries.

The paintings are delicious, rich and colorful. They're covered in acrylic or oil paint that was squeezed from the tube and left untouched. Overlapped on the canvas, the paint creates a dense terrain of distinctive shapes and colors. Reafsnyder's trademark smiley faces or scribbled words add to the blend. Nearly every color used is visible.

"It's indulgent," Lumpkin said. "It's sort of, 'You love to paint. I love to paint, too. Let's love it together. We don't have to make any impression of being in touch with the collective unconscious.'

"Michael's work is all about the satisfaction of desire. It speaks to the appetite."

The paintings come out of the historic tradition of abstract expressionism, a style the artist says he is still passionate about.

"But abstract expressionism is a very macho endeavor," Reafsnyder said. "I found myself liking that type of painting, knowing I'm not a macho man myself (and wondered) what I could do next."

It resulted in, he said, a painting in the style of abstract expressionism without representing angst and a tortured soul.

"I hope they are inviting, friendly paintings," Reafsnyder said. "A lot of people think color is frivolous, not serious. But I think color is so pleasurable. I think some people think I'm being a jokester or a prankster."

But, he said, "I don't want my work to be a record for my neurosis."

Lumpkin, who put the exhibit together so fast she's still working on the exhibition catalog, said she became familiar with Reafsnyder's work when he was showing with Mark Moore. Reafsnyder has also lectured at UNLV in the past few years.

"I would go see his exhibit and it was really great," Lumpkin said. "I would always just ooh and aah about it.

"When I would mention it to very established artists around L.A., the response was always the same 'Oh my God, he's the best painter in Los Angeles.' He's been a real artist's artist for years. And that was what reassured me that I could do this exhibition."

Changing direction

So far, the exhibit has drawn thousands of visitors. Many are swooning. Among the visitors was Roger Thomas, executive vice president of design, Wynn Design and Development, who attended the opening.

"Libby Lumpkin's presence at the Las Vegas Art Museum gives that institution the potential for greatness" Thomas said via e-mail. "Her knowledge, energy and vision coupled with her substantial connections in the art world, make possible programs and exhibitions of national and even international import.

"The Michael Reafsnyder show is an example of the exhilarating exhibitions on the edge that we can now look forward to. "

And according to the museum, this is only the beginning. Lumpkin, who joined the nonprofit art institution in July, officially begins her exhibit season in January. She'll open with a Southern California minimalist show that will include work by Robert Irwin and Larry Bell, among others. Exhibits by Roy Lichtenstein and actor Martin Mull are just two shows she has scheduled through 2007.

Since her arrival, the staff has been brought up to date on museum security, and Renee Coppola, a sculptor who has worked at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Broad Art Foundation in Los Angeles, has been hired as an assistant executive director. The museum is also preparing to file for accreditation with the Association of American Museums.

The museum's board has also been growing. Glenn Schaeffer, casino executive, art collector and owner of Godt-Cleary projects, is the most recent addition.

Other local art figures, such as Patrick Duffy and Naomi Arin, joined as soon as they learned that Lumpkin was at the museum.

"(Libby) was the sole reason I joined," said Arin, collector and owner of the downtown Dust Gallery, who moved to Las Vegas from Boston where she was director of corporate foundation and government giving with the Institute of Contemporary Art.

"I had heard about Dave and Libby in Boston," Arin said, referring to Libby and her husband, art critic Dave Hickey. "The books they've written are great. They're seminal. Hiring her was the best thing that the museum could do."

Other institutions are re-establishing their relationships with the more than 50-year-old museum plagued in recent years by scandal and debt.

Hugh Davies, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, initially refused to loan a Reafsnyder painting to the Las Vegas Art Museum, but changed his mind when he learned that Lumpkin was part of the museum.

"We had a very bad experience with them in lending work to an exhibition and then having them not pay the fees, not pay the shipping to return the work, and as a result we decided never to lend to them again," Davies said.

"Since then, they've hired a very well-respected historian and museum professional ... and because of my high regard for her and the fact that she very rapidly expedited payment of the money that was due to us, we were pleased to do business again with the Las Vegas Art Museum."

Peddling fast

Lumpkin predicts that the museum will be accredited within a year's time. Jerry Facciani, board president, agrees and says that he is "100 percent confident" the museum will accredited.

"This is no joke," Lumpkin said. "We're in the real art world now."

The American Association of Museums says that museum accreditation process can take anywhere from one to three years. Facciani said the museum is still working on the process and hasn't submitted the work.

Accreditation makes it easier for other institutions to recognize that the museum is prepared for loans and it helps bring in grant money.

Facciani, a retired actuary, who met Lumpkin when the two were serving on the board for the defunct Nevada Institute of Contemporary Art, projected 10 months ago that the Las Vegas Art Museum will become a destination, something many would have laughed at a couple of years ago.

He and partner Karen Barrett joined the museum board in 2003 to help straighten out its problems.

"When Karen and I got involved in the LVAM it was $87,000 in debt from incredibly poor financial mismanagement," Facciani said.

To help save the museum, Phyllis McGuire hosted a benefit at her home, which raised enough money to move the museum into 2004 comfortably.

Facciani said the museum's other problems were the exhibits themselves.

"They weren't particularly important," Facciani said. "There wasn't a sense in the art community that the LVAM was an important place."

The museum's new focus on contemporary art keeps it from having to compete with galleries on the Strip and allows the museum to reach out to new arrivals, many of whom are young adults.

"The biggest gaping hole is the absence of museums of contemporary art," Lumpkin said.

Also, she added, "The artists are living. You can follow them. It becomes a kind of living thing."

But the changes have created a lot of work for the small staff.

"You just don't know how fast I'm peddling," said Lumpkin, whose full-time job is direct of Design Discourse at the International Institute of Modern Letters.

"I'm looking at another six months of 24/7 peddling fast, then we can put it on cruise control."

Kristen Peterson can be reached at 259-2317 or [email protected].