‘Outsiders’ break in, with a gallery show

Tiffany Brown

Downtown’s Main Gallery hosts an exhibit of art by developmentally disabled artists from Opportunity Village’s Arts and Enrichment Program.

By Kristen Peterson (contact)

Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Tiffany Brown

Mixed-media artist Dana Witherell sometimes incorporates embroidery in her acrylic paintings; she also does vibrant hand-painted silks, some of which have already sold

Tiffany Brown

This rendition of Spider-Man is one of many by Beni Mataele, a pop culture fan. He often adds text -- important dates, notes and ideas -- to his work

Tiffany Brown

Craig Harper, who painted this piece inspired by Popeye, frequently adds text to his paintings, a common practice of outsider artists.

Craig Harper draws at night, paints during the day and sketches his ideas on napkins.

“People ask me, ‘Why do you do art stuff?’ ” he says. “Because I like it. I love it!”

Touche.

It’s been a year since Opportunity Village fine-tuned its Arts and Enrichment Program, which provides a studio environment for developmentally disabled artists including Harper, one of eight artists featured in the organization’s exhibit at the downtown Main Gallery.

Inspired by Roy Lichtenstein, Sush Machida Gaikotsu and various comics, Harper is prolific and focused.

On the morning of the exhibit’s opening he is surprisingly calm despite the fact that this is Opportunity Village’s first official exhibit of its Arts and Enrichment Program.

“This is our big moment to say, ‘Hey, this is what we’ve been doing,” says RC Wonderly, the program’s gallery coordinator. “We want to be part of the art community.’ ”

And there’s really no one today who can diminish that desire. Not after fiber artist Judith Scott, who is deaf and has Down syndrome, made it big in the art world. Her sculptures are at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art. Scott, who died in 2005, spent 15 years in a similar program, Creative Growth in Oakland, Calif.

Artists like her have been featured in galleries in Boston, Chicago and New York, including New York’s Armory Show.

Opportunity Village began its Arts and Enrichment Program in September 2006, then restructured a year ago to focus more on those who were really interested in exploring and producing art.

“We went from printer paper and tempera paint to materials that are archival,” Wonderly says. “We’re now using canvas and Prismacolor marker.”

Paint is provided by Golden Artist Colors’ Seconds Program.

Artists also have toured exhibits at the Guggenheim Hermitage at the Venetian and the Las Vegas Art Museum. Some of their work shows direct influences of these outings. Others have their own distinctive style.

Dana Witherell hand-paints silk scarves -- four of which have sold at $125 apiece. Her acrylic paintings incorporate her longtime embroidery skills. Beni Mataele, a pop culture fan, has created several renditions of Spider-Man and other characters and adds text -- important dates, notes and ideas -- to his work, giving it the flavor of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Jon Russell’s images of Splash Mountain are inspired by his many trips to Disneyland.

Chad Humphrey’s abstract paintings have superseded any training he might have needed in color. Humphrey paints to jazz and keeps a photo of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” nearby. Humphrey writes letters to Mona Lisa as part of his art. He has also referenced Mister Rogers, from the long-running PBS TV show, in his own words: “Do you know my friend is / he plays in the neighborhood / Do you know he is / It’s Fred Rogers.”

Melissa Lofchie’s abstract notebook drawings and vibrant paintings are inspired by Utah, sometimes specifically by Park City.

Tina Stone draws birthday party tables. Bob Mejia’s portraiture includes one piece that features Jesus, James Dean, an angel and text that reads, “I’ll be with you to the end, my son. And forever.”

Most of the artists are at the studio daily. Wonderly and Melissa Land work with the artists. “We don’t really teach, Wonderly says. “It’s basically an open studio. We provide a space and the material. They understand the process to a degree where they work out ideas on paper, then transfer to canvas.”

If anything, Wonderly says, “we’re teaching these guys what it is to be an artist. They’re going through the same thought process that I went through and other artists go through.”

Andreana Donahue, director of the Main Gallery, contacted Opportunity Village about the exhibit because she thought it was important to show the public what “outsider” artists can do: “With self-taught artists, someone might not see it as important or valid as someone who went to school and got an art degree.”

The concept is nothing new to Donahue, who received her bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the Art Institute of Chicago and was exposed to a variety of outsider artists, including Chicago’s Henry Darger.

Because of its status and location, the show at Main Gallery is a coup for the artists from Opportunity Village. The contemporary gallery in the Arts District features work by Las Vegas and Chicago artists. Exhibitions have included work by Danielle Kelly, Alex Jovanovich, Erin Stellmon and Yo Fukui.

“This is the first time we really get the art crowd,” Wonderly says.

More exhibits are likely. Opportunity Village is building a new campus on Buffalo Road and Patrick Lane that will include a culinary training center and art studios.

“It’s not a ‘could be’ anymore. It’s a ‘will be,’ ” says Patrick Duffy, an art collector and an Opportunity Village board member who toured Creative Growth and a similar program in Albuquerque, N.M., to help build the Las Vegas program.

Because Opportunity Village provides vocational training, employment and recreation, some of the artists are able to make money from their artwork -- though making money isn’t the program’s sole pursuit. Just ask Harper:

“I like people who come in and absorb my art. I like to draw things like Popeye. I like to draw my heart out. My paintings are real good.”