An infusion of art

Tiffany Brown

Among other works featured in the exhibit “Way Out West” at UNLV’s Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery at UNLV are Jason Adkins’ “Whiffenpoof,” left, Michael Reafsnyder’s “Chipper,” center, and Adkins’ “Cathedral” sculpture.

By Kristen Peterson (contact)

Friday, Sept. 11, 2009 | 2 a.m.

There may not be an abundance of contemporary art galleries in Las Vegas, but a small group of curators does what it can to get art to the people.

This time it’s Jerry Schefcik’s turn. The director of Donna Beam Fine Art gallery at UNLV saw a gap in the gallery’s scheduling, contacted Los Angeles’ Western Project to see if UNLV could borrow works for an exhibit and put together the show in two weeks.

The arrangement makes sense considering that the gallery has close ties with Las Vegas. Western Project is owned by Cliff Benjamin, who represents artists who studied or live in Las Vegas — Thomas Burke, Sush Machida-Gaikotsu, Yek and Aaron Sheppard. Benjamin was also a guest lecturer at UNLV during the spring semester.

On display through Sept. 19, “Way Out West” features work by Machida-Gaikotsu, Michaels Reafsnyder, Jason Adkins, Tanya Batura and Arne Svenson.

Schefcik curated the show based on the contrasting rhythms, color use and spatial relationships that vary from artist to artist. It’s a fun show that celebrates chaos and order in composition.

Reafsnyder, whose works have evolved since his solo show at the Las Vegas Art Museum in 2005, has two pieces in the show, “Chipper” and “Glissade.” The works have Reafsnyder’s trademark smiley face, but rather than layers and layers of freshly squeezed and untouched paint, Reafsnyder has smeared the colors and globs into lyrically explosive compositions that bring together dynamic textures, patterns and strokes that bounce from the whimsical to the decisive to the unruly.

Adkins’ floor sculptures, composed of monochromatic boards contrasting colors — DayGlo pink, orange, yellow or gray — reconfigure a sense of depth and are a sort of fun nod to Sol Lewitt’s modular floor sculptures, but with the vibrant colors of Lewitt’s paintings.

Batura’s clay and acrylic monochromatic heads are refined, minimal and suggestive, but less contorted and less blatantly erotic than her previous works. With the heads placed on pedestals in the gallery’s second floor, you can examine their silently haunting gestures for hours in the company of Svenson’s portraits of forensic facial reconstruction sculptures created to help identify victims. The photos are alarming and a bit eerie in that they are realistic enough for you to believe they are living humans wearing masks, but strangely distorted to remind you that something is amiss. There is a twinkle in each reconstructed eye and a story in the expression.

The upstairs gallery has a significantly different tone than the works on the main floor, which include two of Machida-Gaikotsu’s paintings, one of which is a large-scale rendition of ocean waves, a reductive, vibrantly line-patterned pop rendition emblematic of Katsushika Hokusai’s 19th century woodcut print, “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.” (Those wanting to follow the evolution of the wave from an illustrative rendition to a more stylized abstract work can check out Machida-Gaikotsu’s Master of Fine Arts works at Trifecta Gallery in the Arts Factory, on display with paintings and collages by artist Brian Porray.)

“Most of the students are not going to go to L.A. to see the art,” Schefcik says. “Some of them will, but not all. So here they can see a little of what’s going on in L.A.”

“Way Out West” is one of three shows at Donna Beam bringing in professional artists from outside Las Vegas. It is followed by “At First Glance: Three Painters from the Boston Area” and “Extreme Sensibility — Taiwanese Contemporary Video Art.”

The remainder of the school year calendar is devoted to four thesis exhibitions by Master of Fine Arts students, a juried student art exhibition and a group exhibition by bachelor’s of fine arts students. UNLV recently acquired the Vogel collection in the wake of the closing of the Las Vegas Art Museum, but a date has not been set for those works. Selections will probably be installed this school year.