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Fine Art

Stay the night

Reno import Nada Motel offers up plenty worth examining

Susanne Forestieri

Thu, Jan 29, 2009 (midnight)

John Molezzo’s “Midnight Motor Lodge.”

Every year, artist Chad Sorg organizes Reno’s annual installation event, at which artists fill downtown motel rooms with their creations. For the second consecutive year, Sorg has schlepped a selection of these works to UNLV’s Barrick Museum—works that, in their original installation, must add a warm touch to an impersonal setting but which, in a museum, are subject to a harsher, more critical light.

Maybe I’m just cranky, but I feel compelled to tell the artists where I think they’ve taken a wrong turn, as well as where I think they’re right on track. Some are making a return visit to Las Vegas, and I can’t help but compare their recent work to last year’s efforts.

From the Calendar: Greetings From Nada Motel

Through April 20

Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-4:45 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Free

UNLV’s Marjorie Barrick Museum, 895-3381.

Department of Art at UNLV: Greetings from Nada Motel

To John Molezzo: I loved last year’s large, surreal digital landscapes. This year, you’ve created a dense weave of images that look great on a computer, but are somewhat flat in person. I read on the label that you’ve added oil color and wax pen elements to the digital print, and it seems to me you were going for more texture. Maybe you need to let loose with the paints, color outside the lines—literally and metaphorically. Also, I think last year’s larger format worked better than this year’s, because it enveloped the viewer in your world, compensating for the generic flatness of digital images.

To S.K. James: Good choices sticking with the large format and going from color to black and white. I like this year’s desert landscape triptych because it has an austere haunting beauty, unlike last year’s frenetic apocalyptic scene of Fremont Street.

To Franz Szony: I found your large photo/glicee print—a montage of exotic and homoerotic imagery, similar to last year’s entries—too campy for my straight sensibility. But I loved your video. Your theatricality, flamboyance and talent for narrative have found a natural home on the screen, where you built suspense to an enigmatic, thought-provoking conclusion. And the silent-movie aesthetic was an inspired choice, enhanced by the grainy texture and crackling noise of the soundtrack. Since you play a starring role, your Valentino-like good looks are a huge asset. And your featured actress is adorable, with her kewpie-doll lips and kohl-outlined eyes.

To Dean Burton: I loved the marvelous textures and subtle colors of last year’s minimalist and abstract photographs of your studio detritus. This year’s photos, of antique lightbulb filaments, have a delicate intricate beauty, and I’m guessing that, when seen as a whole, they form a sort of cityscape. But I wasn’t aesthetically moved.

To Chad Sorg: I loved your mixed-media piece “Graze,” which mixes photography, cut paper and splatter painting on a birch-wood board. Your paintings, though attractive, lack interesting details and focus. We talked about all the photos you’ve taken crisscrossing the state in your job for the Nevada Arts Council and how you planned to use them in your work. I think that’s a great idea.

Elaine Parks is new to me, so I cannot compare her recent work to anything done in the past. Still, she is so good I’m including her in this review. Parks lives in the remote Northern Nevada town of Tuscarora—population 13. The landscape is her sanctuary, her source of inspiration, and she hopes her black-and-white grids of ceramic, knobby, crackled squares “relax the eye and mind and let the viewer look for the small variations in detail.” That is how she experiences the desert, and I found myself leaning in to examine the surface textures in awe of their beauty.

Ceramics, thought to be the oldest art medium, have given us a feel for what can be done with clay. Digital photography, on the other hand, has only been around for a few years. Artists are just beginning to experiment with it, and I sometimes think their artistic judgement is overwhelmed by the gee-whiz factor of manipulating exciting images.

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9 Comments So Far

Suzanne, I was in the show last year, with the corner piece, "Spider, Worm, Tree", a mixed media piece of ceramic (tree) wire, (spider) and paper mache (worm). My work is much different, visually, this year, though the themes have a strong connection. Thank you for your comments. I very often enjoy reading your thoughtful reviews.

Elaine Parks

Posted by: elaineparks on 1/29/09 at 10:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Thanks Suzanne, thoughtful comments about the work as always. I appreciate your choice of making personal comments to the artists. It reinforces the idea that our state needs to get together and do some talking between artists. Yeah, Reno might be eight hours away from Vegas but we still wave the same flag (Tuscarora too!)

Anyone interested in seeing the whole show right here from your computer screen can follow the link below which will take you to the video I've made during and after installation of the show. I like to throw some music and funny editing in there to make it one more layer of art, the later word, of course, being my own opinion only!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x86oq2_...

Posted by: chadsorg on 1/30/09 at 7:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)

wow--we both spelled your name wrong SUSANNE. Oops! By the way, suffering from a hang over was my excuse for not making it over to your show at Neonopolis until too late. I might be back down next month to see it.
Got to talk to some other artists over there though and I'm excited to see artists making a big presence happen downtown! let's take it over down there! Griffin, Beauty Bar, Downtown.. every art scene needs it's bars to gather at too! Good job Vegas!

Posted by: chadsorg on 1/30/09 at 7:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Susanne - Your review last year was more insightful and articulate, though this year it seemed to lack inspiration. I was going for more "mood" rather than texture. I do appreciate your efforts.

Posted by: saveriocine on 1/30/09 at 8:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Hi Susanne,
Thanks for the constructive criticism. I have several bodies of artwork that I have been developing over the years. the work from last year that you mentioned can be seen here:
http://afonline.artistsspace.org/view_ar...

the work I will probably be showing this summer at the next Nada Motel has examples here:
http://deanburton.carbonmade.com/

The work from the current exhibition at the Barrack Museum is on the top the list on this page:
http://burtonpictures.net/projects.htm

Thanks for your review...

Posted by: Dean_Burton on 1/30/09 at 10 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Hi Susanne,
Thanks for covering the show and your critique.

Posted by: anntracy on 1/31/09 at 2:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Thanks for coming and all
I might say it needs to be known that yes Chad curates the show in Vegas but it was a crew of 6 that organized the first dada show and we now instigate the annual show with the help of many others. We are a dis-organization that has begun a golden age of art Celebrating Reno's unlimited potential for Absurdity, that has purified itself from the influence of the Government and Corporate demands.
Somehow this important detail has been lost in the translation.
And that ruins the whole premise for the show.
So essentially it was a complete waste of time and energy for everyone except Chad and the Nevada Arts Council.

Posted by: ministerofinertgases on 2/3/09 at 11:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)

In my experience of viewing art exhibitions, I've thought that some of them were less than inspiring to me, but I also learned that art appreciation seems like an individual thing with no universal truths. For ministerofinertgases to say that this exhibit was a complete waste of time is an expression of a personal issue rather than an art criticism.

This review of the show was limited in space, so a complete list of credits to all who contributed was not possible. But that's always the case. One point of the exhibit was to show what's happening in the Reno art community. The reviewer gave a bit of background to give it context. Details were not lost in translation, there just wasn't room nor need for them.

Posted by: Articist on 2/4/09 at 11:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)

As a participant of the show who personally shlepped his own crap to the proud cultural backwash they call Vegas I wasn't critisizing any of the art. I was critisizing the waste of mine and the rest of our efforts since the reviewer obviously had none of the facts straight about the exhibition.

Posted by: ministerofinertgases on 2/7/09 at 8:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)