Gallery West in the McKinley Arts & Culture Center is proud to host an exhibition featuring works from the 2022 Black Rock Desert Artists-in-Residence Program. The exhibition includes two parts: “Leave No Trace” by a collaborative artistic team of Courtney Sennish and Lisa Rock, and “Restoration” by Mark Maynard. The residency program is a partnership between Friends of Black Rock-High Rock and the Bureau of Land Management Black Rock Field Office. The exhibition will run from October 17 – December 9, 2022 in McKinley Arts and Culture Center, Gallery West. The community is invited to attend the artists’ reception on Thursday, October 27 from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

“Leave No Trace”

Courtney Sennish and Lisa Rock come to the Black Rock Desert residency as a collaborative team that hail from the Bay Area. Both artists explore the urban landscape from different perspectives. Sennish makes sculptures that reshape and reimagine forms found in the urban environment using industrial materials and roadside waste. Rock makes paintings that explore nature’s relationship to manmade. For this exhibition they have shifted to create work that is directly inspired by the landscape. Drawing inspiration from the forms, colors and shapes found within the landscape they created works that have a conversation with one another about the Black Rock Desert.

“Restoration”

“Restoration” is a collection of sketches and short essays documenting Mark Maynard’s time in the Black Rock Desert-High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area. Part of a larger work-in-progress tentatively titled Resident, Restoration is an unrestrained look at how we conduct ourselves in wild places, and the power of landscapes to shape character, heal pain, and bring unlikely collaborators together in public spaces.

About the Program:
The Black Rock Desert Artist-in-Residence program promotes awareness through art of the exceptional places protected within the BLM’s National Conservation Lands. The experience provides an opportunity for learning and dialogue about the value of preserving public lands in the Black Rock Desert National Conservation Area. It will engage and inform an audience through public programs by participants and will provide time for artists to pursue their work.

To learn more about the artists and the exhibition:
https://www.reno.gov/community/arts-culture/city-art-galleries/mckinley-gallery-east-and-west

To learn more about the Black Rock Artist-in-Residence Program:
https://blackrockdesert.org/artist-residence-program-2022/