FEAtUrE

Peak Peak Welcome to Tahoe and Truckee’s neighborhood art scenes pRoduction pRoduction its artists specialize in mashing high-energy styles—street art, steampunk and the trippier end of coffeehouse art—into traditional Tahoe themes like tree rings and landscapes. Benko Gallery 3979 Lake Tahoe Blvd., Unit 2 South Lake Tahoe, California (530) 600-3264 www.benkoartgallery.com Off the Beaten path Lake Tahoe Community College, nestled in a clearing among fragrant pines, is a nexus of art production in the South Shore region. A few years ago, the state of California issued a rule saying that students may not repeat a community college class that they’ve passed with a C or better. That decreased the LTCC art department’s population of “lifelong learners,” which makes it harder for the department to serve as a cohesive art-making community. But art classes are still taught, and the college’s Haldan Gallery, located in the library building, is still a good professional gathering spot, featuring well-known artists from all over the West—including Reno’s Walter McNamara and Frances Melhop. The current show is a group show of LTCC faculty work. The Foyer Gallery, in the adjacent Fine Arts Building, is a small but good-looking exhibition space where Shelly Zentner, LTCC art instructor and founder of Tahoe Activist Artists, is showing her Fundamental Freedoms, a collection of paintings that highlight civil rights activists. Both galleries close for the summer on June 21 and reopen for an exhibition by Nevada potter Joe Winter on Sept. 25, with a reception from 5-7 p.m. Oct. 11. haldan Gallery Lake Tahoe Community College One College Drive South Lake Tahoe, California (530) 541-4660, ext. 711 www.ltcc.edu/campuslife/haldan-gallery

If you still think “Tahoe art” is limited to the landscape paintings and baskets that came and went from the Nevada Museum of Art in 2015, and the ubiquitous photos of Sand Harbor at sunset, you might be surprised by the range of styles and venues in Truckee and Tahoe this summer. There’s no museum of highelevation artwork to speak of. The scene is spread out among a few happening hubs with studios, shops and satellite spots—plus a handful of outlier outposts. South Shore, North Shore and Truckee are the homes to tight-knit, well-connected, welcoming art communities and a summer-long communities and a summer-long roster of events. roster of events. Fans of Reno Art Works and the Potentialist Workshop will likely feel right at home among the 30 or so artists of the High Vibe Society, a collective that aims to create a stable, yearround trade in emerging artists’ works in a town that’s largely at the mercy of seasonal sales. In summer 2017, the group leased a space for studio rentals, gallery sales, poetry events, classes and workshops. In March, after contending with financial pressures and city regulations, the group lost the space. It’s now searching for a new permanent location. Meanwhile, a GoFundMe campaign is underway, and High Vibe keeps up its profile by hosting house concerts and pop-up shows. Founder Erik Ulcickas also oversees a satellite hallway gallery with affordable 2-D works at South Lake Brewing Company. To keep up on High Vibe events, follow the group on Instagram and Facebook, and visit the website to sign up for its newsletter. high Vibe Society satellite gallery

South Lake Brewing Company 1920 Lake Tahoe Blvd.,

South Lake Tahoe, California www.highvibesociety.org

South Shore: a varied ecosystem Main draG It takes about an hour and 15 minutes to drive to South Lake Tahoe from Reno—barring summer traffic holdups—via a scenic sprint up Hwy. 50, through Cave Rock Tunnel and past Nevada’s lakeside casino towers. At first glance, South Lake looks like it might be one giant lakeside resort in a sea of upscale strip malls for the 5-6 million visitors that the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority estimates come through each year. But the city is home to a large population of local artists—and an ecosystem that’s unusually complete for a town of 21,000.

Just before town, Tahoe Art League’s Art Center Gallery is easy to spot in a modest building that looks like it might prefer to be a ski-rental shop. Inside, it’s stocked floor to ceiling with paintings and photographs by the league’s members—abstracts, flowers, portraits, and a large variety of landscapes. The best times to visit are the weekends of July 27-29 and August 3-5, when 50 or so of the league’s artists open their doors to the public for the 11th Annual Artist Studio Tour. Maps are available at the gallery, and tour stops in South Lake Tahoe, Meyers and nearby towns are well-marked. If you can’t make it during one of those weekends, the gallery is open year-round, and it’s always a good stop for your Midwestern parents. tahoe art League’s art Center Gallery 3062 Lake Tahoe Blvd.

South Lake Tahoe, California (530) 544-2313 www.talart.org Benko Gallery, on the other hand, is where to take your Bay Area parents. It’s inconspicuous among the neighboring shops around Heavenly Mountain Resort. To find it, look for the Applebee’s—but don’t expect a chain-store vibe. The gallery is spacious and polished, and

by Kris Vagner krisv@newsreview.com PHOTO/KRIS VAGNER a sculpture by Colleen sidey is among the faculty work in the Haldan gallery at Lake Tahoe Community College. “peak production” continued on page 14 05.24.18 | RN&R | 13

North Shore:

Land and scene

Main drag

There are galleries aplenty that are easy to find if you amble through North Shore towns like Incline Village, Tahoe City and Kings Beach.

North Tahoe Arts in Tahoe City is a good one-stop shop at which to start. For locals, it offers kid camps and workshops. For visitors, the artisan shop in the group’s forest-green, alpine chalet is open daily and features work by about 25 regional artisans. north Tahoe arts

380 N. Lake Blvd. Tahoe City, California (530) 581-2787 www.northtahoearts.com

Off The beaTen paTh:

While landscape art is more or less king in this region, there’s an oasis of more cerebral, experimental work at Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village. An exhibition of work by MFA students runs from Aug. 4-31, with a reception Aug. 4. The college hosts intensive, week-long workshops all summer in photography, digital art and ceramics. Those sessions are geared toward professional-level artists, but if you’d like to access the ideas of the instructors who travel from afar to teach them, Tuesday evening “Meet the Artist” nights are scheduled throughout the summer.

Tahoe gallery

Sierra Nevada College 999 Tahoe Blvd. Incline Village (775) 831-1314 www.sierranevada.edu/academics/finearts/gallery

truckee:

A shopping district we actually like

Main drag:

In Truckee’s case, don’t be put off by the words “shopping district,” even if you’re an avowed adventurer or an aficionado of originality. Any sense of overwhelm you might incur from waiting for a parking space or weaving through a crowded sidewalk can be easily cured by a dip in nearby Donner Lake or a jaunt up to the abandoned train tunnels, where, come to think of it, you might even want to start your Truckee art tour—the insides are smattered for miles with ever-changing, often ambitious graffiti work.

But you might not even need these escape plans. Downtown Truckee’s art shops are, for many culture seekers, their own relief. Collectively, the community here has mastered the art of building a local arts scene while leveraging the advantages of existing in a tourist town. Gifts you’d take home to grandma—or to your art professor—abound. They weren’t made in China. They were made right here. And, in some cases, Truckee’s artisans will even teach you how to make your own.

Art Truckee hosts yoga sessions, open mics and intimate concerts in a second-floor gallery. Atelier, where shoppers, makers and would-be makers are all welcome, stocks a rainbow of yarns, a carefully curated selection of how-to books, and appealing cards and prints—and offers one-session workshops in techniques you may have always wanted to learn, plus some you may have never thought of. (“Smartphone Image to Encaustic Display” June 27; “Sewing Basics” July 10; check the calendar for many more.)

Riverside Studios is an artisan shop owned by five artists that’s especially strong in jewelry and ceramics with a lot of personality. Bespoke carries handmade housewares and fashions with heart—along the lines of what Reno’s Never Ender boutique used to offer. Lorien Powers Studio Jewelry brings an elegant, industrial-arts flair—along with frequent topographical references and LakeTahoe shapes—to pendants, rings and other jewelry. Gallery 5830’ stocks pieces with a refined, industrial-interior bent, including furniture, glass and metal pieces that you might wish you knew how to make. art Truckee

10072 Donner Pass Road, 2nd Floor, Truckee, California (530) 448-3423 www.arttruckee.com

atelier

10128 Donner Pass Road, Truckee, California (530) 386-2700 www.ateliertruckee.com

riverside Studios

10076 Donner Pass Road, Truckee, California (530) 587-3789 riversideartstudios.com

bespoke

10130 Donner Pass Road, Truckee, California (530) 582-5500 www.bespoketruckee.com

Lorien powers Studio Jewelry

10007 Bridge St., Truckee, California (530) 550-9610 www.lorienpowers.com

gallery 5830’

10060 Donner Pass Road, Truckee, California (530) 902-0322 gallery5830.com

PHOTO/KRIS VAGNER

Sven Renner of King’s Beach practices welding at Truckee Roundhouse.

Off The beaTen paTh:

Truckee Roundhouse is basically a cousin to the Generator in Sparks. It’s smaller, so you can’t work on your RV or massive Burning Man sculpture there, but it operates with a similar set of goals—to get people’s hands onto high-tech and low-tech materials and processes. Upcoming workshops there can teach you how to use a 3-D printer, a plasma cutter, a table saw or a ceramics wheel.

If you missed the San Mateo Maker Faire—or you just didn’t feel like driving over the pass and wading through the 125,000 other fans to indulge in all things techy and handmade—Truckee Roundhouse is getting ready for its own Maker Show on June 10.

Truckee roundhouse

Truckee-Tahoe Airport Chandelle Way Truckee, California (530) 582-4007 www.truckeeroundhouse.org

Trails & Vistas is a nonprofit that holds arts events in state parks and other outdoor locales near Truckee. On Sept. 8 and 9, the group hosts Art Hikes at the Sierra Club’s Clair Tappaan Lodge, eight miles outside of town.

Extremely well trained guides—they start hiking the trail early in summer so that by September they know its every tree and boulder—lead groups of 22 on camera-free, phone-free hikes that last about two and a half hours. Along the way, they stop for acts that might include sitar players, taiko drummers or dancers. There are also mixed-media works that rely on the natural features along the trail. Director Nancy Tieken Lopez described one example from the 2017 hike: “There were human dancers in this very elastic, white cocoon-looking material. They were hanging in aspen trees, nude underneath, white material, bending like an aspen.”

Trails & Vistas

(530) 536-0388 www.trailsandvistas.org

Get some air

Up here, plein air painting is very much a thing

Tahoe dwellers tend to be passionate about their surroundings. Actually, who isn’t? It’s hard to argue with the region’s appeal. Even a lot of us committed high-desert dwellers could never get enough of the pine-scented air, the enormous, clear lake that you can swim in as you stare off at snowy peaks in August, or the miles and miles of trails to bike and hike on. It’s easy to see why plein air painting is big up here.

Phyllis Schafer is easily the region’s most established painter. She spends hours at a time at an easel, ideally one set up off a trail, miles from the car, rendering places like Fallen Leaf Lake in precise bands of color that show off the natural world’s tiny details and sweeping vistas.

“It’s like we’re all attending the same church,” Schafer said, describing the role of plein air painting in Tahoe culture. “We know the pines, the changing of seasons, the way certain things look, the quality of the water in the Truckee River. People know what the trails are like at each time of year and when things are blooming.”

Plein air fans in Reno will be able to see a Schafer exhibition at Stremmel Gallery in 2019. Meanwhile, the opportunities to see— or make—plein air paintings in Tahoe are numerous. Several Tahoe Art League members embark on plein air painting sessions together. North Tahoe Arts hosts the North Lake Tahoe Plein Air Open, a weeklong gathering to paint, show, exhibit and view plein air works, June 1216. And Sierra Nevada College offers a weeklong workshop, June 11-15, with Lori Hanson, another well known Northern California painter.

Phyllis Shafer paints outdoors—as do many Tahoe artists.

At Mountain Forge, Jennifer Standteiner sits on a piece of the Bay Bridge that she and her colleagues plan to make into a public sculpture.

Step right up

A Truckee forge sends blacksmithing instructors way off the beaten path

In what might be the most pleasant industrial park ever, in a thickly forested neighborhood a few miles from downtown Truckee, the blacksmiths at Mountain Forge are celebrating their 50th anniversary. And they’re definitely not marking the occasion with a day off.

“We are year-round, full-time,” said Jennifer Standteiner. Her father-in-law, Hans Standteiner, started the forge in 1968. He soon became busy making guard rails, gates and signs all over the area. The forge staff still make such fixtures— and now they also host journeyman apprentices, teach occasional workshops, give tours to kids on field trips and make large public sculptures. One recent one is a trio of metal musicians downtown. Upcoming projects include a proposal for a piece at Google and one slated to be made from a massive steel chunk of the Oakland-side span of the Bay Bridge, built in the 1930s, dismantled in 2014, and partially divvied up by CalTrans to artists with public sculpture plans.

On top of that already full schedule, in August, the artisans of Mountain Forge pack up eight anvils, a coal forge, chisels, tongs, safety equipment, 500 book-sized, water-jet-cut steel robots, and some camping gear. This is all so that they can set up a drop-by blacksmithing workshop at Burning Man. The team attended the festival in 2016 to build a large pair of metal wings. They brought along their equipment and made a semisuccessful attempt to engage the public in the production of feathers. (The wings are now at the Playa Art Park in Reno.)

“We thought, ‘Wow, all the blacksmiths had the most amazing time,’” said Standteiner. “They met so many people. We thought, ‘You know what, instead of bringing one more thing for people to look at, we should bring back the blacksmith shop, so people have something to do. They can create something. They can interact. It’s a much more interactive piece.”

For anyone who wants to learn to pound on red-hot metal and not pack up all their camping gear and drive all the way to Black Rock City, Mountain Forge will also set up an interactive display at the Truckee Maker Show June 10.

Despite the unforgiving workload Standteiner described, she did not sound at all like she was bluffing when she said it’s OK for visitors to drop by the forge during business hours to check it out.

To keep up on upcoming workshops and events, follow #mtnforge on Instagram.

Mountain Forge

10950 A Industrial Way, Truckee, California www.mtnforge.com Ω

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