Sierra artS foundation recognizeS Some of reno BeSt artiStS in Several diSciplineS BY
ocal nonprofit organization Sierra Arts Foundation has announced its annual grant winners—but they’re technically not grants because Sierra Arts does not require recipients to carry out specific projects or report on funds. The seven $1,000 professional awards and two $500 student awards are going to nine individuals who exhibit artistic excellence, innovation and professionalism in their fields. And the winners are: Megan Berner, Nate Clark, Nick Larsen, and Catherine Maybach-Schmid in visual arts; Timothy Chatwood in music; Mark Maynard in literature; Chase McKenna in theater; and student recipients Annie Evans in musical theater and Caitlin McCarty in dance. Recipients 18 | RN&R |
SEPTEMBER 17, 2015
Josie luciano
will also participate in a group exhibit at Sierra Arts Gallery through the end of the month. With a group this big—30 percent bigger than in years past—it seems reasonable to break down their work by trend, as if these nine individuals could possibly take the temperature and tell the forecast of all art in our city. They can’t, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t noticeable patterns if you are looking for them. In general, the work is multi-layered, quiet until it is loud, vague until it is specific, and interdisciplinary … except for the times when the artists are incredibly nested in their disciplines. The only all-out universal trend seems to be a willingness to work hard.
Multi-layered Maybach-Schmid’s mixed media “plaques” adapt phototransfer techniques originally used for lithography to give her ceramic wall hangings another dimension. “I never really knew what to do with a big, flat space,” she said. The result is work that is both created and viewed in layers. In his exploration of “experimental classicism,” Chatwood pairs traditional instruments with sound and light effects to enhance his music. In one piece called “Echoes for Viola Effects,” the musician adds a digital echo to an instrument that can only have so much resonance on its own.
McKenna’s theatrical body of work is multi-tiered. After starring in film, television and live theater in Los Angeles, McKenna brought her production company, The Merry War Theatre Group, back to Reno. Now the troupe connects with audiences through war dramas, Shakespeare plays and the occasional Star Wars parody. Although Clark’s paintings can be appreciated for their minimal aesthetic alone, the obsessive, imperfect tick-marks that show up time and again in his work belie a primitive urge for—and subsequent breakdown of—order that is no less meaningful today than it might have been thousands of years ago.
