Robert Z. Hawkins Gallery | Floor 3
It is generally agreed that the art historical movement known as Land Art—associated with marking, sculpting, and engaging with the Earth itself—was born in the late 1960s and early 70s as an outgrowth of Conceptual and Minimalist art. While Land Art has global roots, it is most frequently associated with the monumental desert works made in the American West by artists such as Michael Heizer, Walter De Maria, and Robert Smithson.
Land Art is continually changing. Increasingly, contemporary artists and practitioners seek to disrupt conventional definitions of the genre by critiquing, re-contextualizing, performing, and engaging in environmental and social dialogue about art of the land. These creative practices traverse conventional boundaries of art, geography, science, environmentalism and activism, while breathing new life—and needed perspective—into Land Art.
Nevada is home to numerous iconic Land Art interventions, and the Nevada Museum of Art has a long history of commissioning new artworks, publishing books, organizing public programs, and collecting artworks and archives related to this field. Drawn primarily from the permanent art and archive collections of the Nevada Museum of Art, this exhibition combines work by prominent and lesser-known artists whose works interrogate the definition of Land Art and question the established canon. While much of the world remains enchanted by the monumental land-based desert works that emerged in the American West in the late 1960s and 70s, there is equal interest among practitioners seeking to create, critique, contextualize, perform, and engage in environmental and social dialogue about art of the land.
Artists featured include Vito Acconci, Lita Albuquerque, Edgar Arceneaux, Milton Becerra, Marilyn Bridges, Stig Brøgger, Jackie Brookner, Beverly Buchanan, Judy Chicago, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Agnes Denes, Elmgreen & Dragset Chris Drury, Marcos Ramíerz Erre, Justin Favela, Ana Teresa Fernández, Regina José Galindo, Helen Mayer and Newton Harrison, Michael Heizer, Nancy Holt, Maya Lin, Metabolic Studio, Daniel McCormick and Mary O’Brien, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Ana Mendieta, Mary Miss, Dennis Oppenheim, Trevor Paglen, Postcommodity, Cai Guo-Qiang, Reko Rennie, Ugo Rondinone, Cauleen Smith, Michelle Stuart, David Taylor, Oscar Tuazon, Andrea Zittel, and Raheleh Zomorrodinia
