Artists David Taylor and Marco Ramírez ERRE collaborated on photography projects documenting the US-Mexico Border and its contested history. Join them for a discussion of their work and the social and cultural issues raised by their images.

Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II relates the unique story of more than 1,100 men who deceived, sketched, and painted across Europe to manipulate Hitler’s armies during World War II.

Activated on January 20, 1944, the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, known as the “Ghost Army,” was the first mobile, multimedia, tactical deception unit in US Army history. Consisting of an authorized strength of 82 officers and 1,023 men under the command of Army veteran Colonel Harry L. Reeder, this unique and top-secret unit was capable of simulating two whole divisions—approximately 30,000 men—and used visual, sonic, and radio deception to fool German forces during World War II’s final year.

The unit consisted of a carefully selected group of artists, engineers, professional soldiers, and draftees, including famed artists such as fashion designer Bill Blass, painter Ellsworth Kelly, and photographer Art Kane. The unit waged war with inflatable tanks and vehicles, fake radio traffic, sound effects, and even phony generals, using imagination and illusion to trick the enemy while saving thousands of lives along the way. Armed with nothing heavier than .50 caliber machine guns, the 23^rd took part in 22 large-scale deceptions in Europe from Normandy to the Rhine River, the bulk of the unit arriving in England in May 1944, shortly before D-Day. The 23rd, along with the 3133rd Signal Service Company in Italy, helped liberate Europe from the grip of Nazi tyranny.

Produced by the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, this exhibition brings together archival photography, historical artifacts, uniforms, sketches, and life-sized recreations of inflatable military equipment used during combat.

Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II is exclusively sponsored by the E. L. Wiegand Foundation.

While the exhibition is on view the Museum will proudly offer free admission to active military members, their families, and veterans thanks to generous support from the E. L. Wiegand Foundation.

Ghost Army education and programming sponsors:

Carole Anderson
The Bretzlaff Foundation
The Thelma B. and Thomas P. Hart Foundation
The Jackie and Steve Kane Family Trust
McDonald Carano
The Private Bank by Nevada State Bank
Whittier Trust Investment & Wealth Management

Ellsworth Kelly is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, who in the years following his service in World War II, created artwork that shaped a unique style by employing hard-edged and boldly colored shapes, quite distinctive from the mainstream of American abstraction of the 1950s. This small exhibition features examples of the works for which Kelly became best known, and demonstrate Kelly’s subtle techniques emphasizing line, color, and form. All the works are on loan from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation.

Born in Newburgh, New York, Kelly was attending Pratt Institute in Brooklyn when his schooling was cut short by the rumblings of World War II. He entered U.S. military service in 1943 requesting to be assigned to the 603rd Engineers Camouflage Battalion, a tactical deception unit also known as the Ghost Army. Comprised of artists and designers, the Ghost Army used inflatable tanks, trucks, and other elements of subterfuge to mislead the Axis forces during the last year of World War II, creating entire dummy airfields, motor pools, artillery batteries, and tank formations in a matter of hours. Kelly served with the unit until the end of the European theater of World War II. His exposure to military camouflage became part of his basic art training, instructing him in the use of form and shadow, as well as the construction and deconstruction of the visible.

All the works are on loan from The Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation.

Sponsors

Julie and Michael Teel | Raley’s

Water plays a key role in the global economy, informing agricultural, commercial, residential, and industrial development. It also sparks conflict, protest, political debate, activism, and conservation. Our collective dependence on water—and acknowledgment of its dwindling supply—demands innovation, new technologies, and creative solutions. Water by Design, drawn primarily from the permanent collection of the Nevada Museum of Art, explores the ultimate design challenge: sustaining humanity while preserving a limited natural resource.

This exhibition examines water through the lens of artists who have documented the use, exploitation, and preservation of this precious commodity. Artists include Edward Burtynsky, Pilar Cereceda, Robert Dawson, Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison, Ann Johnston, Maya Lin, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Richard Misrach, Mary Miss, Mark O’Connell, Cara Romero, Juane Quick-To-See-Smith, Oscar Tuazon, Takako Yamaguchi, and many others. Their diverse perspectives offer insight into how artists, designers, Indigenous knowledge keepers, engineers and scientists have worked across disciplines to power innovation, question existing systems, and seek visionary solutions to help navigate the future.

This exhibition is organized in conjunction with the 2023 NV STEAM Conference, a statewide education conference focused on exploring ideas and strategies that incorporate Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math education into innovative classroom practices that foster student creativity and innovation. The NV STEAM Conference is presented in partnership with the Desert Research Institute. Learn more or register at nvsteam.org

Lead Sponsor

Tesla

Major Sponsor

Waste Management

Additional Support

Truckee Meadows Water Authority

For 50 years, Robert Adams (born 1937) has made compelling, provocative, and highly influential photographs that show the wonder and fragility of the American landscape, its inherent beauty, and the inadequacy of our response to it. American Silence: The Photographs of Robert Adams celebrates the art of this seminal American photographer and explores the reverential way he looks at the world around him and the almost palpable silence of his work. Capturing the sense of peace and harmony created through what Adams calls “the silence of light” that can be seen on the prairie, in the woods, and by the ocean, American Silence features some 175 pictures from 1965 to 2015. Other images on view question our moral silence to the desecration of that beauty by consumerism, industrialization, and lack of environmental stewardship. Divided into three sections—The Gift, Our Response, and Tenancy—the exhibition includes works from not only the artist’s most important projects but also lesser-known ones that depict suburban sprawl, strip malls, highways, homes, and stores, as well as rivers, skies, the prairie, and the ocean. While these photographs lament the ravages that have been inflicted on the land, they also pay homage to what remains.

Organized in cooperation with the artist, the exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated, 332-page catalogue published by the National Gallery of Art and Aperture, New York. The exhibition is curated by Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs, National Gallery of Art.

This exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The exhibition and catalog are made possible through the leadership support of the Trellis Fund and a generous gift from Jane P. Watkins. The exhibition is also made possible in part by The Shared Earth Foundation. Additional support is provided by Randi and Bob Fisher, Wes and Kate Mitchell, Nion McEvoy, Greg and Aline Gooding, and the James D. and Kathryn K. Steele Fund for Photography.

Lead Sponsor

Wayne L. Prim Foundation

Major Sponsors

The Bretzlaff Foundation
Gabelli Foundation

Sponsors

Blanchard, Krasner & French | Angela and Mark Krasner
Barbara and Tad Danz
Kathryn A. Hall | Laurel Trust Company
Garrett and Jenny Sutton | Corporate Direct

Supporting Sponsor

Tammy and Michael Dermody

Additional Support

Kathie Bartlett

Charlotte B. Skinner (1879-1963) was an artist and educator living in the Eastern Sierra of California from 1905 to 1933. She spent her early life in San Francisco, immersing herself within a community of professional artists working and exhibiting there. After moving to the remote, rural community of Lone Pine, California, her home on Brewery Street became an escape from the hustle and bustle of the Bay Area for artists and friends seeking community among the company of other artists.

Born in 1879 and raised in San Francisco, Skinner studied at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art (known today as the San Francisco Art Institute) under Arthur Frank Matthews and Gottardo Piazzoni. It was there that she met fellow student, artist, and mining engineer, William Lyle Skinner. The two married in 1905 and moved to the Skinner family’s home in Lone Pine, CA, where she would reside for almost 30 years, immersing herself in painting the landscapes of Owens Valley as well as printmaking, and teaching. Committed to her artistic practice, Skinner exhibited extensively during her life showing works throughout the West Coast, including the Stanford Art Gallery (1930), Portland Art Museum (1933), M.H. de Young Memorial Museum (1956). Skinner also exhibited at the Nevada Art Gallery (Nevada Museum of Art) in 1952 alongside illustrator and friend, Maynard Dixon, and noted California landscape painter William Wendt.

Skinner counted herself among the artistic circles of renowned photographers and artists of the West including Dorothea Lange, Maynard Dixon, Imogen Cunningham, Roi Partridge, and Ralph Stackpole. Her home became a retreat and a site of inspiration for these artists and others who were passing through Owens Valley seeking new subject matter and like-minded creatives.

This exhibition features original paintings and drawings of the Eastern Sierra by Charlotte B. Skinner. It also includes works by artist-friends including Dorothea Lange, Maynard Dixon, Roi Partridge, Sonya Noskowiak, Ralph Stackpole, and William Wendt, along with Panamint Shoshone baskets from her own personal collection.

It is accompanied by a small publication with an essay written by Kolin Perry.

Generously supported by John A. White, Jr., in memory of Charlotte Skinner’s grandson, James Skinner

Bolivian artist Sonia Falcone’s Campo de Color (Color Field) is an immersive installation made from spices, salt, and other raw materials. It is not only a multi-sensory experience, but also a commentary on the ways that foods continue to connect people, cultures, and regions in our increasingly globalized world.

Since 1999, Northern Nevada middle and high school students have been invited to submit their artwork to the Scholastic Art Awards competition. The Museum’s annual presentation of the Scholastic Awards is scheduled in conjunction with the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, a national program designed to identify America’s most gifted young artists and writers. This program has honored some of our nation’s most celebrated artists including Truman Capote, Sylvia Plath, Michael Sarich, Cindy Sherman, Robert Redford, and Andy Warhol.

Students in grades 7-12 (age 13 and up) submit their art which is then judged by a panel of local artists and art professionals. Artworks are eligible for the highest award of Gold Key, followed by a Silver Key, or an Honorable Mention based on originality, technical skill, and an emergence of a personal vision. Along with going on to compete in the national competition, select works will be shown in a joint exhibition presented by the Nevada Museum of Art and The Lilley Museum of Art, the School of the Arts, and the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Nevada, Reno.

2023 Award Recipients

Gold Key Works
On view at Sheppard Contemporary | Church Fine Arts, University of Nevada, Reno
Gallery Hours: Thursday – Saturday, 3 – 6 pm
Parking is available at the Brian J. Whalen Parking Complex, bottom floor.

American Visions Nominated Works
On view at Nevada Museum of Art / Donald W. Reynolds Grand Hall

Award Ceremony
Nightingale Concert Hall | Church Fine Arts, University of Nevada, Reno
Thursday, February 16, 2023 / 6 – 7 pm

We invite Gold and Silver Key award recipients to be honored during this special ceremony. All invited guests are encouraged to register for the Award Ceremony by February 8, 2023 to attend.

Sponsors
City of Reno Arts & Culture Commission
The Hearst Foundations
Nell J. Redfield Foundation
Heidimarie Rochlin
RBC Wealth Management
Wild Women Artists

Featuring more than thirty works, this exhibition honors the career of artist Ben Aleck, a lifelong educator and enrolled member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe (Kooyooe Tukadu/cui-ui fish eaters.) Aleck was born in Reno in 1949 and raised on the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony (RSIC). A graduate of Wooster High School, he attended the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) in Oakland, California, where he witnessed the politics and protest of the Vietnam War era and the countercultural movement of the late 1960s. His past involvement with the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the American Indian Occupation of Alcatraz have also shaped his artistic practice. Aleck’s paintings, illustrations, and prints give visual form to Indigenous stories about the stars, coyote, plants, the formation of Great Basin lands, and the origins of its people.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a book with an essay by Melissa Melero-Moose.

For the duration of the exhibition, all members of tribal communities will be offered free admission.

Sponsors

Sandy Raffealli | Bill Pearce Motors
The Phil and Jennifer Satre Family Fund at the Community Foundation of Northern Nevada
Six Talents Foundation

Supporting Sponsors

Carole Anderson

Additional Support

Kathie Bartlett
Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities
Sylvia and Jim Thacker

A largely self-taught photographer, Eleanor Preger honed her craft taking photographs at the annual Burning Man gathering that takes place in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. Over the years, she has built a reputation for capturing the colors, movement, sound, and soul of artists and artworks set against the stark and striking backdrop of the desert playa.

In spring 2022, Preger collaborated with contemporary artist Rachel Hayes, whose large-scale textile installation is currently on view in the Donald W. Reynolds Grand Hall. Preger and Hayes ventured outdoors for a series of photography sessions at Mount Rose Meadows, Lake Tahoe’s Glenbrook community, and other locales in the Tahoe Basin. With help from family and friends, Hayes’ installed her sculptural fabric artworks in a variety of dramatic landscape settings.

During these sessions, Preger took thousands of photographs. While the ever-changing light and prevailing winds certainly had a hand in determining the final product, it was Preger’s unique photographic vision that resulted in this series of dynamic photographs. Taken together, these images remind us to take pleasure in nature’s fleeting moments and to embrace the ephemeral wonders of art and nature.