ACCNV

501 (c)(3) for the longevity of art in Nevada

DESERT BIENNIAL PROJECT

The Nevada Art Biennial

ACCNV Presents DBP 2027: FLUX, Curated by Lydia Silic

The 2027 Desert Biennial Project centers on Flux: a state of movement, impermanence, and continuous change. This year, artists explore transition, creating work that shifts with the environment, deteriorates, adapts, or encourages involvement. Flux is the action or process of flowing or flowing out, it can also mean continuous change.When considering transformation, this year's artists consider ecological change within a fragile desert environment, where land and climate are continually impacted by human presence (and vice versa). Artists explore personal and collective identity in the region, or the changing role of art in entertainment where spectacle and permanence often dominate public space. This year's artists are exploring how Nevada, and the communities within it, experience flux, responding to transition, movement, or change.

AALIYAH FAFANTO

TITLE

bio

Statement

• Website
• Instagram

AMBER BISEK

TITLE

AMBER BISEK is a multidisciplinary artist based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her
main medium lies in photography, but she expands into painting, collage, mixed media, and
sculpture. Through her feminine experience, Bisek explores how gender and societal norms form
and shape an individual’s expression. Utilizing feminine motifs, she challenges traditional
experiences to reach a general audience. The tragedy of womanhood, the struggles, the pain, but
also the beauty encapsulate her work. Bisek is interested in the human mind, body, and soul, and
how we each experience this life. Throughout the transformation of her medium, Bisek observes
how her peers express themselves, and is interested in challenging modern societal gender and
beauty norms, as each of these aspects affects the different ways individuals tackle the world.
Amber recently graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nevada Las
Vegas.

"With each piece, I hope to encourage the audience to question what makes certain aspects feminine or masculine, and challenge people to reflect on how they represent themselves. My work focuses on windows and the body, symbolizing isolation and perspective. Just as windows allow insight while keeping spaces contained, our self-expression reflects our inner thoughts. Some windows are shut, others open, and adding curtains creates barriers. We control how much we reveal about ourselves. Through this imagery, I explore
identity and insecurity in relation to societal norms imposed on gender within the household, urging the audience to question and reflect on their own representations of femininity and masculinity. By delving into my own concept of gender and identity, I can research the effect of these sources. Works discussing the menstrual cycle or individual expression showcase these interests. Throughout the transformation of my medium, I am observing how my peers express themselves, and am interested in challenging modern societal gender and beauty norms, as each of these aspects affects the different ways individuals tackle the world. I love exploring traditional gender values, whether that's hyper feminine beauty contrasted with bloody undertones or exploring household items and crafts like curtains or beads."

• Website
• Instagram

ANNA NEWMAN

TITLE

ANNA NEWMAN is an interdisciplinary artist and curator with an interest in history and technology. Through undervalued materials and installation, she explores cycles of obsolescence in the margins where urban, rural and wild environments collide. A former software engineer, Anna believes our relentless drive to solve problems via technology comes with high costs. Working in community and creative reuse are alternatives to exclusively technological solutions, and Anna creates inclusive spaces for these options through her installations and collaborations centered on fiber and upcycling.Anna's documentary films have been exhibited at Sundance Film Festival and museums in the United States and Canada, including Design Exchange, Toronto, Chabot Space and Science Center, and Stanford Libraries. In June 2026 she will be exhibiting Hourglass, a photo installation exploring the unique ecosystems of Nevada’s sand dunes, in the art show VAST at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Hourglass is made possible with the support of a 2026 Nevada Arts Council Artist Project grant, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Anna holds an MFA in Visual Art from the University of Nevada, Reno.

"I am drawn to the unexplored potential of the outdated, everyday, and discarded. Narratives of obsolescence resonate with my rural childhood as well as my corporate Silicon Valley past. Whether I am projecting found 35 mm slides, screen printing on industrial supplies, interviewing low brow artists, or photographing un-recognized endemic Nevada invertebrates, I am investigating the overlooked.Our personal and collective histories are not only transmitted by our tools and artifacts, but shaped by them. Low tech processes and natural or found materials connect me to other times, communities, and traditions. Modern technologies help me access and understand ancient places and traces. Fossils, sand dunes, plants, insects, video cameras, and micro media players: it's about experimentation and researching new combinations. Communicating well is neither quick nor easy, and many human and more than human voices are soft, hard to hear. Yet meaning is constantly made, since long before our cables gridded the sky, landscape, and ocean floor. I invite viewers to slow down, to look and listen carefully, whatever the medium, and make some new connections."

• Website
• Instagram

ANTHONY N. ALSTON

TITLE

ANTHONY N. ALSTON grew up in Reno, graduating from UNR earning a BFA with emphasis on digital media and sculpture. After years working as an arts administrator/public art technician and volunteering with non-profits, he completed residencies in Virginia City, NV and Hill End, Australia. His antipodean sojourn extended as he continued his education at the Sydney College of Arts; however, a near-fatal accident in the Blue Mountains—in consort with the untimely closure of the school—prevented him from procuring his MFA. He remained creatively active during convalescence, and has pursued artistic endeavors with renewed vigor
since returning to reside in the Truckee Meadows. Ongoing support throughout his career has come from the Nevada Arts Council, by whom he was also commissioned to produce a series of Governor’s Arts Awards. He has participated in group shows both nationally (NJ, CO, IL, CA, PA, NY) and internationally (Britain, Australia). Recent solo exhibitions have occurred at spaces managed by the Sierra Arts Foundation and Holland Project.

"My work tends to involve aspects of the aleatoric, opportunistic, and transitory. Themes/motifs gravitate around predictability, perseverance, and insipidness. Sometimes loosely organized and systematic
processes cajole a semblance of cohesion and continuity from ostensible serendipity, happenstance, or randomness. Sometimes ideas are left nascent, nondescript, and open-ended. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the conceptual underpinning of any given project ultimately determines its own medium. The myriad of milieu between uninhabited natural ecosystems and developed urban environments constitute primary points of creation for pieces, a fragment of which remain in situ where created. Documentation via photos, sound, and video attempt to more permanently fix otherwise ephemeral interventions. Projects are often deceptively minimal, or, recursively layered; relics and distortions becoming magnified by each subsequent generation and permutation, a literal and figurative patina of inherent artifacts iteratively speckling any given piece. Comparison and contrast act as admittedly simplistic, reductive means to reconcile oblique personal references with overt universal symbolism. Ultimately, many of the metaphors formed permit both comprehension and misunderstandings to manifest, intentional and incidental insights to be gleaned, begetting a slovenly poetry tenuously attempting to balance internal—oft fatally flawed—logic with a wholeness of heart and intuition."

• Website
• Instagram

APRIL BERMUDEZ

TITLE

APRIL BERMUDEZ (American, b. 1978) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work has been informed by personal experiences and the continuous deciphering of life. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, she tells stories of her past, while seeking to define the complexities, absurdities and marvels of existence. Whether presenting her direct experiences, or serving as a mirror to the experiences of her audience, Bermudez challenges the conceptualization of art to stretch beyond the conventional boundaries of medium or style. Having worked with clay, experimented with painting, used photography as an inspiration tool, along with many other mediums, Bermudez has recently ventured into conceptual art with a video performance and abstract piece produced.Bermudez studied art at Cerritos Community College and Pasadena City College. She has participated in numerous group shows, and has garnered acclaim and recognition from the Consulate of Mexico in Las Vegas, Nevada and the City of Las Vegas, Office of the City Council. She has received Special Congressional Recognition from the United States Senate. Recent press includes profiles in Bold Journey, Canvas Rebel, ShoutoutLA, and Hidden Gems. The artist lives and works in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"I’ve collected my experiences; they are in books, toys, clothes, and all sorts of ephemera. They are the receipts of a life lived. There are many items that come into your life, whether bought or gifted, or sometimes toys dropped on the ground and forgotten. I tend to keep them all. I’ll pick up that toy. I’ll cherish them for you. My experiences have shaped my life and live through my art. And the possessions that I have collected might be the only proof that I was here. Those inanimate objects can illustrate who I was more delicately and honestly."

• Website
• Instagram

ASHLEY BROCK

TITLE

ASHLEY BROCK is an interdisciplinary artist based in Nevada, whose work explores
themes of movement, impermanence, and the construction of home. Working primarily in installation, she uses modest, often temporary materials to examine how identity is shaped through cycles of leaving, returning, and rebuilding. Her practice is informed by a childhood spent exploring the shifting landscapes of rural Nevada, where questions of stability, resourcefulness, and adaptation are ever-present.Brock has exhibited with solo projects at the Main Gallery at Truckee Meadows Community College, the Holland Project Billboard Series, and North Valleys Library, and group exhibitions at venues including Sheppard Contemporary, McKinley Arts and Culture Center, and Chelsea College of Art in London. She also recently co-curated a show at the Holland Project that served as a snapshot of art in Nevada now. In addition to her studio practice, she has worked as a teaching faculty member in drawing at the University of Nevada, Reno, and as a studio assistant to painter Glynn Cartledge.Her work has been featured in local outlets including PBS Reno and KOLO 8 News. Brock holds a BFA in Drawing from the University of Nevada, Reno, with a minor in Philosophy.

"I work with materials that are provisional, lightweight, and often overlooked, because they mirror the conditions I’m trying to understand. These materials are not built to last, yet they are constantly used to construct shelter, to hold, to protect, to move. I’m interested in that tension, in how something temporary can still carry weight, memory, and meaning. My practice is rooted in questions of home and instability. Having moved frequently, I think about how identity forms through repetition, through packing, unpacking, building, leaving, and how environments shape who we become. The structures I make often resemble familiar architectures, but they remain incomplete or fragile, resisting permanence. They function as stand-ins for places that are always in the process of becoming or falling apart. Material choice is both practical and conceptual. Cardboard, for example, is accessible, mobile, and responsive to touch and time. It absorbs wear, records handling, and deteriorates visibly. I’m drawn to that responsiveness, to the way materials can register presence. Ultimately, my work is about how we make do, how we build meaning, care, and connection out of what is available, even when stability is not."

• Website
• Instagram

BAILEY ANDERSON

TITLE

BAILEY ANDERSON (b. 1998, Las Vegas, NV) TBD

"TBD

• Website
• Instagram

CAMILE LOVAZ

TITLE

CAMILE LOVAZ is a Mexican-American artist who was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lovaz received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting, Drawing, and Screenprinting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2025, where she began creating artwork that explored her identity as a Latina. As she explored religious iconography and sacredness in her culture, Lovaz began to question the separation of divinity and humanity. Through her fictional muses’ ambiguous interactions, she dives into the internal conflicts of religion, specifically the cultural idolization and comparison of ethereal icons and young Latinas. She has exhibited her artwork throughout Las Vegas, including at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the Consulado de México in Las Vegas, and the Debra March Center of Excellence. She has also exhibited her cultural artwork in local organizations and spaces, such as Chicanos Por La Causa and The Composer’s Room. She currently works at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art at UNLV.

"As a Mexican American artist, I consider how our customs make us stronger as artists, illustrating deep roots in our motherland and faith, our inspirational community, and the impact we face from within or outside our community. Beginning from my admiration and experience of growing up with La Virgen de Guadalupe, I have begun to question and explore the heavy impact that the Catholic religion has had and how it has shaped my culture through the years. This has led me to explore the relationship and separation between the divine and humanity through the use of two fictional muses Through them, I represent the emotional conflicts of religion, specifically the cultural idolization and comparison of ethereal icons and young Latinas. These muses converse an ongoing critique of coming into acceptance with one’s religious faith and understanding the deep grasp and impact it has upon one’s culture.My muses represent a woman of Mexican descent who has split into two, coexisting beings, with one muse who visually represents ethereal imagery, and her counterpart who visually illustrates human life and flesh. Through the depicted power imbalance in my muses, I reference the inner conflict of finding balance between the pure and the irregular; the expectations and the reality, our actions and their consequences, and avoiding comparisons of something or someone we cannot fully understand."

• Instagram

CANDACE GARLOCK

TITLE

CANDACE NICOL GARLOCK is a Nevada-based artist, curator, and educator whose collaboration experiences center on building artistic community through shared making and cross‐disciplinary exchanges. She has initiated large, prompt-based projects such as The Honeycomb Project, which brought together hundreds of small, interconnected artworks to form a visually unified “quilt” of diverse voices and NV AWE: Tiny Treasures, where Nevada artists partnered with one another to create intimate works that celebrate their shared love of the state’s landscapes and communities.As a professor at Truckee Meadows Community College, Garlock designs collaborative assignments that connect students across printmaking, ceramics, painting, and digital media, frequently culminating in themed exhibitions. Her leadership as gallery curator and arts program director has included organizing and facilitating group shows and public programs such as “The Watershed Project” (2017), The Anatomy of Cocooning, Decocooning & Re-cocooning with visiting artist May Hariri Aboutaam (2014), the Mixed Blessings Symposium with keynote speaker Lucy Lippard (2012), and the Nevada Touring Initiative project Geographical Divides (2010), as well as large-scale collaborations like CommD – Communicable Dis-Ease for Burning Man Festival (2009) and the international project 6sides2every story (2008). Conceptually, her collaborations mirror the layered nature of her mixed-media practice, in which printmaking, painting, and sculpture “collaborate” materially to explore relationships among people, animals, and place. Across her projects, collaboration functions as both method and subject, cultivating belonging, emphasizing care, and weaving individual narratives into larger communal artworks.

"In recent years, the terrain of chronic illness—specifically Multiple Sclerosis—has become a primary site of inquiry for me. In the MS Narrative project Never Out of the Woods, disembodied feet, vessels of viscous red‐orange resin, and suspended upside‐down tree prints form a dysfunctional communication network, a forest of misfiring signals. Fragments of limbs, shadows, and hanging paper remain connected yet unable to fully “speak” to each other, echoing the fractured pathways of a damaged nervous system and implicating the viewer’s own body in this broken circuitry. These spatial disruptions extend beyond metaphor; they reroute how a gallery is used, mirroring the ways illness reroutes my daily movement through the world.Running alongside this intimate bodily narrative is an equally persistent relationship with Nevada’s vast, harsh, and luminous desert. Growing up and raising “Desert Blooms” of my own (children and grandchildren), I return to long roads, Black Rock playas, and wind‐carved emptiness as inspiration. Projects like Under the Relentless Sun emerge from road trips with my granddaughter, where painted rocks, shredded prints, and paper tumbleweeds become mirages of water, traffic cones, and human presence scattered across the Great Basin. These works treat the desert road as a metaphor for isolation, endurance, and the blurred line between reality and perception, finding beauty and material in what is often overlooked—bones, sticks, scraps of tin and wire.Throughout, I return to relationships: between human and environment, human and animal, self and family, body and culture. Spirit animals, magpies, elephants, and desert blooms sit beside industrial pipes, feet-as-vessels, and inverted trees, forming constellations of care, humor, and unease. My multilayered compositions ask viewers to reconsider the body—particularly the ill, aging, or non-normative body—not as an invisible problem to be solved, but as a site of story, agency, and connection that persists, even under the relentless sun that is Nevada."

• Website
• Instagram

CASEY HURLEY

TITLE

CASEY HURLEY is an artist from rural Nevada currently residing in Reno. Casey graduated from the University of Nevada Reno in 2022 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree with an emphasis in painting. While at UNR she showed work at a few group shows including Masks à la Fini in 2021, the advanced drawing group show Nothing is Hidden in 2022, and the Student Art Show in 2022 in which she placed third for best in show. In April of 2024 Casey exhibited her first solo show titled Fire From Heaven through Holland Project. In 2025, she was featured in several group exhibitions including All In and House of Fools which also took place at the Holland Project gallery. In October of 2025, Casey exhibited an installation piece for Desert Biennial Project 2025 Gravity, and in December she had a sculpture featured in A Very Victorian Christmas, curated by Camryn Maher from Pitch Black Printing Co. In February of 2026, Casey co-directed and planned the event A Night in Twin Peaks along with Camryn Maher at the Holland Project.

"My art inhabits the liminal space between waking and sleeping, on an endless journey through my psychological underworld. I take inspiration from dreams and real life strangeness, the human condition, religious trauma, and the ephemeral beauty and nightmare of life and am heavily influenced by surrealism, mythology, and personal experiences with mental illness. Through my art, I explore how memory and fear can permeate throughout the layers of one’s life and inform the ways one acts, thinks, sees the world, and sees themselves. My artistic practice focuses mainly on oil painting but also includes acrylic painting, gelli-plate printing, and experimental sculptural and installation work. My work has an emphasis on dark atmospheres and surreal, dreamlike moods as a way to express lived emotions representationally, and
abstractly. Many of my pieces operate as self-portraits, whether literally or symbolically, where I investigate the effect of my experiences on my mental health, self image, and artmaking. My self portraits rely on the processing of materials, religious iconography, mythology, and personal symbolism."

• Instagram

DANIEL OGLETREE

TITLE

DANIEL OGLETREE is a Part-Time Instructor at UNLV and CSN and works with Clark County Wetlands Park to plan art exhibits and events. He earned an MFA in printmaking from the University of Tennessee in 2014, and in the intervening years he has exhibited work around the world, including China, Poland, New York, and Hawaii. In his free time, he pursues outdoor adventures with his wife, Kay Leigh, his son, Paul, and their dog, Laika.

"My work explores the tools we use to navigate uncertainty. I am drawn to the ingenuity of systems designed to orient us: trail markers, maps, signals, signs, diagrams - and equally fascinated by the frustration of tools that obscure more than they reveal.Underlying this is a persistent confrontation with the unknown. Much of my work circles the same admission: that I would rather study the map than face the territory. I have made work about advertising psychology, which exploits our innate desire to avoid direct encounter with what we cannot know or control."

DANIEL PINEDA LUNA

TITLE

DANIEL PINEDA LUNA is a first-generation MFA graduate student at the University of Nevada,
Reno. Born and raised in Reno, Nevada, Daniel was first introduced to printmaking during his
high school years creating monotypes using crayons and oil pastels. Now he is exploring the
versatility of linocut prints and turning it into a more sculptural form using real life objects like
construction safety fences and wooden fence posts. As part of his practice, he also incorporates
other disciplines into his printmaking including watercolor, acrylic, ceramic, fabric and sculpture.
In between waiting for prints to dry, Daniel enjoys riding his longboard, reading manga, and
caring for his cherry shrimps.
Daniel Pineda Luna is a first-generation printmaker and MFA graduate student at the University
of Nevada, Reno. He finds inspiration within the Nevadan desert landscape, focusing on the
interplay of isolation and human intervention with nature. Incorporating all there is to relief and
screen-printing he creates his interpretation of what a future dealing with nuclear waste storage
markers might look like. In addition to printmaking, Daniel also enjoys book arts and loves to
incorporate language into his work.

"My printmaking practice is rooted in the tactile dialogue between resistance and release, primarily through linocut and screenprinting. I am drawn to processes that require physical effort to create. Carving, inking, pressing, pulling materials and mediums to make an image are what drive me in my practice.Screenprinting, by contrast, allows me to build images through layering and accumulation. Where linocut is about carving away, screenprinting is about passing through — ink pushed across a mesh, depositing color in measured planes. I use this method to explore transparency, overlap, and the interaction of graphic shapes. The process invites experimentation: shifts in registration, ink density, and surface create moments of surprise that I intentionally leave visible.Across both techniques, repetition functions as a conceptual anchor. Printmaking inherently challenges the notion of the singular original; instead, it embraces multiplicity. I am interested in how images transform through iteration — how meaning expands, distorts, or intensifies when reproduced. I also work to print on materials not typicaly regarded as archival or long lasting. Materials like plastic, cardboard, newsprint, polyester, cellophane, tarps, bubble wrap; Items considered trash by many become my canvas to which I use to speak on current events. Materiality is central to my practice."

• Instagram

DANIELA CASTAÑEDA

TITLE

DANIELA CASTAÑEDA is from the Bay area of San Jose, California, and was raised in Stockton, California and Las Vegas, Nevada. She is a Chicana artist and a first-generation college graduate from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art degree, concentration in Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking, and receiving her Associates of Art from the College of Southern Nevada in 2022. She is a Docent at UNLV's Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, where she guides K-12 students in museum tours and workshops. Also, engages in research and collections management.Her most recent artistic endeavor led her to travel to Mexico City to photograph for the Day of the Dead celebration based on the Mario Basner Passion Project Grant fund 2024. She has exhibited and won “Best in Show,” experienced category at Life in Death Art Exhibition and co-curating photo exhibition at UNLV.

"My artwork focuses on color and sentimental themes while working with repurposed materials such as wood, tissue paper, cardboard and paint. Building with such materials gave me the opportunity to make something new and rich. My roots as a Chicana and passion for classic cars gave me the foundations to mimic the aesthetics of candy color paint jobs and blending this into contemporary Mexican piñata making. The outcome of my work creates dialogue on the themes of femininity and resilience. But pushing me to research intersections of ideologies, family dynamics, the role of women in Latino households, religion and Death."

• Instagram

DAVID LAMPEL

TITLE

DAVID LAMPEL is a multidisciplinary artist based in Southern Nevada whose work combines sculpture, collage, video, and community engagement. His practice focuses on regional history, environmental systems, and social visibility, often working at the intersection of public art and social practice.Lampel has exhibited and presented work throughout Nevada, including installations for Clark County cultural spaces, community-centered exhibitions on Las Vegas’ Historic Westside, and multimedia projects addressing housing insecurity and environmental change. His project Eye See You was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and explored visibility and displacement through a mobile sculptural form.He is involved in residencies and master classes with institutions including the Namingha Institute at the Museum of Northern Arizona and has received support through folklife, public arts and community arts initiatives by the Nevada Arts Council and various public and private galleries from Reno to Las Vegas. In addition to his studio practice, Lampel regularly leads workshops with youth and community members, integrating storytelling, collage, and participatory making into his work. He also is a musician involved in a band of local artists and has integrated music into his art. His practice is grounded in long-term engagement with place, emphasizing listening, collaboration, and the material traces left by human and ecological transition.

"My practice uses sculpture, collage, and video to examine how place, memory, and identity are shaped by forces that are often unseen or unstable. Working primarily with found materials, archival imagery, and site-responsive processes, I am interested in how histories accumulate, erode, and resurface within landscapes shaped by development, displacement, and spectacle.Much of my work is rooted in Southern Nevada, where I explore tensions between permanence and impermanence—between what is celebrated, what is forgotten, and what quietly persists. I am drawn to environments where human presence and natural systems are entangled: wetlands, desert edges, neighborhoods in transition, and spaces of temporary survival. These sites become collaborators rather than backdrops.Rather than offering fixed narratives, my installations invite viewers into layered situations where meaning emerges through proximity, listening, and participation. I often incorporate weathering, decay, and audience interaction as active elements of the work, allowing pieces to shift over time. In this way, the artwork becomes a living record of encounter—reflecting both collective and individual experience within a changing landscape."

• Instagram

D.K. SOLE

TITLE

DEANNE (D.K.) SOLE is a Las Vegas-based Australian artist. She works at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, where she writes, practices curation, and edits the museum’s art writing publication, “Dry Heat.” Her writing has been published on the Couch in the Desert website. Her sculptures have been exhibited in Florida and Colorado, but mostly in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she has held solo exhibitions at the Winchester-Dondero Cultural Center, Lulu, and the Couch in the Desert gallery space.

"I use sculpture, drawing, and photography to estrange myself from everyday objects like bottle caps,
supermarket circulars, and scraps of discarded plastic. I admire artists who are inspired by cheap
materials (like Richard Tuttle), awkward shapes (like Alice Mackler) and boring repetition (Bernd and Hilla Becher). Every time I see a fallen stick casting a shadow, I think, “I can't do better than that."

• Instagram

GABBY MARUSHOK

TITLE

GABBY MARUSHOK is a mixed media painter from Las Vegas, Nevada, who blends reality and fantasy to create dreamy yet melancholic landscapes and portraits. Her work has been shown at First Friday Las Vegas in 2016, Rachael’s Kitchen Art Show in 2017, and most recently in Love Letters by Arts Community Coalition Nevada in 2026. Gabby earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno, in 2022. There, she studied the hydrology of northern and southern Nevada and gained insurmountable inspiration from her time exploring the Sierra Nevadas. While in Reno, she also led and
participated in various activist groups and considers herself a strong proponent of human rights, animal rights, and liberation for all. Some of these themes are projected into her more politically focused work. Currently, Gabby’s focus is on whimsical landscapes that seek to inspire curiosity and appreciation for the world around us. At the same time, she uses these paintings to dissect her own hopes, fears, and revelations in a world that she believes is filled with both incredible beauty and gut-wrenching injustice.

"I'm Gabby, a 27-year-old artist from Nevada. Using bold oil and acrylic paints, my fantastical, sometimes melancholic, landscapes mimic my very real surroundings as well as worlds I have visited in dreams. Sometimes, the two collide to ride the line between reality and fantasy. In either case, I intend for the viewer to be teleported into these worlds as I am when I paint them. Portals to places where we can smell the wild flowers, hear the birds and bugs chirping on a cool desert evening, or where we can even take a rest on the damp forest floor. My paintings combine themes of self-reflection as well as a deep admiration for the
environment, animals, and the people I share my life with. Through intense color contrast, enchanting natural elements, and a yearning to create a better world, the goal of my work is to inspire continued hope and dreams despite the often desolate circumstances."

• Website
• Instagram

HEATHER LANG-CASSERA

TITLE

HEATHER LANG-CASSERA served as the 2019-2021 Clark County, Nevada Poet Laureate and was a 2022 Nevada Arts Council Literary Arts Fellow. She is the Poetry Editor-at-Large for Black Fox Literary Magazine, on editorial staff with the Raleigh Review, and teaches Creative Writing with Nevada State University. Her newest collection of poems, Firefall (Unsolicited Press, 2025), won the Independent Press Award in Poetry: The Natural & Creative World, and she was awarded a 2025 Nevada Arts Council project grant to write a science-fiction manuscript. Heather has also served as a studio assistant and substitute teacher at Clay Arts Vegas. Recently, her ceramics have been included in exhibitions at the Charleston Heights Art Gallery,
the Clark County Wetlands, the Grand Gallery in Las Vegas City Hall, the Sahara West Library, and the Winchester Dondero Cultural Center, among others. She was the February 2026 featured artist at Art 321 in Casper, Wyoming, presenting Dino Dreams.

"In the heart of downtown Las Vegas, I work across mediums, from vitrified ceramics to the vivid sprawl of literary language. Juxtaposition anchors my creative practice. I am drawn to contradictions that shape both internal and external worlds and to the charged spaces where opposites blur or collide. My ceramic work includes vintage robots that explore nostalgia and technological anxiety as well as domesticated dinosaurs that contemplate extinction, intimacy, and fragility alongside ancient ferocity. These figures hold tension between comfort and catastrophe, memory and survival. My writing likewise investigates dualities such as fire and flood, repetition and redundancy, vulnerable witness and autonomous self. Across mediums, I resist resolution. Rather, I invite the audience to revel in their own curiosities, to both take control yet self-surrender, to investigate what it means to thrive, curiously, within dichotomies. Among them are Las Vegas and the Mojave Desert, where beauty and severity are intertwined."

• Website
• Instagram

IULIA OCTAVIA

TITLE

IULIA OCTAVIA is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice consists of sculpture, painting, installation, and non-traditional materials and processes. Filipov-Serediuc enjoys building within her community, most proudly as a co-founder of the Arts Community Coalition Nevada 501(c)(3), Desert Biennial Project, and My Boyfriend Is Out of Town. Her work has been shown in Nevada, California, New Mexico, Arizona, and New York in over 15 exhibitions since 2023. Filipov-Serediuc graduated with her BFA in studio art and is currently pursuing an MFA from the University of Las Vegas, Nevada.

IULIA OCTAVIA's work addresses gendered violence against women through the visual language of penetrating and perforating to evoke the feeling of bodily invasion. Using sound, light, and surveillance, she creates sociological lures and traps. By distorting the bodily qualities of bone, flesh, and form, the work questions the sanctity of self-hood and safety. Filipov-Serediuc fabricates scenarios to elicit a connection with the viewer and their own experience with bodily harm.

• Website
• Instagram

JASON ABREGO

TITLE

JASON ABREGO My name is Jason Abrego. Born and raised in Las Vegas, I am a UNLV alumni and
Ceramics/Pottery instructor at a studio named Oasis Pottery. This has given me the freedom to
continue creating with ceramics. With 8 years of experience working with ceramics, it’s easy to
see that Nevada isn’t a hub for the ceramic arts. However, through the many educators who
cheered me on, the artists who have inspired me, and my family who have pushed me forward.
I’ve been able to exhibit in UNLV’s Donna Beam Gallery, the Core Contemporary Gallery of Fine
Arts, the Goldwell Open Air Museum, and Las Vegas City Hall for the Opposing Forces exhibit. I
have 3 dreams that I wish to achieve. Turning Las Vegas into more of a ceramics hub, exhibiting
in an airport, and exhibiting in the future Las Vegas Museum of Art. Working at Oasis Pottery
has shown me that many people wish to indulge themselves into ceramics but just don’t have
the space or the guidance for it. I wish to continue exhibiting, teaching workshops, and creating
ceramic sculptures so that the ceramic arts can continue to gain traction in Las Vegas and
become a hub for the ceramic arts. From there I hope my practice can grow into something that
not only gets exhibited in major galleries or featured in airports, but that others will look at my
pieces and be curious about the ceramic process.

"I am a ceramicist that tackles a range of ideas based on a vivid imagination that wants to push ceramics to the next level. Oftentimes I get an idea for a sculpture and never question if it’s possible to make it but question how I will challenge myself to make it. Leading to a sketch book full of sculptures that are full of interesting textures or insane parts. When firing at such high temperatures. The ceramics or glazes will soften and start to react. This leads to a variety of results and issues. For instance, making sculptures with extruding parts becomes a challenge of fighting gravity and its pull. These challenges have forced me to develop new techniques of building my sculptures to counteract many obstacles. Ceramics as a medium is constantly changing. Whether it’s through chemical reactions, new trends, or the material itself. When it
changes, so do I, and I don’t see myself stopping this any time soon. Finally, I have pushed myself to create even more bodies of work inspired by Latino culture and endurance. For my own sake of connecting with my culture and for the sake of my family that shifted their lives so I could have a better future."

• Website
• Instagram

JULIA HILL

TITLE

JULIA HILL is an artist from Atlanta, GA. She holds a BFA from Tulane University and is currently pursuing her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts through the University of Nevada, Reno.Her multi-disciplinary studio practice uses large-scale puppetry, drawing and painting, public art, and sculpture to explore ecological themes, stimulate interactions, and cultivate curiosity. Her business Sculpture Things provides a suite of creative services including custom design and fabrication, art direction, project management, and public art installation services.

"I have shaped my studio practice to satisfy an internal drive to explore novel methods of relating to self and the world. I prefer and seek out ambiguity, I create forms with open edges, and I elevate detritus as a choice material. Critical to my process is frequent engagement with nature through kayaking, gardening,
and hiking. These activities provide the source material used throughout my body of work: natural forms in trees, plants, and geological features, found objects from stream beds, rusted bits from parking lots, and the rubble of past human activities. I am fascinated by the aleatory journey of these objects and inspired by their textured patina of time. I am drawn to the mysterious spark of attraction that occurs when I encounter certain objects in our trash stratum. I maintain a library of these objects in my studio and apply their vital materiality into organic, abstracted assemblages that are reminiscent of.My public art is designed to foster curiosity, increase mindfulness of our connection to the world, and create sensory stimulation through interaction or distortion."

• Website
• Instagram

JENNY CERRONE

TITLE

JENNY CERRONE is an interdisciplinary artist rooted in Las Vegas, NV. Her work fosters spaces of and for vulnerability, drawing on themes and motifs from her memories and emotional experiences, as well as her desert upbringing. She explores these notions through mosaics and metal casting. Jenny is a student in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at UNLV, where she has a concentration in sculpture. She has previously shown work in Las Vegas-based group shows, as well as a traveling group show, and Desert Biennial 2025.

"Throughout my work, I posit the essence of toughness and resilience it takes to survive in a harsh desert terrain, imparting the spirit of the Mojave. I examine the manner in which this physical resilience nurtures and fortifies my soul, transmuting into emotional strength and a deep and inextricable bond with the land. Through metal and mosaic, I explore what it means to be self- aware, to be emotionally intuitive, to trust my gut. Portals and pathways appear to me, bestowed upon me by my art. Relying upon the unforgiving nature of metal, as well as the ever-shifting, multi-faceted appearance of glass, I depict tensions resemblant of emotion. My studio practice is guided by experimental endeavors, featuring frequent forays into new methods and media, and fueled by emotional investigation, both inward and outward. I adore playing with light and its relationship to color through glass, and I especially love employing iridescence. Utilizing scrap and recycled materials, as well as found objects, I articulate emotionally evocative pieces out of items that may otherwise be cast aside. I consider the consequences of repressed emotion, as well as lack of vulnerability and emotional depth. This investigation exposes how these behaviors manifest socially, infecting communities through a rampant increase in social prejudice and violence. These tensions stem from an inability to acknowledge internal emotion and end with an inability to extend empathy. Emotion, vulnerability, and my lived experiences as a desert dweller - this trinity is the foundation of my work."

• Instagram

KAY LEIGH FARLEY

TITLE

Katherine "KAY LEIGH" FARLEY is a Graphic Design Associate Professor, graphic designer, and new media artist that uses emerging technology to communicate personal experiences. Their work incorporates narrative, digital artifacts, and video to deconstruct narratives and landscapes. They hold a Bachelor of Science from Texas A&M University in Visualization and an MFA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in Transmedia Design. They have exhibited and screened work at venues including The Wrong Biennale, The Knoxville Museum of Art, and Co-Prosperity Sphere, and are in collections in the Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo in Vitória, Brazil and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, Wisconsin.

"My work explores personal and collective histories, using digital media to explore how trauma, ritual, and resilience shape identity. Through interactive storytelling, motion graphics, video, and creative coding, I create experiences that mirror how wounds are processed, distorted, and mended over time.By layering text, imagery, and animation I create immersive experiences that blur the boundaries between memory and myth. I am interested in the language of ritual as a means of confronting trauma. Utilizing domestic objects and cultural traditions, I explore the ways individuals find comfort, meaning, and resistance. By integrating interaction and technology into my practice, I invite active participation and reflection from the user.Nature provides a support framework to address difficult themes such as abuse and the role of technology in promoting mental and emotional well-being. My work provides a therapeutic space for reflection and discussion about larger societal issues, while also emphasizing the significance of self-care and connection to the natural world."

• Website
• Instagram

KEEVA LOUGH

TITLE

I don’t know how to tell you this, but KEEVA LOUGH was born in the great state of Texas. She received a BA in Film & Media Studies from the University of Oklahoma in 2012, and in 2023 received her MFA in Art from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Her work has been shown in Oklahoma, Missouri, Maryland, and Nevada, and featured internationally at the FORMAT Photography Festival in the United Kingdom and the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival in France. She currently resides in Las Vegas, the entertainment capital of the world.

"Keeva Lough is an artist using photography, video, and performance to explore education,
gender, social structures, and the body. While her work is based on sound principles of
philosophy of science, it is presented for entertainment purposes only."

• Website
• Instagram

KELLY CHORPENING
+ MATT FRANKS

TITLE

KELLY CHORPENING is an artist, curator, writer and educator with an MFA from Hunter College, CUNY. She was Course Leader of BA (Hons) Drawing (2006-2019) and then Programme Director in Fine Art (2019-2022) at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London. She was appointed Professor and Chair of Art, Art History and Design at University of Nevada Reno in 2022. She has had solo shows in the UK, USA and Austria and done residencies at Voorkamer (Belgium), Shandy Hall, The Laurence Sterne Trust (UK) and Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh). Her books have been published by Studio International
(USA), RGAP (UK), Sint-Lucas Visual Arts and OPAK, FAK, KULeuven (Belgium). In 2020, she co-edited A Companion to Contemporary Drawing, published by Wiley Blackwell. She is Associate Editor for the Journal of Contemporary Painting (Intellect).In 2026, she will be in a two-person show with Kate Atkin at 9a Project in West Yorkshire, England, with a publication essay written by British Museum curator Isabel Seligman.

"For Kelly Chorpening, drawing is a means to observe, and walking is central to her approach. Being out in nature, there is a tension between spectacular views and what is seen when looking down as feet move across uneven terrain. ‘Nature’ has revealed itself to be a mixture of natural objects such as rocks, sticks and pine needles, as well as broken bottles, bullet casings and car parts; an unsettling reality of man-made
materials enmeshed in places they should not be. In some work, objects are collected and assembled into dynamic configurations that are drawn in hyper detail. Other work involves embossing paper on the ground outside, and drawing in relation to that direct trace of the ground’s actual composition."

• Website
• Instagram

MATT FRANKS has taught Fine Art in the UK, USA, and China, leading undergraduate and postgraduate programmes internationally. He is currently Assistant Professor and Area Head of Sculpture at University of Nevada Reno. His work has been featured in museum exhibitions at the Xi’an Art Museum, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Tate Britain, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Suzhou Art Museum, National Gallery of Albania, Benaki Museum (Athens), Te Tuhi Gallery (Auckland), Sichuan Provincial Museum (Chengdu), Minsheng Art Museum (Shanghai), State Museum of Contemporary Art (Thessaloniki, Greece), Bloomberg Space (London), Bergen Centre for Contemporary Art (Norway), Vilnius Centre of Contemporary Art (Lithuania), Museum of Contemporary Art (Tallin, Estonia), Brno House of Arts (Czech Republic), Museum of Contemporary Art (Belgrade), New Museum of Modern Art (Salamanca, Spain), Centre of Contemporary Art (Milan), and Krakow Bunkier Sztuki (Poland). His work is held in many public and private collections including the British Council. He has also completed residencies in Kenya, the USA, and New Zealand.

"ADD"

• Website
• Instagram

KIM JOHNSON

TITLE

KIM JOHNSON is a Las Vegas native working full-time as an artist from her private studio in the northwest valley. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and brings decades of experience in studio practice, gallery exhibition, and public arts practice.With over a decade dedicated to painting large-scale in public events and co-directing large group events through District Artz, her large scale work has been celebrated and presented in prominent public spaces including First Friday Las Vegas, MGM properties, Park Vegas, New York-New York Resort, Zappos, the City of Las Vegas, and Clark County Parks and Recreation. These community-based projects serve as a grounding counterpoint to the introspective natureof studio work, creating a dynamic exchange between artist and audience.Johnson’s current practice explores liminal psychological spaces, often set within vast or elemental environments where figure and atmosphere merge. Drawing on themes of the celestial, the ancient, and the unseen, her work investigates thresholds of perception and the inner landscape of the self. Moving fluidly across scale—from intimate studies to expansive works created both in the studio and outdoors—each piece is an invitation to pause, reflect, and encounter a deeper sense of presence and connection.

"My work explores the physiological and emotional ways we respond to our environment. I am interested in the experience of moving between two worlds—one grounded in the natural laws of this planet, and another shaped by the perceived mysteries of the universe and our place within it. The threshold of liminal space, in its infinite variations, is a central force in my practice, informing how memory is arranged and how spatial perception is constructed.My paintings often exist between abstraction and figuration, with passages that blur and dissolve into one another. I think of this as the “familiar alien”—forms that feel known yet remain just out of reach. My figurative work does not represent a specific individual, but instead invites personal interpretation, allowing meaning to emerge through the viewer’s own lens.Much of my inspiration comes from time spent on the trails and mountains along the northwest edge of the Las Vegas valley. The openness of the Mojave desert and its expansive sky create a space to reflect on both environment and connection. I also incorporate textured materials and objects into my work, extending the visual language into a tactile dialogue. These elements echo the desert landscape while suggesting imagined forms of plant life, animal presence, and stardust."

• Website
• Instagram

LANCE L. SMITH

TITLE

LANCE L. SMITH is a Joan Mitchell Fellowship nominated, multidisciplinary artist, illustrator, and teacher based in Las Vegas, NV. Their work often explores themes of loss, distortion, and liberatory practices, with a particular focus on Queer etymologies of flora and fauna. Smith is a recipient of Princeton’s Crossroads Fellowship, an adjunct professor at UNLV, and an independent scholar who has presented research at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association (SWPCA).Smith has been featured in multiple local, national, and international group exhibits as well as solo exhibitions, past and forthcoming. Smith served as the Residency Director of the Rogers Art Loft, creating programming focused on bringing artists of varied experience to the Las Vegas Valley. Smith has been awarded two residencies at the Arquetopia Foundation International Artist Residency program, most recently as a part of their Mentorship Program in Puebla, Mexico, and has also been an Artist-in-Residence at The Studios of Key West. As one of the Community Artists-in-Residence at The Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, Teaching Artist with the Nevada Museum of Art, Clark County, and the Sprat Program in partnership with Core Academy, and as a volunteer with Las Vegas’ LGBTQIA Center, Smith has created art programming, taught classes, and facilitated workshops aimed at extending creative activity beyond the formal artistic community. Appearing in local media, on community panels, as a podcast guest, and as an invited lecturer, Smith emphasizes the importance of acknowledging intuition, diasporic knowledge systems, and the symbolic language of flora and fauna as tools for artistic expression and liberation.

"My work echoes themes of loss, distortion, and liberatory methodology, with a particular emphasis on Queer etymologies of flora and fauna. Through drawing, installation, and research-driven image-making, I examine how the natural world carries coded histories of transformation, resilience, and multiplicity. Plants, animals, and ecological systems function as thresholds through which diasporic knowledge, intuitive cognition, and embodied experiences can be reimagined beyond the limits of their fixed identities.Central to my practice is a commitment to deconstructing normalized systems of binary thinking that have historically been used to categorize, control, and exterminate marginalized peoples. By turning to the liminal spaces of nature, I situate my work within an extensive lineage of Queer futures and alternate states of knowing."

• Website
• Instagram

LAURA ESBENSEN

TITLE

LAURA ESBENSEN ADD

"ADD"

• Website
• Instagram

LEA GIFFORD

TITLE

LEA GIFFORD is a fashion designer from Reno, Nevada. She is primarily a geek couture and fandom fashion designer, but she also loves to put her Geography B. A. from UNR to use and design pieces inspired by our planet. She is best known for her dresses inspired by National Geographic, Star Wars, Pixar, Marvel, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Lea began competing in geek fashion shows in 2022. She has been a finalist in the Geekbound Fashion Challenge, Her Universe Fashion Show (HUFS) and D23 Mousequerade. In 2023, she won Geekbound’s Daily Wear Competition and in 2024, she was the HUFS Audience Choice Runner Up. Her work has been featured in the official Star Wars magazine, Star Wars Insider, and she showed her first collection at the 2023 Reno Fashion Show. In 2025, Lea graduated with her AAS in Fashion Design from the top fashion school in the country, the Fashion Institute of Technology.

"My work as a fashion designer is tied to my love for movies and TV shows. I primarily design geek couture and fandom fashion because I love to take a piece of my favorite characters with me every day and lots of other people do too! Inclusivity is deeply important to me and no fashion space is more inclusive than
geek fashion. As a neurodivergent and disabled person, I feel at home here. Because of my own struggles to find clothes that meet my needs, I strive to make clothing that fits and flatters all bodies without harming people or the planet. Before I was a fashion designer I was a geographer, and that background continues to influence my work. I want to be part of the shift towards a more ethical and sustainable fashion industry. Because of this background, I also love creating pieces inspired by the planet. The world is full of endless wonder and I see geographic fashion as an educational opportunity, a point of connection, and a way to simply share my love of this planet with others."

• Instagram

LISA POTTS

TITLE

LISA POTTS moved to Las Vegas, Nevada as a newly commissioned Air Force 2nd Lieutenant at Nellis Air Force Base on the last day of 1988. She has a BS in Industrial & Management Engineering and a love of nature, math and sciency things. Observing and interacting with the land continues to be a constant source of inspiration for her. From her family's base camp in Southern Nevada, and now their home in Northern Nevada, she has explored the Nevada landscape on many outdoor adventures, ranging from kayaking the Colorado, hiking and mountain biking many miles of Nevada trails, rock climbing in deserts of Southern Nevada, swimming in Lake Tahoe, to climbing Wheeler Peak.Her textile work is inspired by the natural world and the multifaceted beauty of God's creation as is seen in every stick, tree and stone. She has shown her textile creations at the East Fork Gallery in Gardnerville, Nevada and currently has her work at an artsy little antique shop called Kaleidoscope located in Nevada's capital, Carson City.

"I have enjoyed creative pursuits and the natural world since I was a child, but over the last decade I have realized that textile arts inspired by nature really push all my creative buttons. I learned to quilt when I was a college student and have made quilts and other sewn items (including my own wedding dress!) over the past forty years. In the last five years I have leveled up in my sewing skills and my style has evolved into a modern scrappy geometric look. I lived for twenty years in Southern Nevada and ten years in Northern Nevada and have a real love for all of Nevada's landscapes.My process is to take scraps, sew my own modern geometric "fabric" using a variety of textiles, then to use this "fabric” in smaller, useful pieces such as purses, pillows and quilts. I love the tactileness and frugality of these items and consider them "usable art". I also love hand sewing and applique for their slow stitching benefits, ties to history, and the usefulness in honing practical skills. My focus is on making high quality usable artistic creations that highlight the beauty of the natural world."

LOUISE AHRENDT

TITLE

LOUISE AHRENDT was born in Michigan and has lived and worked in Henderson, Nevada since 2021. Prior to moving, she lived in Chicago. This is where she poured herself into projects for Fortune 500 companies such as McDonald’s, Kraft Foods, Seattle’s Best Coffee and Outback Steakhouse. These experiences readied her to return to her fine art beginnings and create art that is more poignant and personal.Before leaving Michigan, Ahrendt studied illustration and graphic design at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Studying both fine art and commercial art gave her all the accoutrements and gismos she has used to also create murals, a murphy table painting and a couple of fiberglass pigs. As a multi-disciplinary artist, she has continued her self-education and motivation with her recent addition of
textile artwork.Ahrendt’s work is seen in exhibits at Las Vegas City Hall, Clark County Rotunda, Wetlands Park, Squishy Studio, Slonina ARTSpace, Desert Biennial Project 2025, Apex Dry Lake Bed, Nevada and The Honeycomb Project, exhibiting in galleries and art centers across Nevada from 2025-2028.

"I’ve always been an artist, especially in my soul. That’s what I’ve worked and lived to do, along with some “Clark Kent” jobs along the way. Those gigs you take to make rent, buy food, but then, after hopefully not much time, you’re back to being the true you. For me, that’s an artist.For years I worked in advertising, design and illustration, creating images that communicated client’s ideas, sometimes challenging, but always within their structures. Now I’m creating art reflecting myself. As a multi-disciplinary artist, I work in a variety of mediums; acrylic to textile and temporary installations to performance art."

• Website
• Instagram

LUIS VARELA-RICO

TITLE

LUIS VARELA-RICO is a mid-career sculptor and industrial designer born in Guadalajara, Mexico. His art and practice are deeply rooted in his heritage, working class roots, and his experiences in Las Vegas, NV as a U.S. citizen. In 2022, he went from being an elevator constructor to taking a risk and betting on himself as a full time artist. Working primarily in metal, steel, corten, copper, aluminum, and brass, Rico’s craftsmanship spans all alloys of metal. He designs and fabricates every element in-house, merging the precision of CAD modeling and CNC technology with the physical intensity of traditional metalwork and welding. Influenced and inspired by Brutalist architecture, Japanese minimalism, Mesoamerican geometry, and sustainability, Varela-Rico’s work blends aesthetic restraint with physical rigor.Rico has been featured on Netflix’s Metalshop Masters, in Dodge Ram commercials, at Burning Man 2024 and 2025, and SEMA. He has produced commissioned works for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, Goodwill, and numerous civic agencies. His large-scale public sculptures are woven throughout the Las Vegas landscape, serving as visual landmarks and cultural beacons that honor labor, identity, and resilience. His work garnered the Mayor’s Urban Design Award in 2018 and a showcase from Katherine Sisolak, First Lady of Nevada, in 2021.Whether developing monumental public works or intimate design objects, Rico continues to explore the spiritual and tactile dialogue between metal, labor, and the art of making.

"My art and practice are deeply rooted in my heritage, working class roots, and my experiences in Las Vegas, NV as a U.S. citizen. I see labor as fundamental, not just to my practice but to my ethos. The process of making, of bending metal with force and precision, mirrors the physical labor that has shaped the immigrant experience. Work is both a necessity and a point of pride, a shared foundation across generations who have built their lives through effort and resilience. Whether in the fields, kitchens, or construction sites, labor is the cost of belonging, but it is also an honor.My work pays homage to Mexico's rich traditions and history. I honor what my people have lost, while depicting the beautiful elements that remain. I am working to create wonder, awe, and an emotional response with my art. Art is a representation of the culture of a place and instills pride. I know that a large scale sculpture can define a space. I hope to add to the fabric of our collective culture.My work embodies a fusion of contemporary design and industrial craftsmanship. Defined by form, sharp bends, and intricate folds, many pieces showcase the precision and force of metal forming. I use asymmetrical structures and a minimalistic aesthetic to evoke a futuristic sensibility, balancing raw materiality with refined design. My intention is to depict powerful explorations of labor, material, and philosophy. I often use a press brake with a force rating of 100 tons to transform metal into sculptures,
each varying in scale and composition. The sculptures I create not only highlight the sustainability and versatility of the materials and it speaks to the strength required to transform the materials.Through these works, I bridge industrial techniques with artistic expression, creating objects that feel both grounded and forward- thinking. I recognize that the ability to work with my hands is a privilege. One that connects me to both my artistry and my cultural foundation."

• Website
• Instagram

LUKEWÄRM

TITLE

LUKEWÄRM (Luke Rizzotto) is a Reno -based multimedia artist, musician, designer, and educator whose practice examines. He finds intrigue in the liminal intersections of memory and place, nostalgia and yearning, the real and the unreal. He graduated in 2019 from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a BFA and in 2024 from theUniversity of Nevada, Reno with an MFA. His work has recently been featured in Southwest Contemporary: The Road published in Sante Fe, New Mexico, through Solarpunk Surf Club at the University of Kentucky’s Bolivar Gallery, and through the Friends of Black Rock-High Rock in Gerlach, Reno, Winnemucca, and Elko, Nevada.

"Through travel, one enters a state of transience - vulnerability, both physically and emotionally, as one goes from one place of safety to another. This feeling of liminality is pronounced when looking out at the land while traveling, and especially while driving - watching the landscape slowly morph and change over time, becoming something else. Witnessing this reminds us that, much like the human body, even the grandiose, massive landforms we see were formed through natural processes and will eventually erode to nothing again. My experiential work allows viewers to inhabit this liminal mindspace and explore the realm between reality and hypnagogia."

• Website
• Instagram

LYDIA SILIC

TITLE

LYDIA SILIC ADD

"ADD"

• Website
• Instagram

MARK BRANDVIK

TITLE

Born in Las Vegas, Nevada, MARK BRANDVIK received a BFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in1996 and an MFA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1998. His work was included in ‘Tilting the Basin’ Contemporary Nevada: State of the State at the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Top Ten Now- Los Angeles, New American Paintings No. 60, and was recognized in Las Vegas Weekly as Best of 2014 for Narrative Sculpture. The recipient of several grants, commissions, and residencies, his work has been featured in exhibitions and projects in the United States, Canada, and Europe and can be found in private, public, and corporate collections.Recent projects include Star Child, a public sculpture for the Las Vegas Medical District, Sky Island at the Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery in Las Vegas, Earth Rise_ Double Negative Gateway, a large public sculpture commission for Clark County, Nevada, Artifactual at Available Space Art Projects, Las Vegas, Wily Coyotes, an exhibition curated by the artist, Relaunch at Capital City Arts Initiative Courthouse Gallery, Carson City, NV, 4 Queens at Front Gallery, New Orleans, Astral Sketches at Random Access, Syracuse, NY, Space Oddity at Life is Beautiful, Las Vegas, Green Felt Jungle Gym at the Clark County Government Center, Volume Control at VAST Space Projects, Henderson, and 5-4-3-2-1 for Art Production Fund NYC, P3 Studio at The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas. Upcoming exhibitions include We’re Very Well Read, It’s Well Known at the Los Angeles Mural Conservancy Gallery, curated by Mat Gleason, Los Angeles, CA.In addition to his art practice, Mark Brandvik has taught studio art since 1997 at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the College of Southern Nevada. The artist lives and maintains a studio in downtown Las Vegas.

"I primarily make sculptures and paintings that embody my ongoing interest in personal and collective memory and archaeology. My recent work alludes to transportive, archetypal, and iconic images that are combined to create aspirational tableaus."

• Website

MARK KAUFMAN

TITLE

MARK KAUFMAN (b. 1960) is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer known for his bold, monochromatic drawings and collages, which straddle the dark spaces between cultural narrative and abstraction. Born in Jersey City, NJ, and now living and working in Las Vegas, NV, Mr. Kaufman studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York between 1978 and 1983. His work has been exhibited in galleries across the country including Seattle, Portland, Austin, New York, and Detroit. Kaufman’s work is in the permanent collection of the People’s History Museum in Manchester, UK. Mr. Kaufman has most recently been part of group exhibitions at SPCKRFT, The Desert Biennial Project/2025, Core Contemporary Gallery, and Rotunda Gallery at Clark County Government Center in Las Vegas.His works on paper, wood, and found materials utilize heavy inks, house paints, acrylics, oil sticks, glue, and pencils. His mark making of simple lines, fields of black, amorphous shapes, and patterns combine with figurative and cultural elements drawn from memory or culled from existing media to create juxtapositions which explore our relationship with contemporary culture and delve into our place in the world.Mr. Kaufman’s design, illustration, and comics work has been recognized numerous times by American Illustration, The Society of Illustrators, Print Magazine, American Institute of Graphic Arts, Society of Publication Designers, and the Ignatz, Harvey, and Eisner Awards. He has been profiled by Illustration Age, Step by Step Magazine, the World Illustration Awards, and the Creativity Awards.

"My work typically consists of ink and paper, wood and paint, found objects and ephemeral ideas. No matter what form the work takes, painting, drawing, collage, installation, design, or comics, the mark making and structure will always strive to point to the delicate tension between light and dark, black and white, existing images and new forms. The purpose is to continually explore the basic notions around balance and discord, and wrestle with contemporary culture and our relationship to it. The aim is to guide the viewer, and myself, on a journey of understanding the times in which we live. The journey is not always a simple, direct line from a field of swirling black ink to seeing the world with perfect clarity, but the purpose of the work remains the same. Create a visual record of the moment the work is made, attempt to impose order on chaos, and straddle the tension that results."

• Website
• Instagram

MELINA BUSTAMANTE

TITLE

My name is MELINA NICOLE BUSTAMANTE and I am a portrait digital / film photographer based out here in the city of Las Vegas. Home to my love and passion of being an artist with no limitations. I Graduated in the Fall of 2024 with a concentration of Photography and a minor of Film. Being drawn to a camera is not strange to me. Capturing captivating moments in my life have been a huge part of who I am today. My small community circle motivates me to push myself more and more to enjoy and engage what is there to offer. A piece of my work was displayed back in April of 2023 in the Donna Beam Art Gallery. My first work titled "Spin cycle" was a gif - a fast movement of images to create a video like format. Having just a small amount of recognition has helped me to discover what more can I do than limiting my mindset.

"*My work involves the focal point of symmetry with bold movements of color. I work with only photography but that does not stop me from taking further actions to improve. I am my own personal muse, so having an understanding of angles is a talent that will always be a factor that plays highly. I do not have a set aesthetic or specific style but I will mix around with my surroundings. My imagination with creativity is a strong bond that makes me drive myself through and through. Understanding my emotions through my work only scratches the surface of who I am. I take photographs of what I enjoy the most and it's either myself, where I reside or symmetrical balances that catches my eye. While I may not have a set theme for my work, I can set the tone and make what I am able to feel in that moment. *"

• Instagram

MICHAEL PATRICK THIEME

TITLE

Born in 1976 MICHAEL PATRICK THIEME (MPT) has always been a creative type. Early interest in Architecture led him to study and become a licensed Architect after graduating from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. As part of his education, MPT lived and studied in Versailles, France. It was an opportunity to soak in all things Architecture, Art, Cuisine, Fashion and Design. A love for the desert heat, mountains, and cacti, led him to move to Phoenix then Las Vegas after graduating and practicing Architecture. It was in 2008 that he put ideas onto canvas. He was a founding member of the Emergency Arts scene on Fremont where he had his first small gallery space. After taking a personal hiatus from painting, MPT returned to the scene with his first major project called [10x10x10x10], a new series of 100, 10”x10” acrylic on canvas paintings. Each a unique work, created by his technique of painting Lines, individually One at a Time. The entire collection uses his limited palette of only 18 colors. Henow has a gallery/studio space in the World Famous Arts Factory. This year, he achieved permanent representation of a fine art gallery in Palm Springs, CA and received Juror’s Choice for a group show in Key West, FL. And, of course, being asked to participate in this exciting project. He continues to create and explore using modifications and repetitions of the Line.

"Trained as an Architect and creating as an Artist.My artistic language and body of work are a direct extension of my architectural ideals. I am both Artist & Architect; they cannot be separated; it IS my being.I have been creating and studying all aspects of design, architecture, and art for as long as I can remember. It is intertwined within me. It is my art; my art is me. My work as an artist using Lines is grounded by fundamental & powerful principles that organize the Universe of nature and design; and of which I hold deeply as I study and explore my passions whether through Art or Architecture.My technique of #onelineatatime is not just a hashtag, but a nod to take the simplest architectural component, the ‘Line’, and transform it, study it, modify it, and explore it by pushing it into various forms of artistic expression."

• Website
• Instagram

NAES PIEROTT

TITLE

NAES PIEROTT ADD

"ADD"

• Instagram

NANCY GOOD

TITLE

NANCY GOOD (b. 1961) lives and works full-time as an artist in Las Vegas. Her creative pursuits are heavily influenced by: travels to Australia, Africa, Vietnam; childhood residency in Japan; adult life as an artist, photographer, musician, fly-fishing guide, backpacker, writer, and teacher in Montana, Nevada, California, Tennessee and Illinois, along with her eclectic DNA revealing connections with cultures the world over. Good has continued ongoing self-education in visual arts through extensive experimentation. Known for mural-sized, physically- interactive, multi-layered 2 dimensional works interpreting humanity's search for meaning, as well as extensive digital works, Good's studio practice is deeply rooted in self-discipline, dedication and unwavering focus on the creation of strong contemporary art that compels dialogue and human connection. Working with a sensory condition known as synesthesia, Good is acutely aware of vibrations, and translates this into her work via color palette and repetitive thematic elements. Good maintains a rigorous studio practice and exhibition schedule, focusing on works that bring voice to advocacy within cultural and social issues such as gun violence, systemic racism, societal inequities, preservation of natural spaces, climate change, and more. A published and award-winning artist, Good’s work is regularly seen in exhibits and collections across the country and overseas.

"My conceptual work tends to exist within an environment connected to “Flux” in that it acknowledges that both our species and the rest of the natural world are continually in a state of flux, change, evolution, and transformation. Sometimes these fluxuations work well together, but many times they create confict and or unrest. I often consider how changes in air pressure and temperature can bring to life storms upon the land, which can then dramatically transform our environment or destroy property. In many of my large-scale paintings, I address these types of “storms” as an analogy for contemporary conflicts taking place in humanity. However, most important to my work is the intention to find common ground, dialogue, and even reconciliation when the dangerously “hot air” of ego, misinformation, and ego threaten to tear us apart. For DBP Flux 2027, I will focus on wind as a force for erosion and transformation of our land, while also acknowledging that angry words create damaging “winds” of their own as they tear down cultures, identities, beliefs, and community ... which is the foundation of safety in which we all wish to walk."

• Instagram

PATRICIA SUSLO

TITLE

PATRICIA SUSLO is a Las Vegas based artist. She received her BFA from Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City and has since relocated back to Nevada. Today she is working toward a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She has had solo and group exhibitions in both New York City and Las Vegas. Her current focus is on engaging in Nevada’s art community, working with the undergraduate students at UNLV, and on sustaining a growing artistic practice.

Patricia Suslo is an interdisciplinary artist with special focus on drawing and printmaking. Her work often focuses on themes of containment, organization, and hierarchical structures. Through visual techniques of flattening, silhouetting, separation, and segmentation she creates imagery that dictates the information available to the viewer. Her work asks questions about how the modern US citizen reconciles individualism with the loss of rights and community. Her recent work has utilized closets and storage units as a means to communicate ideas of compartmentalization and obscuring information.

• Instagram

RATKINNG

TITLE

RATKINNG Hi I am Erin! I am a nonbinary artist that was born and raised in Nevada. I was adopted when I was younger that really inspired me for my topics I’m passionate about. I mostly do sculptures and paintings with very colorful palettes and textures. I touch on harsher topics about the body and real life situations that can impact children and adults. I like using animal symbolism and a lot of color to give reality and connection to what you are seeing. It gives a childlike innocence to it with a harsh twist. I make both large scale and small scale pieces with mixed media elements. Texture is an important part of my work, It helps represent the gory effect of situations. I have shown my work at many local galleries and UNLV. I am continuing to make my art identity outside of shows and participating in group art projects.

"I touch on harsher topics about the body and real life situations that can impact children and adults both physically and mentally. I use mostly the female/nonbinary body and experience as an inspiration for the subjects. I like using animal symbolism and a lot of color to give reality and connection to what you are seeing. The symbolism with animals gives a childlike innocence almost like an old style cartoon with a harsh twist. I make both large scale and small scale pieces with mixed media elements. Texture is an important part of my work, It helps represent the gory effect of situations."

• Website
• Instagram

ROMINA VILLARREAL

TITLE

ROMINA VILLARREAL is a painter and mixed-media artist with a strong emphasis on figurative expression and visual storytelling. In her work, she explores the multifaceted lives and experiences of overlooked or stigmatized groups, bringing their stories to life. Her art delves into the complexities of psychology, sexuality, deviancy, and spirituality, offering crucial insight into these often neglected areas of society and inspiring dialogues around them.From the city of San Antonio, Texas, Romina is a proud Chicana artist. Romina's passion for art led her to earn a M.F.A. in Studio Art from UNLV and B.F.A in painting from the University of Houston. She has shown artwork in galleries across multiple states in the U.S. and internationally. She is currently an instructor at the College of Southern Nevada. She teaches for The College of Southern Nevada at both the CSN Henderson campus along with classes inside a Nevada Women’s Prison,

"I am enamored by the body. My life is spent depicting humanity in its natural settings to evoke emotions ranging from euphoria and serenity to tension and isolation. I seek out moments that show the ephemerality of life. Moments of tender embraces or frantic gayety that show the absolute polarity of living.Working with acrylic, wax, and thread I render the stories of those who would otherwise be forgotten. Cycles of pain, grief, healing, and joy are apparent in my painted bodies. Working with both candid imagery and historical and cultural motifs, I create psychic spaces that are accessible to the afflicted but a window of voyeurism to those outside of the marginalized groups I choose to represent.Growing up I learned painting and Mexican craft from my community in the barrios of San Antonio. Simultaneously, I was viewing art in the residuum of wealth that became my city's Museums. Discombobulated by this paradox, I seek to display the unseen and unspoken realities of the impecunious majority oppressed by the affluent leaders of our capital-dominated lives."

• Website
• Instagram

ROSE MILLER

TITLE

ROSE MILLER is an artist based in Las Vegas, where she has lived all her life. Her work spans across two- and three-dimensional mediums, with her primary interests being collage, photography, and sculpture. She graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with her Bachelors of Fine Arts in 2025. Miller’s work has been shown in several local group exhibitions. Shortly after graduating, she helped conceptualize and organize The Lunch Room!, which was shown in UNLV’s Grant Hall Gallery. She also has photographic work currently installed at the Debra March Center of Excellence in To The Left— a group exhibition exploring alternative realities. Her sculpture work was shown in the 2025 rendition of the Desert Biennial Project, as
well as the Maquette exhibition that followed the event. Beyond the work she’s shown in a gallery setting, Miller has also participated in a mural project for UNLV’s restaurant The Scarlet Sagebrush, which she completed with a team of previous classmates.

"My art is, first and foremost, an attempt at documentation. It is in the mundane—the yearbook photos and bathroom graffiti and lunches with friends—that I find meaning. I comb through archives of personal and familial history with the essential questions of a journalist: who, what, when, where, why, and how? The answers are unimportant; sometimes I find them, and other times I come up with the story on my own. Often I take what I find and splice it together into a literal collage of found and created imagery—either physically or digitally, as I do with my photography. Other times I use the pieces as inspiration. The packaging on a cut of steak my father throws away becomes the texture of cling wrap on a wooden palette, or the glittering lights of the Las Vegas Strip become beads hanging from a sculpture. Regardless of the
materials and medium, each piece is an effort to explore internal pressures like identity and self-image as well as external pressures like family and environment. These explorations serve as personal interrogations of myself, but also as bids for connection."

• Instagram

SARA ODAM

TITLE

SARA ODAM is a painter and educator driven by connection, observation, and transformation. Hailing from Chicago, she spent twenty formative years painting on the East Coast before landing in Vegas in 2020. She holds a BFA in Painting from Boston University and has attended residencies at Chautauqua Institute and Vermont Studio Center. Her work has been exhibited in Boston, NYC, and Las Vegas at Available Space Art Projects, The Marjorie Barrick Museum, and the Donna Beam Gallery amongst others. Her work has been commissioned for television, Broadway and several productions for Spiegelworld Production Co. including Absinthe at Caesars Palace, Superfrico at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, and Diner Ross at the LINQ. She recently completed The Canopy Program through NYC Crit Club and is working toward a solo show at The Studio at the Sahara West Library in Las Vegas in early 2027. She is a part-time faculty member at UNLV in the Painting Area.

"I paint to connect. My paintings are rooted in observation, empathy, time, and attention. My direct experience of home, people, and the language of oil painting offer endless opportunities to playfully wrestle with the dark and scary parts of life. Intimacy, loss, and transformation are themes never far from my
mind. I am bewildered by how to hold - in life and in painting - people, objects and spaces embedded with meaning while knowing that the very nature of impermanence means they will all go away. The act of painting itself is a visceral pathway for my curiosity to wander and try out new ways of seeing and question my ways of knowing. Painting is a life-giving way to travel in space and time through art history and my personal history. To study the sacred and mundane and how these elements become puzzle pieces in stories I construct about life and how to live a good one."

• Website
• Instagram

SHAHAB ZARGARI

TITLE

SHAHAB ZARGARI is an award-winning Iranian-American filmmaker and an administrative faculty member at the UNLV College of Fine Arts, where he also serves on the college’s Executive Committee. His work in both creative and academic spaces reflects a strong commitment to storytelling, education, mentorship, and artistic development. In addition to his role at the university, he is the founder and operator of Geykido Comet Records and Think Speak Films, two platforms through which he produces and supports a wide range of creative projects. Through these ventures, Zargari continues to expand his impact across film, music, and media, fostering collaboration and innovation.

"I seek to tell stories that explore the depth and complexity of the human condition, often engaging with themes of race, politics, and morality. Through my work, I aim to challenge assumptions and confront the
superficial misconceptions that frequently arise around these subjects. I am particularly interested in how personal identity and societal structures intersect, and how those intersections shape individual experiences and collective understanding.As a creator, I am committed to continual growth, consistently refining my craft and expanding my artistic perspective. I actively develop original films and multimedia projects that reflect my voice and vision, while also collaborating on a wide range of commissioned projects. Each piece I create is an opportunity to push boundaries, experiment with new techniques, and deepen my storytelling abilities.My goal is not only to entertain but also to provoke thought, inspire dialogue, and encourage audiences to reflect on their own perspectives. Whether working independently or with clients, I strive to produce meaningful, impactful content that resonates on both an emotional and intellectual level, contributing to a broader cultural conversation."

• Website
• Instagram

SOUPYBIN

TITLE

Nevada based artist, Robin Leuterio aka SOUPYBIN is a second generation Filipino-American multidisciplinary creative experimenting with mixed media art creation. Born from a family of immigrants, Soupybin’s works reflect on his interpersonal conflicts with gender roles and the queer Filipino-American identity. Their works range from 2D, 3D, and digital. They have had the chance to co-curate and exhibit their artworks in numerous galleries across the Las Vegas valley highlighting galleries such as the Grant Hall Gallery, Donna Beam Gallery, and the Winchester Cultural Center Gallery. Soupybin is a recipient of one of three jurors choice awards from the 2025 UNLV Student Juried Art Exhibition juried by Sam Davis for their painting titled nothing else mattered. Soupybin is also a recipient of the 2025 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the UNLV Office of Undergraduate Research; later presenting research on colonialistic ties within the fashion industry at the 2025 Fall Undergraduate Research Symposium where he was awarded Best Poster Presentation in Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. Soupybin is currently studying towards a bachelors of fine arts in art at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Soupybin is currently pursuing art creation to bridge the worlds of wearable fashion and contemporary art together.

"Through my practice, I utilize multidisciplinary techniques such as painting, sculpture, and fashion design to express my personal experience as a queer Filipino-American. Elements I produce and work with relate to or directly represent Filipino-American or homoromantic experiences I have gone through or witnessed growing up. My art is a reclamation of an identity that was decided for me, now forged into and practiced as what is decided by me. I craft an interactive experience with the audience through wearable and sculptural
fashion. I operate with an “in with the old, to be renewed” approach aiming to piece second-hand clothes into renewed fashion as a way to challenge systemic status-quos of the industry. My family history in conjunction with my own upbringing is utilized heavily when considering different themes to explore visually. Shape and silhouette are used as a way to give agency to fluidity in my designs explorations, focusing on gender queerness and androgynous styles that can be worn by anyone. Varieties in textiles and embellishments give life through unique movements when activated on the body. While my audience has the choice to wear and remove, my identity through these sculptures remains engraved in me that cannot be separated."

• Website
• Instagram

TAMMY MARTINEZ

TITLE

TAMMY MARTINEZ is an artist based in Las Vegas, Nevada where she was born and raised. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting, Printmaking, and Drawing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2024. She has shown her work at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, The Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery, The UNLV Student Union Art Gallery, The Composers Room, and the Winchester Cultural Center Gallery.

"I have a background in painting, printmaking, sculpture, and mixed-media art. My paintings consist of portraits and landscapes relating to my upbringing and experiences being a first generation Mexican American. I often connect my work to my cultural identity. My work is influenced by my family trips to Mexico, contemporary chicano art, gender roles, feminism, and the human condition. My use of materials and colors explores feminine ideals and aesthetics. I also am influenced by matriarchal figures in my life and their stories and challenging views of machismo in Latin American culture. I often use bright colors in my paintings and sculptures. My use of color in my work is influenced by my painting background and my influence in pop art and impressionism. Although I mainly work on canvas. My most recent works have been sculptures made of various mediums, like fabric, wire, polymer clay and found objects."

• Instagram

TANJA HESTER

TITLE

TANJA HESTER is a disabled, chronically ill artist who creates color-skewed, figurative paintings, sculptures and installations inspired by the immunodeficiency and degenerative joint disease she was born with, using non-archival materials that mirror the fragility of the body. Tanja won watercolor artist of the year at the 2024 RTA Awards and best in show at the Sierra Watercolor Society 2024 annual judged exhibition, was featured in AcrylicWorks 12 in September 2025, and was long-listed for the 2025 Jackson’s Art Prize. In fall 2026 she’ll begin an MFA in studio art at UC Davis, where she was awarded the Provost’s First Year Fellowship. She has shown at the Desert Biennial Project // GRAVITY in 2025 and its satellite show FUSE at the Holland Project in Reno, at the May Museum, the Ridley Gallery, the Metro Gallery and others. Tanja is author of two books, most recently Wallet Activism: How to Use Every Dollar You Spend, Earn and Save as a Force for Change. In 2023 Tanja was named alongside luminaries like Lil Nas X and US Senator Elizabeth Warren as a Changemaker by Money Magazine, one of fifty people changing the global financial system for the better.

"Living with a degenerative disease, primary immunodeficiency and chronic pain has taught me that care is creative, time is nonlinear, and the most intimate spaces— sickrooms, rest nests, morning pill routines—are sites of deep ritual. My artistic research focuses on the meaning of disabled bodies in society, the potential to reframe disabled survival practices as sacred and artistic acts, visibility and the politics of seeing, the nature of normativity, and — most relevant to the FLUX theme in 2027 — the relationship of the sick body to a sick natural world, especially the female or non-normative body.I focus the bulk of my work on fragile, non-archival materials that are constantly in a state of change, including fugitive pigments, molds, yeasts, mycelia, gelatins and bodily substances. I’ve also begun working more with salt as a paint medium, creating works reminiscent of the salt flats while also connecting to the saline that is part of the infusions I receive weekly. The concepts I’m presenting for your consideration all fit within the theme of FLUX while seeking to connect the sick body to the Nevada landscape."

• Website
• Instagram

VEZUN

TITLE

The son of immigrant parents, VEZUN grew up with a culture clash present in his thoughts. A self-taught Las Vegas-based visual artist, Vezun's career path has been outside of the mainstream. He has self-published, exhibited in shows, been published, shown in film festivals, done art workshops with local youth (2021-present), and volunteered for other artists’ projects, including their public art. In 2009, he began painting murals locally, and in 2019, he was awarded his first public art commission for Clark County. Later, doing the same for the City of Las Vegas and the City of Reno. He received the Artist Relief Fund, the American Rescue Plan Grant (NAC & NEA), and the Project Grant for Artists (NAC & NEA). With his work, he experiments with formats, styles, techniques, and organizing color palettes, but his work is about him going inward.

"With my artwork, I explore my hidden inner dimensions. I pursue the ambiguous roots of my thoughts and feelings in my artistic practice. I use various media and mix these often. I strive to create work that
people identify with and connects with them on a deeper unconscious level."

• Website
• Instagram

XOCHIL XITLALLI

TITLE

XOCHIL XITLALLI is a Chicana, first-generation, self-taught artist based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her work centers on cultural reclamation, storytelling, and the relationship between land, identity, and Indigenous knowledge, drawing from her Nahua and Otomí heritage. She is the creator of The Tonalli Coloring Book, a trilingual educational project focused on the Aztec calendar and Nahuatl language, and was a featured artist at the Las Vegas Book Festival for this work. Xochil has also been a featured artist with Park West Gallery and has been highlighted multiple times as a featured artist during First Friday Las Vegas. Her work has been recognized through multiple awards for her Day of the Dead altar installations. In addition to her studio practice, she has collaborated with museums and the Mexican Consulate, contributing to cultural programming and community-centered art experiences.Through her work with Malinalli Productions, she facilitates workshops, installations, and educational projects that center accessibility, cultural knowledge, and community engagement, she is also the founder of Mexica New
Year,Las Vegas.

"My work explores identity, land, and memory through a process rooted in both cultural practice and personal experience. As a Chicana artist with roots in Nahua and Otomí traditions, I am interested in how knowledge is carried through materials, symbols, and storytelling.My practice is informed by Indigenous ways of understanding the world, where land is not separate from us, but something we are in relationship with. Themes of migration, belonging, and reconnection appear throughout my work, especially in relation to the shifting histories of the Southwest. I see art as a way to make visible what is often overlooked: ancestral knowledge, cultural continuity, and the impact of colonization on both land and people. I aim to create spaces where people can reflect, learn, and reconnect."

• Instagram

ARCHIVE

MERCH

ABOUT

MISSION

The Arts Community Coalition Nevada (ACCNV) is a 501(c)3 organization for the future of art in Nevada. The ACCNV advocates for artists by designing programming focused on socially engaged artist research and community projects. Our mission is to cultivate a supportive community where art thrives. We strive to enable Nevada artists to exercise their humanitarian need for expression and advocacy through art.

OUR BOARD

ABOUT

Founded by Bailey Anderson and Iulia Filipov-Serediuc in 2024, the ACCNV works to connect artists to opportunities to elevate their communities. Through exhibitions and community projects, we remove the divide between artist and viewer, working towards a united culture invested in a better future. Our programming seeks to encourage conversation that unites folks in heterogeneous communities across Nevada. Through projects and partnerships, our programming aims to teach viewers that we are all advocates. Any of us can make a difference.

SUPPORT

MOVE US FORWARD

Your support is vital to encourage the continued blossoming of culture in Nevada. The entirety of the ACCNV + DBP teams are led on a volunteer basis, and 100% of your support goes towards the artists we serve and the programs we develop. Here are the ways to make an impact in our programming:

• SUPPORT THE DESERT BIENNIAL PROJECT

• DONATE DIRECTLY TO ACCNV

VOLUNTEER