Laugh-out-loud art and a Carson man named Maynard

I try to go to First Thursday at the Nevada Museum of Art every month, but I always miss it. First Thursday features live music (on the roof-top patio if the weather's nice), kegs of beer and other refreshments, and plenty of intriguing conversation with quirky artistic types. It only runs from 5 to 7 p.m., however, and I work in Carson City until at least 6. This month I showed up at about 6:55 - right as the Asha Belly Dancers were wrapping up.

The woman at the counter recommended I attend the artist's lecture that was about to start. It was New York's Marco Brambilla talking about his video pieces. I'd already seen the video in which used hidden cameras to record the faces of teens entranced by shoot-'em-up video games. One wall showed four hypnotized faces; the other two showed what the teens saw - juxtaposing their blank stares with the violent scenes they thought they were involved in.

Brambilla talked about and showed another piece for which he set up cameras in nine revolving restaurants. Nine screens showed revolving scenes before dawn. As the sun rose in time lapse, you saw New York harbor, jets taking off from McCarran Airport and so forth. The common themes in the nine scenes were rotation and the rising sun.

But one piece made me laugh out loud. It's great art that makes you physically, audibly react, right? It was footage of people arriving at airports. Brambilla took video of people getting off very long flights - at least 14 hours. Their complete exhaustion made their faces more honest, he said. He filmed them as they looked for the people they were supposed to meet -"an examination of the time between arrival and recognition." He said he was exploring the "issues of dislocation and transition." You saw them get off looking scared, tired and alone, and watched as they either found their contact and smiled broadly, or just continued into the crowd, even more alone.

Brambilla, who has shown in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Kunsthalle in Bern, Switzerland, wrung giddy laughter from me by playing the scenes in slow motion with eerie music.

His video game piece will be up in Reno through July.

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An exhibit by an artist closer to home opened last week at the museum. Maynard Dixon painted Western landscapes until his death in 1946.

He was fascinated by harsh landscapes and the Americans Indians who survive on the parched land. He painted and sketched images from California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and locally.

Dixon was born in 1875 into a ranching family in Fresno, Calif., and began drawing at age 6. He did illustrations for several publications.

He and his second wife, photographer Dorthea Lange, lived for months with Indian tribes until 1935, when they divorced in Carson City. In 1937, he married San Francisco painter and muralist Edith Hamlin in Carson City and settled in Tucson, Ariz., where they painted en plein air (outside looking at the landscape) until his death.

Dixon's work is known for its "use of broad, simplified shapes allowing him to capture the dangerous, mysterious and remote qualities of the West." The one painting I've seen -of a Virginia City building - is a neat mix of realism and free-flowing lines, not unlike some of Van Gogh's landscapes.

"Space Silence Spirit: Maynard Dixon's West" will be up until Sept. 12. Who can resist a show of art from a one-time Carson man named "Maynard?"

The museum at 160 W. Liberty St. in Reno is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. It's open on Thursday until 8 p.m.

Oh yeah, First Thursday is coming up again July 1 with musical guest Moonlight Hoodoo Revue. It's free for members or $10 for adults, $7 seniors/students. It's only from 5 to 7 p.m., so don't be late! Call 329-3333 for details.

Contact Karl Horeis at khoreis@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.