The month of August offers art lovers and opportunity to discover their favorite Nevada artwork at the Hot & Dusty Fine Art Invitational at the Lost City Museum in Overton. The exhibit opens on Wednesday, Aug. 4 and runs through the end of the month.
Around a dozen artists will present in this show, most of them local artists from Moapa Valley. This years theme for the exhibit is “Celebrate Nevada.”
As in year’s past, museum visitors can vote for their favorites. The works with the most votes is presented with awards for the exhibit. Voting will continue up until Saturday, Aug. 28 and winners will be announced at a reception and silent auction held that night.
“Nevada is a beautiful, diverse state that inspires the imagination,” said Mary Beth Timm, Lost City Museum Director. “This art exhibit showcases what Nevada means to the artists who live here, and really dovetails with our mission, which is to engage people in Nevada’s natural and cultural heritage.”
Show entries will have a wide range media and subject matter. One work entitled “Sabbatical in Chicken-Suit Central,” a 24-by-24-inch oil-on-panel by Las Vegas artist Gig Depio, explores how artists exist in Las Vegas. A more traditional work like Overton artist Lynn Rigoni’s “A Forgotten Place,” depicts a charming watercolor of an older home in Virginia City.
“I just love Nevada,” said Rigoni, who moved to Nevada in 1962 and has traveled extensively throughout the state. “I feel like I’m a part of it.”
Other artists featured at this year’s exhibit include JD Challenger, Nancy Glazier, Brent Holmes, Q’shaundra James, Ken Kaylor, Heidi Leavitt, Tammy Symons and Janet Trobough.
Museum visitors can vote for their favorites in the “Guest choice” category. Other contest categories are “Artist choice,” in which the competing artists will vote on the piece that best demonstrates technical skill, use of color and design as it relates to the theme “Celebrate Nevada”; “Docent/Staff choice,” for the work that best conveys the show’s theme to museum guests; and “Best Sculpture.”
Awards will be presented at a closing reception at 7 p.m., Aug. 28 at the museum. The event includes a silent auction to raise money for the museum’s collection facility.
Items to be auctioned include a curator-led or director-led tour of the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus; an Acoma pottery vase, hand-painted and signed by artist Keith Joe, Sr.; and a photograph of a bighorn sheep, taken by Lost City Museum Curator Virginia Lucas, that has been reprinted on the museum’s new T-shirts.
The Lost City Museum is located at 721 S. Moapa Valley Blvd. in Overton. Operating hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Admission is $5, free for children ages 17 and younger and museum members.
