Exhibition Review: Tomorrow's Man

Gallery Review: Sheppard Contemporary

            One of the galleries that I chose to walk through for review is the Sheppard Contemporary gallery here on campus at the University of Nevada, Reno. The gallery was filled with pieces that were curated by guest artist Jack Pierson. The exhibition is titled “Tomorrow’s Man”. The gallery included all sorts of media, including photography, oil painting, sculpture, charcoal drawings, and more. The selection of art pieces for this gallery all seemed to look more like modern art pieces rather than traditional. Also, the gallery requires viewers to be 18 years of age in order to enter, as there are pieces that contain nudity.

            Some of the pieces that immediately grabbed my attention were oil paintings featured on the first wall when you enter the gallery. These paintings were completed by Emerald Whipple. The paintings feature landscapes, painted using a stippling technique. The effect achieved by using this technique gives an almost pixelated perspective on the landscapes. The color palettes were all pretty neutral or earth toned. This style drew my attention, since pixilation is more of a digital aspect of art, which just happens to be the type of art that I create as a digital media minor!

            Another collection that I found appealing featured 12 different photographs with large, white words imposed upon them. I cannot recall the artist who created this collection. One of the posters, for example, has a picture of a smoke cloud after a giant bomb was dropped with the word “ENTERTAINMENT” written across it. I took this as the artist trying to say that in our media, we tend to feature a lot of destruction and warfare purely for the form of entertainment; however, the majority of people have never dealt with those things in their life. In comparison, there was another photo of a much smaller bomb with the words “WORLD NEWS” written across it. I interpreted this as the artist making a statement about how events such as warfare and bombings that occur everyday are of smaller importance in real life than they are in entertainment media like movies.

            Overall, I think this gallery offers an interesting mix of artwork that should resonate with everyone. I believe that having the various types of media in the gallery is something that is unique and I haven’t really seen in such a small space. If I had to choose, I would say that my favorite pieces were the paintings by Emerald Whipple. His pieces show great attention to detail and were extremely pleasing to look at.