Lilley Museum of Art
1664 North Virginia Street
Reno, Nevada
on view permanently
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
To “connect the dots” means to understand the interrelatedness of different facts or events. Connecting the dots is also a logic puzzle, and a fun game for kids. This installation is meant to encourage you to take a meandering journey, to explore the history of a broad and diverse collection, leaving room for contemplation and play. Pairings and installations around themes of place, people, and materiality compel us to think about the artists who made the work, the conditions and time periods the work was made, and our relationship to both.
There is a spirit of shared authorship throughout, with contributions and reflections from artists, scholars, and community members.
This exhibition brings together artworks from across the Lilley Museum of Art’s permanent collection. It includes recent acquisitions and loans from significant collections. Most of the works on display are on view for the very first time.
I hope this exhibition fosters curiosity and critical reflection about the places and things we care about, the objects and memories we collect, and the havoc and harmony we bring as humans while living on this fragile earth.
Stephanie Gibson, Director
John and Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art
ABOUT BREACH #2 | Now part of the Lilley Museum of Art Permanent Collection
The Breach #2 series began in 2014-5 in response to a 2005 event, when a 50-ton finback whale carcass washed up on a beach close to the Shinnecock Indian Nation’s territory on eastern Long Island. The mammal is vital to the tribe’s history and culture, but since treaty agreements are not recognized by the federal government, the whale was federally protected. Members from Shinnecock went down to perform ceremonies and pray for the whale’s spirit, but the remains of the animal were disposed of by the city.
The artist asks, “can a culture sustain itself when it no longer has access to the environment that defines it?”
This sculpture is made through a process of coiling, slipcasting, firing, and an acrylic glaze. Each piece is handmade and hand-sanded. The delicate porcelain is juxtaposed against a weathered shipping pallet, representative of an industry that is responsible for the fragility of the world-wide whale population. Each year thousands of whales are struck by container ships, like the one that was killed in 2005.
Shinnecock, b. 1980
lives and works in Northfield, MN
Courtney M. Leonard is an artist and filmmaker, who has contributed to the Offshore Art movement. Leonard’s current work embodies the multiple definitions of “breach”, an exploration and documentation of historical ties to water, whale and material sustainability. In collaboration with national and international museums, cultural institutions, and indigenous communities in North America, New Zealand, Nova Scotia, and the United States Embassies, Leonard’s practice investigates narratives of cultural viability as a reflection of environmental record.
Leonard’s work is in the permanent public collections of the United States Art In Embassies, the Crocker Art Museum, the Heard Museum, ASU’s Art Museum and Ceramic Research Center, the Peabody Essex Museum, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of the North, the Mystic Seaport Museum, and the Pomona Museum of Art.
Leonard has been the recipient of numerous awards, fellowships, and residencies that include The Andy Warhol Foundation, The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, The Rasmuson Foundation, The United States Art In Embassies Program, and The Native Arts and Culture Foundation.
