Capital City Arts Initiative features exhibit of the late Robert Morrison with 'A Glimpse Back'

Capital City Arts Initiative is delighted to present work by the late artist, Robert Morrison, in the "A Glimpse Back" exhibition. His work reflected an active and ongoing dialogue between both geometric and organic forces.

CCAI’s exhibit will be in Western Nevada College’s Bristlecone Gallery, 2201 W College Parkway, Carson City now through Dec. 11, 2024. The gallery is open to the public, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. The artist’s reception will take place on Tuesday, October 22, 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Morrison (1941 – 2018), created countless sculptures, paintings, and drawings during his lifetime. Late in his career, his metal sculptures evolved to include sound. A major installation work was Tongues: The Half Life of Morphine (1986) presented by the Nevada Museum of Art as part of Robert Morrison: A Retrospective in 2004. Quoted from the Museum’s catalog by the same title, critic Jeff Kelley wrote: “As a sculptor, he works with manufactured steel plate. As a performer, he works with electronic and ambient sound. That he is and uses both suggests the degree to which neither, alone, defines his identity as an artist. Like an endless string of reflections, that identity teeters on the edge of powerful dualities: abstraction and figuration, masculine and feminine, denial and expression, mass communication and isolation, silence and speech — maybe even father and son, which, if you are a man and an artist represents both the power and powerlessness of your own personality.”

Morrison created and showed his art for over five decades in many group and one-person exhibitions locally and nationally, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Florida, Texas, and New York. He earned a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Fresno, a master’s degree from Stanford University, and did post-graduate studies at the University of California, Davis. Sculpture Magazine did a feature article on Morrison written by William L. Fox in its March, 2005, edition. The National Endowment for the Arts awarded Morrison a Visual Arts Fellowship in 1990 and the Nevada Arts Council awarded him Visual Arts Fellowships in 1990 and 1984. He was Professor in the Art Department and chair of the sculpture program at the University of Nevada Reno from 1968 – 2017 and was awarded Emeritus status on his retirement.

Professor Brett Van Hoesen wrote the exhibition essay for A Glimpse Back about her colleague and friend. She specializes in European modern and contemporary art with emphasis on German art, Dada, photomontage, visual culture studies, German colonial studies, and sound art. Additional areas of research include African art and museum studies. Van Hoesen travels regularly for national and international conferences. Before joining the University of Nevada, Reno faculty, she served as the visiting instructor for modern and contemporary art history at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Van Hoesen also has held museum internships at the Busch-Reisinger Museum and the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, and the University of Iowa Museum of Art. She regularly presents public lectures and provides docent training at the Nevada Museum of Art. In summer of 2012, she taught a course in contemporary art in Torino, Italy, for the University Studies Abroad Consortium.

Carlos Ramirez, a former Western Nevada College Latino Leadership Academy student, provided a Spanish translation of the show’s wall text.

Western Nevada College is a component of the Nevada System of Higher Education, with campuses in Carson City, Douglas County, and Fallon. CCAI is an artist-centered nonprofit organization committed to community engagement in contemporary visual arts through exhibitions, illustrated talks, arts education programs, artist residencies, and online activities.

The Initiative is funded by the John and Grace Nauman Foundation, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, Kaplan Family Charitable Fund, Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation, Steele & Associates LLC, and CCAI sponsors and members.

For additional information, please visit CCAI’s website at www.ccainv.org.