NORTH & SOUTH

“TILTING THE BASIN,” AN ALL-NEVADA ARTIST SHOW FROM THE NEVADA MUSEUM OF ART IN RENO, TILTS SOUTH TO LAS VEGAS.

“Tilting the Basin,” an all-nevada artist show from the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, tilts south to Las Vegas.

Haven’t most good art initiatives hatched from a warehouse? In a happy confluence of timing, artistic support, and vision, the important show “Tilting the Basin: Contemporary Art of Nevada,” featuring 34 Nevada artists from the north and south of the state bisected by the Great Basin, makes its way to Las Vegas in March. The timing: Around the same time Las Vegas art consultant and gallerist Michele Quinn was co-curating the show with Nevada Museum of Art curator Joanne Northrup in 2014, she joined the board of the nascent Art Museum at Symphony Park. Since the show was designed to bridge the north-south divide, she says, “We agreed we needed to bring it down here. So we spoke to the [Art Museum] board. Everyone saw the importance.” The artistic support: At the same time, Quinn had been working with developer and art patron Steven Molasky, who was looking to acquire a warehouse space downtown. He closed on the skylit, 14,000-square-foot building in December, and the show had its location—a pop-up gallery in a railroad track-side location on Commerce Street. The vision: “Everybody’s work is so different,” Quinn explains of the show that examines culture, environment, politics, and technology in a wide range of media. “It would be difficult to point to a single work that is emblematic of the show.” A print portfolio of 10 pieces by Las Vegas artists can be purchased at the show or on Quinn’s gallery website: 100 percent of the sale benefits the Art Museum at Symphony Park. March 17– May 14, 920 S. Commerce St.; mcqfineart.com