Las Vegas artist Matthew Couper is the most recent artist to be displayed at the Nevada Arts Council’s OXS Gallery in Carson City beginning June 3. Couper came from New Zealand to explore periods of Western art history. Through what he calls painterly investigations, he said, he has discovered that history often repeats. In the series, Valley of The Dry Bones, Couper uses the established Spanish Colonial narrative traditions to discuss the space between myth, religion and art politics. The Arts Council will host an artist talk at 6:30 p.m. and a reception from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 27. The exhibit is open through July 26 from 8 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at 716 N. Carson St. Admission is free.
Susan Boskoff, executive director of the Arts Council said “Huffington Post” art critic John Seed recently referred to Couper as an “artist with a Kafkaesque view of the world” whose imagery suggests “a pagan Catholic Cirque du Soleil.”
Couper graduated from the Quay School for the Arts, Whanganui, New Zealand in 1998. He received a 2013 Nevada Arts Council Artist Fellowship Honorable Mention in Visual Arts.
In 2003, Couper was awarded a Royal Over-Seas League International Scholarship to work and travel in the United Kingdom. His exhibition “Thirty-Three” is touring several New Zealand public art galleries and museums through 2014 and many other galleries feature his work internationally.
Managed by the Artist Services Program of the Nevada Arts Council, the Office eXhibition Series, or OXS Gallery, features artists who have been recognized through the Artist Fellowship program. The Arts Council is a division of the Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, and is funded by the Nevada State Legislature and the National Endowment of the Arts. For more information, contact Fran Morrow at (775) 687-7106.
For more information visit www.mattcouper.com or e-mail info@mattcouper.com