CURRENT EXHIBITS

Always Back to Nevada: Craig Sheppard and art at the University of Nevada, Reno On view in Halleck Bar Gallery until April 26, 2026 While a quintessential Nevada artist, a lot of what influenced Craig Sheppard (1913-1978) originates from his upbringing in Oklahoma. Craig Sheppard was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, in 1913. He learned about hunting, ranching, and riding from his Texas-born father and was taught how to paint by his mother. With an upbringing full of contrasts, it is no wonder that the artist worked with many media including oil, watercolor, and Japanese brush painting, and creatively bounced from genre to genre, expressing himself through realism, abstraction, and cubist-like sensibilities. Craig Sheppard arrived in Reno, Nevada in 1947, joining the Art Department at the University of Nevada Reno. He is credited with building the department from scratch, enlarging facilities, improving the quality of instruction, and initiating a program of exhibitions which brought the works of major artists to the campus and community. He was the founding collector of what became known as the Sheppard Gallery at UNR. The Lilley Museum of Art was opened in 2019 and now houses the collection started and cultivated by Sheppard. The works in the museum collection demonstrate Craig Sheppard’s experimental approach to art making and his prolific and diverse output. Sheppard varied his style throughout his career. Following extended trips to Norway (1956) and France (1961), he drew inspiration from the modernist painters in Europe and experimented with Cubism and abstraction. But upon his return stateside, the artist seemed to always return to familiar subject matter that denoted a love of his homeland: the vast deserts of Nevada, contemplative narratives of cowboys on horseback, at work or in repose, and horses on the range. This exhibition demonstrates the constant oscillation between styles and the exciting results of constant experimentation. On July 27, 1978, an editorial on Craig Sheppard in the Nevada State Journal noted that: “One person who never stayed in a box, and who, as a result, influenced the entire community…”[Sheppard is] “probably the most important visual artist dealing in Nevada themes…a unique combination of the sophisticated academician and the salty pioneer prospector.” —Stephanie Gibson, Director, Lilley Museum of Art

Sidne Teske Landscape, Mindscape On view in Barrick Gallery until March 29, 2026 Our bodies are amazing. We live inside a very thin skin that separates two worlds. One world, the world around us, we perceive through sight, smell, touch, sound, and taste. Inside our skins, we live in an entirely different world, driven by emotions and desires. We act on the world around us, and the world around us acts upon us. The landscapes here are observations of my surroundings: tailing piles, remnants of old mining, sagebrush and trees—beautiful moments painted on location in what could be called a ravaged landscape easy to understand. I paint with soft pastels on sandpaper, references to mining and the grittiness of the land we live on. The ‘mindscapes’ are attempts at describing emotions not so easily understood but, hopefully, felt by the viewer. Most of these pieces are made on micaceous iron oxide, a reference to the mining that supports so many of us in this area. My hope with this work is that people walk away from it marveling at odd moments of beauty and wondering how it is that we can live in two worlds at once. —Sidne Teske Primarily working with soft pastels, Sidne Teske paints on location en plein air, portraying landscape with vibrant energy. When weather makes it too difficult to explore the outdoors, Teske will turn to her studio to create large expressive works that feature the human figure. She is largely self-taught and attends life drawing sessions when she can.