Alkali Syllabi: UNR Art Department Faculty Exhibition

ALKALI SYLLABI: UNR Art Department Faculty Exhibition

Sheppard Contemporary and University Galleries are pleased to present Alkali Syllabi, an exhibition that showcases work by artists who teach at UNR. This show includes recent work by current and emeritus faculty, as well as lecturers and adjunct instructors. Alkali Syllabi also extends to include artists from UNR Tahoe, the former Sierra Nevada University campus at Incline Village, that became part of UNR in July 2022. Since July, the Art Department has been developing ways to integrate their long-held commitment to dynamic, interdisciplinary teaching. We are delighted to include artists in Alkali Syllabi who contribute to UNR Tahoe’s low residency MFA-IA, many of whom work from remote locations ranging from NYC and LA, to Doha, Qatar. 

Beyond the integration of UNR Tahoe, the exhibition is also the first programming gesture from the Art Department with both a new Chair, Kelly Chorpening, and a new Curator and Manager of Sheppard Contemporary and University Galleries, Austin Pratt.

Exhibiting Artists

Molly Allen, Teri Barnes, Rebekah Bogard, Samantha Buchanan, Tyler Calkin-Low, Kelly Chorpening, Mark Combs, Mariah Dekkenga, Russell Dudley, Roman de Salvo, Antone Dolezal, Nicole Donnelly, Nina Elder, Tracy Fish, Peter Goin, AB Gorham, Miles Hall, Miya Hannan, Ahren Hertel, Scott Hinton, Kristin Hough, Richard Jackson, Kyle Karrasch, Neda Khalafi, Eunkang Koh, Brandon Lacow, Chris Lanier, Gwaylon Leaf, Monica Maccaux, Edw Martinez, Rick Parsons, Austin Pratt, Macon Reed, Kelsey Reiman, Rob Reynolds, Michael Sarich, Kara Savant, Tamara Scronce, and Luka Starmer.

About Curator Austin Pratt

Austin Pratt is an artist, curator, and educator based in Reno, Nevada. He received an MFA in Painting+Drawing at The University of Tennessee, and a BFA in Painting with Minor in Museum Studies, from The University of Nevada. Pratt has worked widely in curatorial and exhibitions management, serving as Director of Gallery 1010 in Knoxville, Tennessee, as Gallery Coordinator and Public Art tech for the City of Reno, as Permanent Collections Assistant at the University of Nevada, and in much independent work as an art handler and curator. In 2018 he co-curated the exhibition "Side-Eye: Visions of Periphery" for the Spring Break Art Fair in Times Square, NYC.

As an artist, Pratt was the recent recipient of the Nevada Arts Council Visual Artist Fellowship, and his work was recently featured in New American Paintings magazine. His work has been shown widely, including Baitball Art Fair in Italy, and solo exhibitions at Channel to Channel Gallery in Nashville, Tennessee and at Oats Park Art Center in Fallon, Nevada among others. Pratt currently teaches Painting and Graduate Seminar in Contemporary Theory and Practice in the MFA program in Interdisciplinary Arts at UNR.

About Kelly Chorpening

Kelly Chorpening, is an artist, writer, curator and educator who earned her MFA at Hunter College, City University of New York. Before joining UNR as Professor and Chair of Art, she resided in the United Kingdom and was Course Leader for BA (Hons) Drawing (2006 – 2019) and then Programme Director of Fine Art (2019-2022) at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London.  As an artist, she has had solo exhibitions at Shillam Smith 3 and Horatio Jr., in London, and Salon am Hof in Vienna, Austria. As a writer, she co-edited and contributed to ‘A Companion to Contemporary Drawing’, published in 2020 as part of Wiley Blackwell’s Companion series. A current curatorial project, ‘Drawing in Social Space,’ is a collaboration with Drawing Room London, and involves artists and audiences from around the UK, USA, Bolivia, Netherlands, Ghana and India. 

About Sheppard Contemporary

Sheppard Contemporary is an art exhibition space located on the campus of University of Nevada, Reno. The flagship gallery at UNR, Sheppard Gallery opened in 1960 and is one of many exhibition spaces at UNR. Sheppard Contemporary and University Galleries maintain close relationships with The Lilley Museum at UNR, and the galleries at UNR-Lake Tahoe campus. Exhibitions feature work from contemporary artists, regional and international. The gallery engages the university, growing Reno arts communities, and the region by exhibiting innovative, contemporary art. The gallery maintains a full and intensive program of professional exhibitions.

Sheppard Contemporary is located in the Church Fine Arts Building and is open to the public Monday through Friday, 12pm-4pm, and by appointment. General parking is available in the Brian Whalen Parking garage, located just north of Church Fine Arts. The main entrance to the Brian Whalen Parking garage is located on the east side of North Virginia Street, between 14th Street and 15th Street. Public metered parking is available at the lowest level of the Whalen parking complex, though parking on Saturdays is free.