Art

Exquisite Corpse’: the CAC uses collaborative artwork to raise funds

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A work by Brian Swanson, Susanne Forestieri and RC Wonderly, part of the Exquisite Corpse exhibit at CAC.

The Details

Exquisite Corpse
Through May 4. Sunday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; Wednesday-Saturday, 2-7 p.m.; Preview, Thursday, 5-9 p.m.; First Friday, 6-10 p.m.
Contemporary Arts Center, 382-3886

Assembling an exhibit of 20 artists of varying backgrounds, media and style can be challenging enough, but having the artists collaborate with others on multiple pieces suggests an exhausting nightmare with shoddy results. But Exquisite Corpse, opening May 2 at the Contemporary Arts Center, isn’t your typical group exhibit.

The three-day show—a fundraiser kicking off the nonprofit organization’s 25th anniversary—is built around the exquisite corpse style, where the work is broken into thirds and passed between artists, each of whom creates a head, torso or legs, and then passes it along again.

As whimsical as they might sound, the exhibit’s 18-by-24-inch works, featuring past and future artists showing at the CAC and selling for $500 each, are stunning and diverse portraits composed of abstract and representational body parts, part human, animal or inanimate object. The artists featured are: Su Limbert, Mark Brandvik, Erik Beehn, RC Wonderly, Alisha Kerlin, JK Russ, Brent Sommerhauser, Matthew Couper, Brent Holmes, Justin Favela, Nancy Good, David Ohlerking, Diane Bush, Shawn Hummel, Joseph Watson, Sean Russell, Todd VonBastiaans, Susanne Forestieri, JW Caldwell and Brian Swanson.

Art dealer and advisor Michele Quinn—also the CAC’s new co-president (she’s sharing the role with Aurore Giguet of the Barrick Museum)—organized the show as a way to infuse new life into traditional fundraising. All of the proceeds go to the organization, which has exhibited some of the best artists working in Las Vegas, along with contemporary out-of-town artists.

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