Latin Voices

When the nonprofit Left of Center Art Gallery got the chance to show its current exhibit of works by Latin artists "we jumped on it," says the gallery's executive director, Vicki Richardson.

"We're really excited about this one," Richardson says of "Voces Latinas: Works on Paper from 1921 to the Present," an exhibit from the Nevada Arts Council's Nevada Touring Initiative.

Most of the artwork in the exhibit comes from the permanent collection of the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno.

Artists include muralist Diego Rivera, Enrique Chagoya, Camille Rose Garcia, Carmen Lomas Garza, Elizabeth Gomez, Sergio Gonzalez-Tornero, Gronk, Luis Jimenez Jr., Jose Chavez Morado, Jose Clemente Orozco, Gustavo Ramos Rivera, Tino Rodriguez, Frank Romero, Rufino Tamayo and Patssi Valdez.

Diego Rivera's untitled 1932 lithograph gets a lot of attention from patrons, Richardson says, but Garcia's "Who's Afraid of the Peppermint Man, Part 2," a giclee print, also is a favorite "because it tells a story. A lot of young people also like it for the cartoon style."

It depicts people being cooked and turned into food to be rendered for a buffet.

"The artist says it's his take on capitalism, mass producing things and feeding them back to you," Richardson says.

The show features 17 pieces in a variety of styles, including modernism, symbolism and magical realism.

"It has something for everyone," Richardson says. "People like the ones that tell stories more than the abstract ones."

A traditional work such as Garza's "Sandia (Watermelon)," which depicts a family scene on the front porch of a house, is art most people can relate to, Richardson says, as opposed to the more abstract "The Big Little Book Series" by Chagoya, which uses a stick-like figure.

"We try to balance out our exhibits with artists from out of state and local artists," Richardson says. "We keep the quality at a certain level so you can see a good show every time."

The art gallery is located upstairs in the Gowan Road facility, along with office space and Richardson's studio, while an artists' workspace is downstairs.

In addition, there's a permanent display of African artifacts collected by Richardson during the past 15 years. It's often used by local schoolchildren for research.

Richardson came to Las Vegas 26 years ago, and she has been involved in galleries since then. A teacher for 28 years, she opened Left of Center in 1990.

The gallery has been in three locations, but all in the same area. "I'm a firm believer in community-based art spaces," Richardson says. "They're vitally important. A community-based gallery has to draw its own crowd, but 30 percent of our patrons are tourists. They find us on the Internet."

For its next show, the gallery will present images of street scenes, urban flea markets and bus rides by artist Joseph Watson, who combines digital painting with pencil sketches. It will run Aug. 7-Oct. 30.