Reno artist Lara Alberti is the latest to be featured at the Nevada Legislature in the Legislative Exhibition Series gallery in Carson City. Open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and adjacent to the Caucus Deli, the LXS space displays Alberti’s series “Time Frame” March 18 through April 5. Managed by the Artist Services Program of the Nevada Arts Council, the Legislative eXhibition Series has provided a spotlight on the Silver State’s breadth of contemporary and folk artists during the biennial session since 1985.
Alberti uses antique clock cases as a device for artistic exploration. She focuses on timing and the devices used to orient people in the universe. The paradox of constant and fixed units of time in opposition to fluid and elastic personal sense of time is explored throughout her work.
“Each of our experiences is a measure of time,” Alberti said. “Playing chess, climbing a flight of stairs, watching a butterfly flit across the yard — all are events that could measure time in a very personal way. For example, the chess player may define the length of a day by the number of chess games that could be played or won.”
Alberti said she finds these gauges of time —rather than minutes, hours or days — much more descriptive and evocative when measuring life experience.
In exploring her expanding notions of time and space, Alberti found herself compressing these ideas into ever-smaller clock cases, which reminded her of dreaming. The clock cases ceased to be the housing for clock movements and became architecture for mirroring dreams. By reflecting architectural elements found on and in the clock cases, Alberti generates a new construct in which the thoughts and images of a lifetime converge.
Born in Wellesley, Mass., Alberti earned a bachelor of fine arts degree magna cum laude at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has exhibited in Arizona at the West Valley Art Museum in Sun City and the Sedona Arts Center, and at the Nevada Art Museum in Reno.
Alberti’s work can be found in numerous collections including the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Ariz.; University of Nevada, Reynolds School of Journalism, and in private collections in the United States, Denmark, Italy and Switzerland.
The Nevada Arts Council, a division of the Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, is the agency charged with ensuring that state and national funds support cultural activity and encourage participation in the arts throughout Nevada. In addition to providing hundreds of grants to arts and community-based organizations, schools, artists and local municipalities throughout the state, the Arts Council coordinates a variety of statewide programs and activities such as the annual Poetry Out Loud recitation competition for high-school aged students, traveling exhibits, artist residencies, workshops and cultural assessments. For more information, please visit the department’s website at nac.nevadaculture.org/.
