A SPECIAL NOTE IN THE WAKE OF THE LAS VEGAS VIOLENCE

On behalf of the SGCI 2018 Site and Steering Committee, we’d like to express our sadness and solidarity with the community in Las Vegas and beyond after the recent violent attack. We offer our condolences to those who have lost loved ones or otherwise been affected by the assault. We couldn’t be prouder to continue forward in our plans to bring the international printmaking community together in Las Vegas - to grieve, to support, and to nourish with our art and our commitment to one another.  #Vegasstrong #Nevadastrong

Meadows appeared in the desert through spring-fed grasses, providing Las Vegas its name in 1821. The city glitters like an oasis, casting a barrage of light in the shadows of the Spring Mountains. But like a mirage, the promises of Las Vegas can be fickle.

 

The city’s landscape has shifted from canyon petroglyphs to the Old Spanish Trail to a home for hydroelectric workers eager to lose themselves in the pleasures of an illicit speakeasy or underground casino while building the Hoover Dam.  Las Vegas is known for its glitz and glamorous facades, yet the underpinnings of the city rest on rusted bones in the middle of the desert. Printmaking can be viewed in a similar light - the intimate result of labor and process; malleable visual expression that can both mimic and innovate.

 

SGCI 2018 Altered Landscapes will bring printmakers together to explore the tension between reality & representation; alteration & reincarnation; ventures & adventures; construction & decay. Altered Landscapes will capture the spirit of Las Vegas’s perpetual reinvention and the fallacy of its promises. Through dialogue and demonstrations, Altered Landscapes will explore transformations in artist attitudes towards the natural environment, and printmaking’s evolving roles in creative and social practice.