Virginia City, Nevada - After seeing Brian Schorn's art exhibit, Comstock Wabi-Sabi, long time Silver City resident Erich Obermayr declared, "Brian’s work knocked my socks off." Brian's exhibit at St. Mary's Art Center opened this weekend with similarly enthusiastic responses from everyone from professors to high school students. Erich elaborated on his initial response with a written review of the show, writing, "Brian Schorn’s exhibit at St. Mary’s Art Center comes down at the end of the week, so if you haven’t done so already you need to get up there and see it. Brian is the “resident” in the Resident Artist Program in Silver City, and the 20 pieces on display represent his work since he came to Silver City in July. Simply put, this is high-level work of an artist and craftsman who knows what he is doing."
The show includes nearly 2 dozen assemblages Brian created in just 2 months this summer. Remarkably, during that short period Brian also offered 3 free workshops on writing, art and sound for adults and teens at the Silver City Volunteer Library, designed a fine art exhibit hosted by the Silver City Arts group, and taught 3 art workshops at a Lake Tahoe camp for teens from western Nevada.
Gallery Hours: The Comstock Wabi-Sabi show remains in the George Post Gallery at St. Mary's Art Center through September 6th, 2015 during open hours (11am-4pm Thursday through Sunday). Brian will also offer gallery talks about his work on both September 5th and September 6th between 11am and 4pm.
Review of the Show: Erich Obermayr, owner and lead author at Historic Insight, a research, design and publishing firm specializing in historical and archaeological brochures, booklets, interpretive signage, markers and web publications, wrote the review below, which captures some of the reasons behind the warm response visitors are having to the Comstock Wabi-Sabi show. Erich writes, "The show is comprised of “found objects,” which is a risky kind of art, since his medium is the same stuff any of us could find, stick together, and put up on the wall. Brian takes on the challenge and quietly, but effectively, shows us how it’s done. The first thing that strikes you is the craftsmanship.The pieces are neat and contained, their diverse parts joined invisibly, or held together with small, unobtrusive screws. Pieces of weathered wood form the backing, and background, for the smaller, varied objects, which also serves to focus our attention, and lets us know we are looking at something special. Silver City’s one-hundred fifty year plus history has given Brian much to work with, and his practiced eye has picked out quite a selection—everything from oyster shells imported during the 1860s to pieces of desiccated garden hose, and in between a broken comb, fragments of plates, bowls, and bottles, wood honeycombed with dry-rot, a spoon and fork, the lost head of a plastic toy cowboy. Some pieces, like “Bedroom Doorknob for Julia C. Bulette,” speak to us fairly directly. Others not so much, like “Sunrise: the Artist in Silver City.” But they all tell a story, or even better, they are arranged and given to us so we cannot help but create a story for them."
Support: The Comstock Wabi-Sabi exhibit is made possible through the Resident Artist Program in Silver City, St. Mary's Art Center, Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey, and the community of Silver City, with additional and essential support from Fred Swanson.
Brian Schorn: For more information about multidisciplinary Michigan artist Brian Schorn, see his website at http://brianschorn.com/
St. Mary's Art Center: For more information about the award-winning Art Center, see http://stmarysartcenter.org/
Resident Artist Program in Silver City: For more information about this new program, see https://www.facebook.com/silvercitynevadaresidentartistprogram
Healthy Communities Coalition: For more information about this regional, multi-sector,collaborative impact group, see http://healthycomm.org/
