Enjoy a glass of wine as you tour the exhibition with The Center’s curators. Mirage considers the Great Basin, defined by its closed watershed system, as a uniquely dynamic landscape and source of regenerative power—a place for resource extraction, renewable energy, and creativity. Participating artist Laura McPhee will discuss her photographs and project Desert Chronicle.

Defined geographically by the fact that it is a closed system, its rivers draining internally rather than to the sea, the Great Basin is a vast expanse of land covering much of the American West. The exhibition uses the idea of a closed watershed system as a metaphor for thinking about this uniquely dynamic landscape as a source of regenerative power: a place of resource extraction and renewable energy, a place that has long generated creativity (including Land Art works), and a place of shifting boundaries. The Great Basin is also a place of contradictions, of mystery and obscurity. It is a place that has long inspired artists drawn to its paradoxes. Each of the participating artists presents work that considers the Great Basin from a different point of view.

Exhibition on view Jun 12-Aug 23, 2019

Mirage: Energy, Water and Creativity in the Great Basin is supported in part by the Robert Lehman Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.