Nevada Museum of Art: Land Art Past, Present and Futures

Commemorating 50 years of Land Art, the Nevada Museum of Art convenes its triennial 2021 Art + Environment Season Land Art: Past, Present, Futures. The three-month season of virtual programs brings together prominent artists, art historians, and critics who have shaped the pioneering genre, alongside contemporary artists, scholars, and social activists who are exploring “what’s next?” as they push the boundaries of the field.

While much of the global art world remains enchanted by the monumental Earthworks that emerged in the American West in the late 60s and 70s, there is concurrent interest among contemporary artists, scholars, and social activists who critique, contextualize, perform, and engage in environmental and social dialogue about art of the land.

Between Walter De Maria and Michael Heizer, Nevada is home to at least fifteen significant Land Art interventions created since 1968. It is this Land Art tradition upon which the Nevada Museum of Art established its Center for Art + Environment—a research center, archive, and library—in 2008. This tradition led to the Museum’s partnership with Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone and Art Production Fund to coproduce and present Seven Magic Mountains in 2016. Located just outside Las Vegas, Seven Magic Mountains has become one of the twenty-first century’s most significant public art projects. Over the past decade, the Museum has engaged in several other significant Land Art projects with contemporary artists including Lita Albuquerque, Judy Chicago, Chris Drury, Helen and Newton Harrison, Daniel McCormick & Mary O’Brien, and Trevor Paglen.

Join the Art + Environment community as the Conference shifts to a new, virtual format and probes topics ranging from iconic Earthworks to new dialogues surrounding contested lands, sustainable living, and ancestral futures.