Calendar We Heart art there’s a lot of love hanging around town this month By geoff carter
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BodySCAPeS
BODYSCAPES Through February 16 Sin City Gallery Allan Teger shoots black-and-white photographs, but before your eyes glaze over the Ansel Adams of it all, notice that these tableaus are really nudes, dotted with tiny figures to make them look like landscapes. Dolphins frolic in navels, mountaineers scale breasts—it’s all just
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pAINTINg AN EScApE Te art of iranian expatriates nanda sharifpour and ali fathollahi is being shown through the end of february at Blackbird studios. it’s some beautiful
THE SPACE BETWEEN YOU AND ME February 1-27 Tasty Space at Emergency Arts As it happens, the “space between” Bill Dambrova and Dat Nguyen is more than psychological: The two artists created works for this dual show on entirely different coasts. I haven’t yet seen Nguyen’s art, but I like Dambrova’s work: It evokes the mysterious inner workings of the human body without being, you know, gross. 520 Fremont St., Suite 150, 617.513.7336; facebook.com/tastyspace SAM DAVIS & ANNA TILLET February 1-22 Trifecta Gallery in The Arts Factory Trifecta presents a Valentine’s Day doubleheader that, should you manage to find a date to bring to it, just might get you laid. The laser-cut wood paintings of Sam Davis’ “Modern Love” illustrate the story of a robot that falls in love with objects that can’t reciprocate, while Anna Tillet’s suggestively titled “Polyamorous” considers the sex lives of lagomorphs. Bunnies! It’s all about dirty bunnies. 107 E. Charleston Blvd., Suite 135, 702.366.7001; trifectagallery.com
work, otherworldly and achingly poetic. some of the pieces are explicitly about the oppression sharifpour and fathollahi faced in their former home, while other paintings hardly seem connected to earthly matters at all. Tey’re just pure dreamscapes, coinhabited by people and goldfish. yes, goldfish. But you really should know about the extraordinary journey this art has taken to reach las vegas. Blackbird gallerist gina Quaranto explains: Tey were forced to escape Iran, where they were both art professors, from fear of death or kidnapping. Tey moved to Turkey while waiting to come to America. … After three long years of horrible waiting, they were given little notice that if they wanted to get to America, they had to leave ASAP. Tey actually ripped their paintings off the stretcher bars to roll them up for travel. And they chose to bring almost nothing [for themselves] so they could pack their art and art supplies. When they arrived, they had to start all over again. … [Tis exhibition] was started in Turkey and finished here in Vegas. Some of these paintings took as long as six months or more. it’s often said that downtown las vegas’ resurrection as a place for artists has changed lives, and right now at Blackbird, you can see evidence of that saving grace hanging on the walls. Blackbird Gallery, 1551 S. Commerce St., 702.782.0319; blackbirdstudioslv.com
BodySCAPeS: allan teger; “polyamorous”: anna tillet
“Polyamorous”
weird enough to be brilliant. 107 E. Charleston Blvd., Suite 100, 702.608.2461; sincitygallery.com