“Javier Sanchez and Marlene Siu: Relative Perspectives”
October 15- Nov 30
Clark County Government Center Rotunda Gallery, 500 S. Grand Central Parkway
Artist reception Thursday, October 25, 6 to 8 p.m Open First Friday November 2, 5-10 PM

This exhibition is part of the 2012 Vegas Valley Book Festival’s “Illustrated Word” programming.   Javier Sanchez and Marlene Siu's photographs of Las Vegas residents are presented in non-traditional, three-dimensional formats that invite the viewer to engage with the work in unexpected ways. Siu presents portraits as open-ended narratives - real people in their environments which look staged, but are not. The artist is interested in life’s vulnerable moments of hope and disappointment, and many of her images seem frozen or to waver somewhere in between the two. These quiet dramas are illuminated by light in small sculptures that invite an intimate, voyeuristic encounter. The lightbox viewing experience may simultaneously suggest distance and a sense of familiarity or empathy.  Javier Sanchez, on the other hand, presents larger than life portraits. The artists shot photographs of Las Vegas residents at various locales over the course of the summer. The portraits, shot in both color and black and white, will be fragmented, combined with mirrors and presented in the round so that the viewer will be able to walk around the work while seeing him/herself in relation to the richly diverse community captured by Sanchez. In the artist’s words, the temporary nature of the site-specific installation in the Rotunda Gallery will remind the viewer, that no matter fine lines that create cultural difference “in the end we all live and interact in the same space.”  

Marlene Siu was born in Honolulu, Hawaii.  She Attended the University of Hawaii where she studied photography and sculpture as an undergraduate.  In 2008 she transferred to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where she completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2011.  Siu is currently working as the Arts and Humanities Education Specialist at the Lied Discovery Children's Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada.  She has participated in group exhibitions such as Off the Strip in 2010 and is one of the co-founders/curators of 5th Wall Gallery in Emergency Arts, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Born in the suburbs of Mexico City and now living in the United States, Javier Sanchez has been a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada since 2001.  For the last five years he has exhibited at venues throughout Las Vegas, including his first solo exhibition entitled “El Salon de Dibujo” at the College of Southern Nevada (2010). In spring 2012, he received his BFA from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and he was a co-founder of the Fifth Wall Gallery in downtown Las Vegas. His work explores the aspects of the temporary using various mediums and subjects in relation with the experience of an event that only resides in memory.