Your Tribe is Calling
South Lake Tahoe's Art Community
Tahoe Arts Alliance - High Vibe Society
Benko Art Gallery - Tahoe Activist Artists
Tahoe Art League - and YOU
"Merged Monk"
2017, white pine, tulip poplar, Jeffrey pine, birch, chestnut tree flower, and mixed materials from nature
© Laura Staman
It’s no secret that Tahoe’s 2016-2017 record snowfall and subsequent warmer than usual summer has cultivated a new crop of artistic growth and visibility of South Lake Tahoe’s art community. The winter season brought about the crystallization of the Tahoe Arts Alliance (TAA), which quickly set to creating a new space for artists to show work to the public and partnered with the City of South Lake Tahoe to bring us the new South Lake Tahoe City Hall Art Gallery located at the South Lake Tahoe Airport. The Tahoe Arts Alliance, a 501(c)(3) corporation, seeks to bring unity to the entire South Shore, both California and Nevada sides, connecting all of the arts programs with the public to increase awareness and participation. The TAA has also formed a committee to foster public art and hopes to inaugurate a South Lake Tahoe arts expo.
None of this call for unity has been lost on High Vibe Society Artisan Collective, which has invited artists to find their tribe at this collective since 2016. Members can rent studio space, show work in its gallery, sell items in its shop, and host events - all at the collective’s 989 3rd St location in South Lake Tahoe. By joining the collective, members can have a place to create and present their work that they would not otherwise be able to afford or have the opportunity for on their own.
"Old Wise Man"
(detail) oil on canvas
© Kenny Arnold
No local, contemporary, commercial art gallery shows more local artists and knows the meaning of tribe more than Benko Art Gallery. Benko Art Gallery planted roots on Highway 50 at the base of Pioneer Trail (3979 Lake Tahoe Blvd, South Lake Tahoe, CA) in March of 2015. In September 2017, Benko Art Gallery welcomed artist Kenny Arnold whose larger than life portraits of Navajo dancers and Morsi tribe members of Ethiopia will stop you in your tracks. Listen to “An African Story” and the “Old Wise Man”, and hear the “Sound of Thunder” as two of Arnold’s powerful rhinoceroses head your way. Benko Art Gallery’s owner himself, John Benko creates Native American inspired art and often collaborates with artist Steve Southerland to make large, iconic feathers from sculpted metal, whose size and weight convey the awesome power contained within such a delicate, organic material meant to glide through the air.
2017 also brought us another TAA, the Tahoe Activist Artists. As is the population of Lake Tahoe itself, many artists of this tribe have moved here from other parts of the state, country, and yes - world. After the November 2016 election, Shelley Zentner, who herself is originally from Great Britain, was inspired to call artists to action in order to make positive change through art. The activities of the collective evolved into the "We the People: Tahoe Artists Visualize a World of Conversation and Connection", an event that included an open invitation to the public to march with the artists along Highway 50 from High Vibe Society to Tahoe Mountain Lab. The march was followed by an art exhibit, poetry reading, musical performances, film viewing, and a forum that included talks by and conversation with the artists. The sales of the artwork raised money for local charities. The growing list of Tahoe Activist Artists include, among others, Barbie Crawford, Daphne Osell, Kim Wyatt, Steve Robison, Annie Davidson, Eleanor BonBon, Ernie Claudio, Guy Gilmore, Michelle McLean, John Bollaert, Ellen Nunes, and Anthony Capaiuolo. Anthony Capaiuolo's film, "Art & Science in an Age of Unreason", which was featured at the event and highlights the work of Shelley Zentner, can be viewed on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/208052908.
John Benko (foreground) and Willie Pinella
Live Painting at Benko Art Gallery
"We the People: Tahoe Artists Visualize a World of Conversation and Connection" was so successful that the Tahoe Activist Artists have become a permanent addition to the local art scene. Working together as a tribe, their strength as artists grows exponentially. Tahoe Activist Artist member Neta Simkovich, a Tahoe resident from Israel and animal rights activist, is now showing work from her lovingly rendered series of wizard animals at Benko Art Gallery, which itself is a testimony to John Benko's commitment to the local art community and the opportunities that can arise when artists work together in ways like the Tahoe Activist Artists. The energy born from the collective helps to get more new artists in the public's view.
The South Lake Tahoe art community is unique and diverse. The tribe that has evolved here isn't a traditional school of artists. The style of this Tahoe Art Tribe is not a particular medium, technique, or subject matter. These artists may come from anywhere in the world and they may roam all the shores of Tahoe itself. Through their efforts you will be confronted by everything from the gripping charcoal drawings of Tahoe Activist Artist Ana Valdez to the Tahoe bears rendered by William Eichelberger in the colors of a pulsing street palette on recycled wood pallets. You will be calmed by the organic, totemic mixed media of Tahoe Activist Artist Laura Staman and contemplate the meditative non-figurative oil paintings of Julian Vadas, who calls India home and shows us just how local non-locality can get.
South Lake Tahoe City Hall Art Gallery
South Lake Tahoe Airport
Eichelberger, Vadas, and John Benko himself can often be seen painting live at Benko Art Gallery, either individually or with each other and/or other artists, in an entanglement of sorts across the spacetime of the canvas. If you head over to Genius Fine Art (3351 Lake Tahoe Blvd, South Lake Tahoe, CA) you will be transported into the 3-D, holographic paintings of Scott Forrest, who relocated here from Los Angeles. You see, the possibilites are endless. What is common ground between all these different artists and styles is that the voice of the Tahoe Art Tribe resonates as one, like a tree that has suddenly fallen in the forest for all to hear, ringing true - loud and clear, "Tahoe artists are united, and Tahoe artists are what make Tahoe, Tahoe."
The work of Kenny Arnold definitely reminds us that we are all one, and his “Old Wise Man” reminds us to honor who and where we came from. The Tahoe Art League (TAL) is the mother of all South Lake Tahoe's art community and has been nuturing the entire South Lake community since 1964. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, TAL promotes art through ways that create opportunities for artists, locals, and visitors alike. Among the benefits to the community at large are classes taught by masters in their fields, in everything from ceramics to watercolors to oils - even Abstract Expressionism! TAL offers Annual Art Scholarships for both college and high school students.
In addition to the indispensable Artist Registry published by TAL, members can display their work for viewing and sale in the Tahoe Art League Art Center Gallery located at 3062 Lake Tahoe Blvd, South Lake Tahoe, CA. TAL also hosts a booth at the popular Arts and Crafts Festival that occurs on several weekends throughout the summer in South Lake Tahoe. Most notably however, TAL hosts the Tahoe Art League Annual Artist Studio Tour, which gives the public the opportunity to meet with a great number of local artists, all while touring this beautiful area and seeing great art. These are only a few of the vital activities that are coordinated by the Tahoe Art League, which illustrates just how fundamental art is to the framework of South Lake Tahoe. TAL continues to welcome all local artists to come and join this great big tribe. We don’t grow without our roots. Many of the members of the newer organizations are also volunteering with the Tahoe Art League to expand this organization to meet the ever-evolving needs of this thriving art community. Won't you join too?
-- Sheilah Boothby, MakeTahoe.com
"Meditation Room"
2017, photographs and meditation room
Tahoe Activist Artists at Tahoe Mountain Lab
© Laura Staman and Barbie Crawford
For more information about the organizations and venues mentioned in this article, please visit:
Benko Art Gallery - http://www.benkoartgallery.comGenius Fine Art - http://www.geniusfineart.com
High Vibe Society Artisan Collective - https://www.highvibesociety.org
Tahoe Activist Artists - http://www.tahoeactivistartists.com
Tahoe Art League - http://www.talart.org
Tahoe Arts Alliance - http://www.tahoeartsalliance.org
For more information about many of the artists mentioned in this article, please visit:
Kenny Arnold - https://www.facebook.com/Fine-Art-Commissions-by-KennyJohn Bollaert - http://www.johnbollaert.com
Eleanor BonBon - http://www.tattoobonbon.com
Anthony Capaiuolo - https://firsttracksproductions.com
Ernie Claudio - https://fineartamerica.com/artists/ernie+claudio
Scott Forrest - http://www.scottforrest.com
Ellen Nunes - http://www.ellennunes.com
Daphne Osell - https://www.daphneosell.com
Steve Robison - http://www.bonafidebooks.com/tahoeletterpress
Neta Simkovich - https://www.netasimkovich.com
Steve Southerland - https://www.facebook.com/cowcampart
Julian Vadas - http://www.julianvadas.com
Kim Wyatt - http://www.bonafidebooks.com/tahoeletterpress
Shelley Zentner - http://www.shelleyhocknell.com
Disclosures:
Sheilah Boothby is an active member of the Lake Tahoe art community. At the time of this writing, Sheilah Boothby is a volunteer and/or member of the High Vibe Society Artisan Collective, Tahoe Activist Artists, and Tahoe Art League. Sheilah Boothby is the owner and founder of Make Tahoe and curates a monthly promotional art exhibit titled "Make Tahoe quantum" at Benko Art Gallery. She is also a student at Lake Tahoe Community College and donates her time with art related events there and elsewhere in South Lake Tahoe.
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