The Contemporary Arts Center Las Vegas Exquisite Corpse exhibition is a collaborative exhibit involving 20+ artists who only work on 3 sections of a “canvas” (actually a large piece of art paper). First phase includes each artist creating a “head” for the top 1/3rd of the piece. I use the term “head” loosely, because anything can be drawn in, painted, collage, etc. for a head (whatever the artist is inspired to create). Once phase 1 is completed, the work is turned in and then each artist picks up a work that was begun by another artist. The second phase involves creating art for the “torso” section of the work. Once that is completed, the piece is turned in again and each artist picks up another piece to begin work on the bottom 1/3rd … the “legs.” If you look up “Exquisite Corpse” on the internet, you’ll find many great examples of this collaborative style of creating art. Each of the artists only ever sees the part they’re working on at the time, never knowing what the other artists have done (if they’re playing by the rules ). It makes for some very unique, surreal, avant-garde works of art.
The Contemporary Arts Center Las Vegas Exquisite Corpse was a great opportunity to collaborate blindly with my fellow artists whom some of us really have nothing in common, and to impose this assignment was quite refreshing. I would have never dreamed any of these images would have come out with the compositions that did and I was in awe of some of the talent that artists brought as a donation and contribution.
Artists included in the exhibition are:
Erik Beehn, Diane Bush, Susanne Forestieri, Brent Sommerhauser, Shawn Hummel, Joseph Watson, RC Wonderly, Sean Russell, Todd VonBastiaans, Justin Favela, Mark Brandvik, JW Caldwell, JK Russ, Matt Couper, Alisha Kerlin, Brent Holmes, Brian Swanson, Nancy Good, David Ohlerking, and Su Limbert.
—from Contemporary Arts Center’s Facebook page, May 2, 2013