Have the Las Vegas suburbs become a hotbed of contemporary art? From the vast network of neighborhood library galleries, to the hidden gems like the Rita Deanin Abbey Art Museum in northwest Las Vegas, art exhibition spaces are flecked throughout the entire Vegas valley.
Add Couper Russ Studios gallery to that list. It's inside the home of artists and art professionals Matthew Couper and JK Russ. And it shows the type of work you don’t see often in Las Vegas.
Currently, it's displaying 1,10 : A Supercentenary of Malevich's Suprematism (until January 18 via appointment), Couper's ambitious homage to Ukrainian artist Kazimir Malevich, who made waves in 1915 when he debuted a new style of abstract art called suprematism. Nearly 700 shape-centric works mark Maklevich's suprematism era. Couper's goal? To paint his own version of each. The current exhibit, 1,10, features 50 such recreations — mostly small paintings, on paper, usually comprising wooden forms and bent nails.
"I'm turning them into dimensional forms, so pieces of wood, lumber, and then using the nails to kind of fix them in place," Couper said. "So it's kind of saying that these images have already been done by Malevich, but I'm kind of putting my own spin on it."
A unique aspect of the exhibition is the works' connection to Las Vegas. Couper often works aspects of the city into his paintings, and here, he sees a through line in the shapes and structures that highlight both Malevich's work and, say, Las Vegas Boulevard.
"Malevich's work was some of the first consistently abstract or non-objective paintings ever made," Couper said. "I kind of feel like there's an interest between, say, the spectacle of the Strip and the utopianism of Malevich's work. And so there's a gray area in between that I think both of them kind of overlap. I'm still not 100 percent sure what it is, and perhaps that's why I'm doing these works."
In a city often accused of culturally playing it safe, Couper’s exhibit introduces Las Vegas to a pivotal figure and movement of the avant-garde, and that seems to be a goal of Couper Russ Studios' gallery — showing work that locals might not otherwise get to see. Other exhibits have been curated using Couper and Russ' personal art collection, and the output of other local and international artists.
Another goal is to make the art-viewing experience more intimate and meaningful; Couper often accompanies guests and discusses the exhibit. "I thought [the gallery] was quite a nice way to incorporate art as kind of a private event that people elect to come and see," he said. "It means that people have to make an appointment, but it also means that people have more conversation — rather than just, say, walking into a store and being asked, 'Do you have any questions?'
"I guess it pushes past all the kind of uncomfortable starting [and] meeting things — we get to just get straight into talking about art."
Matthew Couper, artist and co-owner, Couper Russ Studios
