The Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art reopens its newly renovated West Gallery with a curation that highlights an array of recent acquisitions and celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Museum joining the UNLV College of Fine Arts in 2012. Making Room maps out where the Barrick has been in the past and where it wants to go in the future.

Making Room features artwork collected over the past decade, conceptual and minimalist works from The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States, and a selection of paintings and drawings from Into the Light, the first exhibition that took place after the Barrick transitioned decisively from a natural history institution to a museum of contemporary art. Previously unseen acquisitions include prints by twentieth-century artists such as Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall, as well as more recent work by Ayanah Moor, Yumi Janairo Roth, and James Stanford.

By removing the outdated artifact cases from the West Gallery walls, the Barrick has given its permanent collection a new space where it can thrive. The Museum holds all of its collection artworks in the public trust, freely available for study, research, and enjoyment. In the future, the gallery will contain rotating exhibitions that bring out new facets of the collection, drawing attention to unique themes and highlighting rarely-seen works. Through Making Room, the Barrick hopes to reflect on the development that has taken place throughout its first decade as part of the College of Fine Arts, weighing the past while looking forward to the opportunities and challenges of the future. 

Making Room will be on view at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art at UNLV from August 30, 2022 to January 28, 2023, with an opening reception on September 2. Entry to the Museum is free. Masks are recommended.

Image: Thomas Burke 
sx mchne, 2002 
Acrylic on aluminum 
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection 
Gift of the Las Vegas Art Museum, 2021; Gift of Alex Woman and Kristin Longdren, 2007.