OPEN STUDIOS FALL 2023
2024 COHORT
NISH(AN) GANIMIAN
STATEMENT
Nishan Ganimian (She/They)
You are home.
You are powerful.
You are beautiful.
You are worthy.
You are enough.
I have recently been writing to myself in second-person. The word you is being used in search of self-love and acceptance, while also speaking to the viewer's inner self.
BIO
Nishan Ganimian (2024) is an interdisciplinary artist who explores storytelling through her art practice. She received her BFA from Pratt Institute in 2018 where she began working in theatre. In September of that same year, Nishan was afforded the opportunity to participate in a paper theatre and dramaturgy workshop with the puppet masters of the Union Internationale de la Marionette in Charleville-Mézières, France. She continued to work with director and designer, Theodora Skipitares, as a scenic artist and puppeteer on her productions of There’s Blood at the Wedding (2018) and The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker (2020) at La Mama Theatre in Manhattan, NY. Nishan Ganimian lives and works in Las Vegas where she is pursuing her MFA in Art at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Recent projects include the curatorial project Raggedy Stan’s Playpen at Grant Hall Gallery at UNLV, participation on the Art Department Las Vegas design team for Meow Wolf to be presented at the Life is Beautiful festival in September 2023.
TY SUKSANGASOPHON
STATEMENT
Ty Suksangasophon draws lines. Lines that connect, lines that weave, lines that fold, lines that suggest. In making these lines, Suksangasophon calls attention to the chatter that is the compositional surrounding, which drives reactions and decision making. The super-positional gestures interact with one another, give way to one another, and in its own way, completes one another. Through his work, Suksangasophon engages in a personal pilgrimage, expressing statements of communication, understanding and acceptance, thus evoking the things that make us whole as opposed to the things that pry us apart; simply our fight for love. Ty Suksangasophon continues to be a novice and a disciple of introspection, but has a mastery of looking out windows.
2025 COHORT
BAILEY ANDERSON
STATEMENT
Deeply inspired by westerns and patio beers, Anderson is seeking the answer: why are men like that?
She approaches her practice informed by the generational practice of motherhood in her family. Her work is also informed by that one time when her grandpa handed her a 12 gauge shotgun instead of the .22 that he said it was. She is infatuated with falling from the sky and high noon staredowns: night swims, lingerie, the moment right before, the moment right after, and the suspense of the dangling anvil. Her work also leans into the layering of allegories generated in things like cartoons, cowboys, and the bible.
BIO
Bailey Anderson is an interdisciplinary artist critiquing masculinity and patriarchal structures. Through paint, fabric, and cast metal, Anderson untangles systemic violence using humor, emasculation, and cultural reference. In community spaces, she generates room for discussions surrounding gallery spaces, expectations of studio practice, and encourages failure, most proudly in a curatorial project OOPS! 2023.
Anderson is from Las Vegas, and graduated from Arizona State University with a BFA in intermedia and a BS in psychology. Her work has been shown at the Vision Gallery (Chandler, Arizona), galleries and installations in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Manifest Gallery (Cincinnati, Ohio). She will be presenting a collaborative project at the Bullfrog Biennial at the Goldwell Open Air Museum in Beatty, NV in October, 2023.
CLARICE TARA CUDA
STATEMENT
Through my paintings, drawings, performances, and sculptural work I present personal narratives of womanhood, grief, and freedom. Continuity can be found in my deconstruction of the female body and emphasis on materiality. I often pair objects of beauty and delicacy next to protrusions of aggression and tension. My work intends to prompt discussion on societal or self-imposed systems, and our own mortality.
I start with the body’s surfaces, driven by a desire to more deeply explore intimacy. I am fascinated by the textures, shifts in tonality, and the memory that is held in the skin. Hair has been a recurring vehicle aiding in my investigation into femininity and its objectification. The layered context that hair holds as a material is exciting to me, specifically its cross-cultural connection to grief and spirituality
Presently I am utilizing cropped reference images of the body as a departure point from realism into abstraction through explorations of perspective and form.
BIO
Clarice Tara Cuda is a multidisciplinary artist who thrives in meticulous processes, exploring female narratives through process-driven work. She received her BFA in Sculpture and Painting from the University of Nevada where she is currently working towards her MFA in Art. She has exhibited her personal and collaborative work nationally. Her installations and performances have been shared in festivals including Life is Beautiful and Art Basel Miami.
KARLA LAGUNAS
STATEMENT
Living with bipolar disorder shapes my worldview. I refer to the cycle of mania and depression as "states of emergency," a term with a dual meaning – both crisis and emergence. Within the altered state of mania, I navigate an interplay of control, teetering between victim and autonomous being. This struggle to find the line between these roles echoes the broader human experience within a colonized world, where questions of complicity and agency persist.
Recording these cycles provides me with embodied knowledge, inspiring an exploration of methodologies for healing within my practice. This process is a crucial step towards decolonization. I see decolonization as an ultimate form of healing and transformation.
When I project myself as an avatar, I perform with environments, always conscious of the camera. I look to this camera as my future self so that she/I may self-reflect. This becomes a frame to witness transformation. In this installation, I perform and record myself illuminated by projected video. The videos I project in this performance are of previous performance videos capturing myself in states of emergency and offer retrospection over extensive periods. In this way, I forge integration with my fragmented sense of self defined by these turbulent cycles. By recording altered mental states, I engage in a process of finding empathy for these different versions of myself. This integration is profoundly healing.
BIO
Karla Lagunas (MFA 2025) is an interdisciplinary artist who explores the fluidity of artistic boundaries and hierarchies. Through immersive installations, Lagunas invites viewers on a journey of emotional connection and sensory exploration, dissolving borders between inner and outer worlds. Informed by experiences with neurodiversity, Lagunas seeks to foster understanding of diverse emotional landscapes. Lagunas holds a BA in Art and Art History, from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and is currently pursuing an MFA at UNLV. Lagunas has exhibited in local and regional galleries including the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art in Las Vegas, and the Palo Alto Art Center in Palo Alto, California. She has collaborated on experimental performances, co-organized the inclusive performance art event RADAR, and was an artist-in-residence of the invitation-only ZForge at Drop Forge and Tool in Hudson, New York for the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Lagunas is a recipient of a UNLV Graduate and Professional Student Association Sponsorship Grant to support her upcoming Midway exhibition (Spring 2024).
ROMINA VILLARREAL
STATEMENT
I am enamored by the body. I love depicting people and places that evoke particular emotions ranging from euphoria and serenity to tension, isolation and depression. I enjoy finding moments of ephemeral stillness in real life and displaying them through various forms of imagery. While I mainly work in acrylic painting, I also have interests in textile and huichol works and how these can intersect to further subjectivity.
Themes of diversity, deviancy and mental health are apparent in my painted bodies. Working with both candid imagery and historical and cultural motifs, I create psychic spaces that are accessible to the afflicted but also a voyeuristic window to those outside of the marginalized groups I choose to represent.
BIO
Romina Villarreal (MFA 2025) is a painter and mixed media artist with an emphasis on figurative expression. Through this, she explores the life and experiences of stigmatized groups. Her work delves deep into the complexities of mental health, sexuality, ethnicity, and spirituality, providing insight into these often-neglected areas of society.
Hailing from the vibrant city of San Antonio, Texas, Romina is a proud Tejana artist with a heart for serving marginalized communities. She has worked with numerous community centered art organizations such as Say Sí in San Antonio and The Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art and Donna Beam Gallery in Las Vegas.
Romina’s passion for art and psychology led her to earn a BFA in painting and a minor in psychology from the University of Houston. And now, she’s continuing her journey by pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts at The University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
¡KATIE B FUNK!
STATEMENT
What constitutes the perfect cheeseburger? Why does heartbreak taste like iron and salt? Which episode entered SpongeBob SquarePants into the zeitgeist? What does cardboard think about after it has been discarded? Where did a love/hate relationship for grocery stores begin? Am I currently manic, or do I just wanna have fun?
Building a mercurial space in both the making and the made, my work endlessly chases the spaces that allow for static work to come alive and live work to stand still. Peering through multi-sourced lens in a cross pollinated practice, I hunt for the possibilities of a tender construction through deconstruction, always making certain to leave a light on down the hall.
BIO
¡Katie B Funk! (MFA 2025) is an artist, writer, and curator currently based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She received her BFA from Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana in 2012, concentrating in ceramics. In 2018, she received her MFA from Columbus College of Art & Design in Columbus, Ohio where her work shifted towards large scale installations and works on paper. She is a candidate for her second MFA at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, where her work is currently traversing different modes of grief and joy, discomfortable humor, and the many threads between art and food.
Recent exhibitions include chewing while crying (Las Vegas, Nevada), MEDIUM RARE (Reno, Nevada), RED, WHITE, FREAK / WASH, WRING, REPEAT at the Cultural Arts Center (Columbus, Ohio), and Riffe Gallery’s 2021 Biennial Juried Exhibition (Columbus, Ohio).
2026 COHORT
DAN45 HERNANDEZ
STATEMENT
I create mixed media artworks incorporating whimsical references to cartoons, toys, movies, cassette tapes, pizza slices, Coke, and cupcakes to remind us of the persistence of childhood nostalgia. Growing up in a peripatetic, low-income military family, I saw how intense memories can attach themselves to cheap, transportable pop culture objects, such as Pez dispensers, comic books, Kool-Aid packaging circa 1990’s, punk and hardcore band tee shirts, toys from 1984-1995, and punk and alternative music cassette tapes. My work is informed by an awareness of the emotional weight of these mass-market products.
For this exhibition I’ve drawn Pez dispensers, mementos that were collected from my travels with friends across the country. My imagery is drawn with colored pencils and layered on top of each other in criss-crossing line work, reminiscent of the road maps I used to map out our routes. The Ofrenda and Hybrid Moments are drawn on Baltic birch with pastels, a medium I love to use because of the connection between my hands and the work; I leave impressions of where I have been as I make the work.
BIO
Dan45 Hernandez works and lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. Dan has a BFA focused on sculpture from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Dan45 Creates mixed media artworks that aim to remind us of the persistence of childhood nostalgia through whimsical references to cartoons, toys, movies, cassette tapes, pizza slices, Coke, and cupcakes. Growing up in a peripatetic, low-income military family, he saw how intense memories can attach themselves to cheap, transportable pop culture objects, such as Pez dispensers and comic books. His work is informed by his awareness of the emotional weight of these mass-market products. His gallery installations consider the different social and environmental forces that shape our self-perception. Based in Las Vegas, he has exhibited in Nevada, Utah, and California. He is the creator of SOCIAL COMA zine and a core member of the Las Vegas street art collective Cult 33. He recently started a new fashion brand with his best friend/lover, LovervilleUSA. His wood sculptures have appeared quietly in urban environments across the Northwest.
KAYLA LOCKWOOD
STATEMENT
Understanding our origins profoundly shapes our personal journeys. As a Filipino-American navigating the complexities of identity, I often felt excluded and misunderstood, caught between cultures and my bisexual orientation. To forge a sense of belonging, I turned to my heritage and personal experiences, expressing this quest through my dual artist personas: Miss Identify and Social Sin.
Miss Identify blends traditional artistic techniques like drawing and photography with modern elements such as coding and digital aesthetics, exploring self-identity in the context of continual misidentification. In contrast, Social Sin broadens these narratives to address societal issues, employing social practice, research, and workshops to foster awareness and empathy.
My multidisciplinary practice delves into contemporary struggles of self-discovery and the emotional and spiritual turmoil it entails. Through art and archival work, I preserve family histories, grappling with themes of loss, grief, and erasure. My creations challenge prevailing narratives, encouraging viewers to embrace their authentic selves and acknowledge individuals in liminal spaces. In doing so, I strive to reintegrate the "other" into today's vital conversations.
BIO
Kayla Lockwood is a New Media Artist excavating the liminal spaces of identity and memory in a multidisciplinary exploration of artmaking in the modern world. Her artistic practice takes shape through her dual artistic personas; Miss Identify, which explores the personal and emotional toll of being misidentified, and Social Sin, which tackles issues of systemic inequality from a collaborative and community perspective. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art & Technology from the University of Oregon in Eugene and is currently pushing the boundaries of her personal, collaborative, and pedagogical projects as a Master of Fine Arts candidate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
KELLILYN MONAR
STATEMENT
I am a printmaking /digital artist who is passionate about integrating photography into the process of gel printing. I love traveling and immersing myself in nature’s beauty. I photograph this beauty to share with others through my artwork. I utilize a variety of materials such as: specialty paper, canvas, transparent film, watercolor, acrylic, ink, etc. I have an overall idea of what I want the piece to look like, but I have learned not to be so rigid and allow the creative spirit of my thoughts to take the lead. My digital collage is illustrative of the places I have visited; I then visualize these places and what images I have of it, and then think of ways to manipulate those images in Photoshop until they complement the gel print. To create a gel print, I can use a mixture of gelli plates, sponges, and brushes; choosing to use cheerful, attention-grabbing colors. This technique allows me the flexibility to explore various iterations to arrive at an unanticipated design. If I displayed the gel print or the digital collage by itself, the product would not have the same impact as layering the two together, one being paper or canvas, the other being film…thus adding “depth” to the piece. At times, I will incorporate MRI scans of my brain into my artwork, this along with my photographs interjects a part of “me” into the project. The whole creativity process of conceiving the “idea”, the thought process of how to do it, and the actual process of “doing” it, is always exciting, and very therapeutic and satisfying to me.
BIO
Kellilyn Monar (2026) was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. She earned a BS in Entertainment Engineering & Design and BA degrees in Graphic Design and Painting/Drawing from UNLV. After her undergraduate studies, she worked in the themed entertainment industry in Las Vegas. A health incident resulting in a disability shifted her interests towards the arts and away from her engineering background. She is an avid traveler and incorporates the photographs from her visits to 24 national parks and across the United States and abroad into her artwork. Her transition between career paths has sparked a recent exploration into the various methods of printmaking and experimentation with digital design and materials.
