Drift," a new exhibit at the tiny Winchester Cultural Center Gallery, showcases the paintings and drawings of local artists Leah Craig and Janet Greek.
Curator Catherine Borg created the show specifically to pair the two local artists. Borg first saw Craig's work in a small exhibition related to last year's Zap2 public art project. Greek was one of a dozen artists responding to an open call.
"They both produce high-quality work with a lot of merit," says Borg, a cultural assistant for the Clark County Department of Parks and Recreation. "They just seemed like their work would go really well together."
Craig's idea for "Drift" was four new oil paintings of satellites -- three of which are depicted as disintegrating. Referring superficially to the collision of a U.S. and Russian satellite in February, this idea is equally informed by the breakdown of communication in modern society.
"Technology makes the world smaller and does all these really great things for us, but it causes problems," says Craig, a 26-year-old University of Nevada, Las Vegas graduate from San Mateo, Calif., who works as a gallery assistant for the city of Las Vegas Office of Cultural Affairs.
To Greek, "Drift" means "how we travel through space and time and how ambivalent we are to the things around us." The former cage cashier and ballroom dancing instructor contributed eight charcoal and watercolor drawings depicting a lone female friend traveling through various valley locales -- mostly inside McCarran International Airport.
"I was really interested in the architectural aspects and how the human figure relates to them," Greek says.
Greek seemed a little too interested -- at least according to one security officer at the airport. She says he stopped her while shooting the photos she typically draws from.
"He nicely told me that I couldn't do that," Greek says.
"Drift" runs through Aug. 7.
Contact reporter Corey Levitan at clevitan@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0456.