Art from Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe member at Nevada Museum of Art

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) -The artwork of Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe member Ben Aleck opens Saturday at the Nevada Museum of Art.

The exhibit, entitled The Art of Ben Aleck, features more than 30 of Aleck’s paintings, drawings and mixed-media works. His works show the connections between Indigenous communities and the Great Basin.

The exhibition coincides with the release of a 128-page book dedicated to Aleck’s art.

The book’s a primary essay by Melissa Melero-Moose, and independent scholar enrolled with the Fallon-Paiute Shoshone Tribe The book includes contributions from Ralph Burns, Kevin “KC” Eben, Michon R. Eben, Robert “RJ” Eben, Gene Hattori, Jack Malotte, Arlan D. Melendez, Stacey Montooth, Cheryl Eben Williams, and Ann M. Wolfe. It is available in the Museum Shop for $40.

Here is a Nevada Museum of Art biography of Aleck:

Aleck was born in Reno in 1949 and was raised on the Reno Sparks Indian Colony. As an aspiring artist at Wooster High School, Aleck became part of the Upward Bound Program and was invited to take art classes at the University of Nevada, Reno. After graduating in 1968, Aleck attended the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) in Oakland,. During his time in the San Francisco Bay Area, he saw the politics and protest of the Vietnam War era and the countercultural Hippie Movement. He became involved with the American Indian Movement and participated in the American Indian Occupation of Alcatraz. He graduated with a bachelor of fine arts in painting from CCA in 1972.

Aleck had his first solo exhibition at the age of 23 at the Nevada Museum of Art (then called the Sierra Nevada Art Gallery in Reno) in 1972. For many years, Aleck worked for the Pyramid Lake Museum and Visitor’s Center.