Editor’s note: The remaining dates for Carson City Lights have been canceled, per a Feb. 7 Facebook post from the Brewery Arts Center. The post reads, in part, “As proud Nevadans, we here at BAC are always willing to take a gamble. Unfortunately, Carson City LIghts was a bust. … After opening night it is clear this event falls very short of the gold standard we try to uphold.” The post also says that ticket holders will receive a refund within five to seven days.
The glass door at the modest building that houses the Potentialist Workshop, on Second Street in Reno, has 59 artists’ names in vinyl lettering—and those artists create just about every type of art you can name, from painting to sculpture to performance.
The Potentialist, now in its 11th year, calls itself “a multidisciplinary collaborative arts collective” and provides space and group projects for its artists. Pan Pantoja—founder, art director and executive artist—said he and other collective members have given artistic and business advice to people who ask for it, whether they are part of the collective or not. He said he wants that spirit of artistic community collaboration to always be a part of the Potentialist.
A beacon for artists
Pantoja has worked as a muralist, sculptor, poet and art teacher. He helped start The Salvagery collective in an East Fourth Street warehouse and Reno Art Works-Studio 2035 on Dickerson Road. He said he started developing the ideas for what would become the Potentialist in 1999, and it opened in 2015.
Jessi “Sprocket” Janusee joined the collective in 2022 and handles such duties as marketing, grants, contracts and project calendars. She’s a well-known sculptor and Burning Man artist who has also worked at The Generator.
Janusee moved to Reno in 2015, looking for a more vibrant, accessible and affordable art scene than she’d found in Oakland or in other places where she’s lived. She called the Potentialist a “beacon” for people looking for the same things she was.
“Often, artists just show up here or call us or email because they’re just looking for a place where they can show their art and get involved,” she said.
The Potentialist hosts revolving gallery shows in its front room, the Savage Mystic Gallery. The current one is Mind Matters, with images that address the brain, perception and optics by Gideon Caplovitz, a cognitive neuroscientist and University of Nevada, Reno psychology professor.
Another exhibition, Upside Down Universe, takes up much of the rest of the building. It’s a sprawling, fantastical, surrealist, cartoonish collection of installations, found objects and rooms by more than 50 artists.
“It’s a series of tunnels and caves and things to explore, and you get to meet all sorts of strange friends,” Pantoja said.
A new event in Carson City
In 2022, the Potentialist team took a project called the House of Infinite Potential to Miami for Miami Art Week. It’s two stories of metal scaffolding, shaped roughly like an infinity symbol, in which they presented sculptures, paintings and interactive elements.
“It’s a very bizarre one, but then it also looks very fun, like a giant erector set,” Pantoja said.
Said Janusee: “It was really fun to represent Reno. We’re an underdog city, and we do cool stuff. You know, unconventional, but it has value.”
This month, the team is presenting a new version of the House of Infinite Potential at Mills Park in Carson City. In its current iteration, the structure is covered with white plastic sheeting that defines two spacious, round chambers and an entryway. In each chamber, a cluster of projectors shine still images and videos by more than a dozen artists onto the walls.
The event is the inaugural Carson City Lights, and Pantoja said that for its future iterations, the team hopes to add additional outdoor, light-based artworks.
Future plans
The Potentialist has faced challenges over the years. Among them, Pantoja said, is that the organization has rarely received recognition or funding from city and state governments or large arts organizations. One exception he noted was the Nevada Arts Council, which gave the Potentialist funding for the Upside Down Universe project last year.
Janusee added that gentrification can be a big challenge to artists and collectives, in both Reno and other artistic or cultural hubs around the country.
“Within a 10-year span, you’re watching new condos being built, and these cute, upscale bodegas that sell a $10 bag of chips, you know?” she said. “And suddenly, the people who made the space cool can’t live there and work there anymore.
“Right now, there are a lot of pluses to Reno as it is now, but also the affordability is crazy,” she added. “And I don’t know what’s going to happen when more and more of us have to leave because we can’t live here anymore. It’s going to be a heartless city, which is like a lot of cities in America.”
Still, both Potentialist leaders believe they are surviving well despite this big challenge.
“Over and over, they call me the cockroach,” Pantoja said with a laugh. “We really bootstrap, and we get it done. We first built this in six months and with next to nothing, just running on sheer imagination.”
The Potentialist Workshop, Brewery Arts Center and Visit Carson City present Carson City Lights in Mills Park, 1111 E. William St., from 6 to 10 p.m., through Sunday, Feb. 15. Admission is $21.50 in advance, or $25 at the event, if tickets remain. For kids 12 and under, tickets are free but must be reserved. For tickets and more information, click here.
The Potentialist Workshop, 836 E. Second St. in Reno, is open Thursday through Sunday from noon to 11 p.m. The Upside Down Universe installation is slated to be open through Sept. 6. Tickets are $20; $10 for kids ages 12 and under; and free for kids ages 4 and under. Visit www.upside-down-universe.com/tickets.
At the Potentialist’s Savage Mystic Gallery, Mind Matters, an exhibition by cognitive neuroscientist Gideon Caplovitz, is on view in February, with a reception slated from 2 to 5 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 7.