Mixed media

The three artists featured in the exhibition Ebullience work in very different media. Larry Hunt makes metal sculptures, most of which are wall-mounted. Tim Yardic is a glass artist who makes free-standing practical objects, like bowls. Lance Dehné is primarily a painter, working with acrylics, crayons and mixed media. But though their methods and materials are different, there are common threads uniting the artists.

“It’s all shapes and colors,” says Yardic. “Well, not all.”

Indeed, all three artists work with bright, contrasting colors and bold, abstract shapes. And each artist uses a careful balance of positive and negative space to imply a sense of motion in their work. Whether metal sculptures, glass bowls or painted canvases, all the work in Ebullience is bright, colorful and energetic.

The exhibition is on display at ARTineering, Dehné’s art studio and workspace for his day job as an engineer. For the exhibition, the warehouse location near the southwest edge of the McCarran loop has been converted into a convincing but difficult-to-find art gallery.

“I like to think of it as the underground,” says Dehné.

Dehné’s work as an engineer is apparent in his paintings, which almost look like colorful designs of complex machinery, full of moving parts. Hunt and Yardic also have unusual professional backgrounds for artists. Hunt has worked in landscape design and insurance, and Yardic is retired from the Reno Police Department.

“This was my escape,” says Yardic of his fused glass artwork. “Now, it’s what I do full-time.”

All three artists work in modes reminiscent of mid-20th century modernism, though this is especially apparent in the work of Dehné. His work is draws from Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso, among others.

“I’m an old-school guy,” says Dehné. “You got to be influenced by somebody, and I grew up looking at all those guys.”

The artist who doesn’t seek out his roots and choose his influences with care ends up influenced by the lowest common denominator art he encounters at the dentist’s office or the bank.

In addition to his bowls, which look almost ceramic, were it not for the translucent sections and their eye-catching ability to attract light, Yardic’s contributions to the exhibition also includes a layered glass remake of “The Great Wave off Kanagawa,” the famous woodblock print by 19th-century Japanese artist Hokusai. In capturing the essence of the crashing wave, it’s an example of the sense of motion found throughout the exhibition.

Most of Hunt’s work is abstract and nonrepresentational, though “Hope,” a rare exception, depicts a flock of gulls in flight—again connecting to the theme of motion. Though made of metal and painted with automotive paint, Hunt’s sculptures look organic. “Metamorphisis,” for example, is insect-like.

“Metal does what it wants to do,” says Hunt.

He says his artistic decisions, including composition and color choices, are dictated largely by the materials themselves. He uses 20-gauge sheet metal and found pieces of scrap metal. Earlier in his career, he worked in oil paints, but he says he enjoys his newfound forms of expression of working in metal.

“I still have something to say in my 60s,” says Hunt. “The three of us are all kind of older guys, no offense, and us old guys still have some good ideas.”