Gerlach Open Air Art Gallery

Gerlach welcomes visitors to a new Open Air Art Gallery, featuring wall murals and eight mini-mural panels.

Take a stroll through town and discover a sense of place through art with ten murals that help tell the story of our region.

Use this page as a guide as you stroll through town, starting at Bruno’s Gas Station on the east end of town.

ART PANELS

High Rock Canyon
Ann-Sophie Gaudet
Bruno’s Gas Station - Main Street

”The exploration of the raw wilderness of High Rock Canyon and the unforgettable experiences I had there gave me the inspiration to create art that captures the freedom, the beauty, and excitement of the journey.”

From where you stand, on a clear day, you can see across the vast playa. Keen eyes can spot the southern end of the Black Rock Range and the Black Rock itself, where the Lassen-Applegate trail led weary emigrants through stunning High Rock Canyon and eventually on into California and Oregon.

Ancient Geometries
Rachel Stiff
Gerlach K-12 School, East Sunset Blvd.

Rachel is an artist/educator based in Carson City, NV, and holds an MFA from the University of AZ in Tucson (2012) and a BFA from the University of Montana in Missoula (2009). She was a featured artist in the exhibition ‘Tilting the Basin’, shown by the Nevada Museum of Art (NMA) in Reno and Las Vegas. In 2017, a series of her paintings was included in “The Nuclear Landscape” exhibition, in conjunction with the NV STEAM Conference at the NMA. A true Westerner, her work examines the construction of the modern landscape and desert-urban interface through abstraction.

This portion of the school closed following the economic crash of 2008. The Oscar-winning movie “Nomadland” starring Frances McDormand depicted that tragic chain of events. We hope that someday Gerlach’s popluation can grow enough to reuse this section of the school.
Or, that it can be used for something else, like maker spaces and art classes!

Spirit of the West
Reese Sutfin &  Terri Lambert
Old Stanley Theater,  Main Street

This husband and wife team has been collaborating on projects throughout the West since 1996. The wild horses of the west are direct descendants of horses that escaped or were released by early American settlers in the 1800’s. In 1971, the U.S. Congress recognized that “wild free-roaming horses are living symbols of the historic and pioneering spirit of the West.”  Many still make their home in this area and can be spotted on backcountry travels, and often along Highway 447 and State Route 34.

Here, you are standing in the heart of Gerlach, near some of its oldest buildings and the historic water tower.

Seventh Fire
Kimberly Lawson
Gerlach Community Center, East Sunset Blvd.

A little boy, center (Adonis Nakooedu Ike Lucas) from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, sits drumming surrounded by his ancestors in prophesied times where humanity has a choice to choose materialism or spirituality.
Also Shown:
Keith Andren (1979 - 2021)  Te-Moak tribe of the Western Shoshone Battle Mountain Band.
Judy Trejo (1940-2002) Summit Lake Paiute Tribe.
Wovoka (1856-1932) Northern Paiute, Smith Valley. Paiute spiritual leader and founder of the Ghost Dance Movement

The Gerlach Community Center is the perfect location for this scene. Here, we are not only at the community hub, where potlucks, events, meetings, and more take place, but we are also in the heart of where the native peoples of the region converged.

The Flow of Time
Zoe Caron
Gerlach Senior Center, East Sunset Blvd.

Swirling water represents ancient Lake Lahontan and the life it supported. Gerlach was once underwater. A mammoth and Shasta ground sloth weave through to modern times to a small pronghorn herd, Great Basin collared lizard, and kangaroo rat.  Modern pronghorn are relics of larger herds that once roamed the area. Lizards and kangaroo rat populations likely expanded as the land became more arid.   “My artwork is a celebration of all things living. Through crisp lines and natural patterns overlaid on backdrops of intense abstractions, I express the natural world’s flow and energy.”

Step back from the wall and look at the mountains to the east of town. You can see the horizontal lines of ancient shorelines.

Tomorrow Never Comes Until It’s Too Late (affectionately nicknamed “Playa Jazz”)
Juan Bonilla
Indie Press Revolution at the old Gerlach Clinic

Juan’s first impressions of this area came at night when working on the railroad siding in town.  The reflection of the moon hit the sands and minerals creating a glow that seemed to light up the skies and mountains. Intrigued, he became a regular visitor. He thinks of the Paiutes and of how they were able to survive in these lands and call it home.  For Juan, the desert is neither boring nor uneventful, as seen in his abstract style.

We gain a sense of play in Juan’s piece, which is often reciprocated as children play at the brightly colored playground to your right.

Center of the Universe
Alyssa Cumpton
Joe’s Gerlach Club, Main Street

Alyssa Cumpton lives and works in Elko, Nevada. In 2024, she was the Artist-in-Residence with the Black Rock Desert-High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area and Friends of Black Rock-High Rock. Her work explores the natural world and hopes to bring about an appreciation of wild spaces across the country. She works in several mediums, including traditional acrylic painting, chalk art and murals. Alyssa was commissioned by a local property owner to paint another mural in town. Take a little side trip down Del Ora and you might spot it!

If you’ve never been in Joe’s, it’s all part of a heartier Gerlach experience. As we sometimes say, it’s where the animals are!

Petroglyphs
Nathaniel Benjamin
Friends of Black Rock-High Rock, Main Street

Petroglyphs, traces left by people who once called this place home, but from a vastly different perspective, reminded me of what I was doing painting this panel. In tribute to them, I superimposed these petroglyphs over my own painting of Gerlach’s night sky. We can only imagine what these symbols meant to the artists who carved them, but, by looking up, we can consider the same questions they must have: Who are we? Where did we come from? What are we meant to do here? Some of the oldest petroglyphs ever dated are located nearby.

Here, on the northern edge of town, we enter dark skies territory. We highly recommend adventuring a few miles up along the playa and experiencing our magical night skies.

WALL MURALS

Running Free
Cyan Samone
Bruno’s Apartments, Main Street

“Running Free” captures the untamed spirit of the pronghorn—North America’s fastest land animal—racing across the open desert at sunrise. This mural is a celebration of motion, light, and the profound sense of freedom that the desert landscape offers.  The desert, often thought of as barren or harsh, holds a quiet, expansive beauty that invites reflection and release. In the early morning light, when shadows stretch long and the air is still cool, there’s a kind of magic—an overwhelming sense of possibility. That’s the feeling I wanted to chase and capture: the exhilarating openness of a place where nothing holds you back.

The colors in this piece are intentionally bright and heightened. They don’t reflect reality so much as they reflect feeling—the way the sunrise feels on your skin, the way motion feels in your chest when you let go. They are the electricity of being alive.

Look behind you across the salt flats, and imagine herds of pronghorn running across the landscape.

Thrust SSC
Bryce Chisholm
Bruno’s Cafe, Main Street  
The Black Rock Desert is a vast and untamed expanse and has long been a stage for extraordinary feats—from the record-breaking speed of Thrust SSC to the artistic explosion of Burning Man. In the heart of Gerlach, Bruno’s stands as a legendary gathering place, where history and community intertwine. This mural is a tribute to the land, the speed, and the various forms of creativity that help define this remarkable place.

Bruno’s Motel and Country Club is a Nevada institution, and its walls are filled with photos from the land speed records, rocketry, Burning Man and more. So, stop in for a Bruno Burger and a cold beer!

A Growing Art Town.
In addition to this project, Gerlach is home to the Bike Bridge, a sculpture previously placed at Burning Man. You’ll also find a mural commemorating the Emigrant Trails (320 Main St., at the Friends of Black Rock building).  For the past few years, artist Bunnie Reiss has adorned various Burning Man-owned properties with bright and fun folk art featuring wildlife of the area.  If you’ve found the “trailer park”, you have found her exemplary style, featuring animals of the region, sure to bring a smile to your face. Just outside of town, a mile-long art installation called Guru Rd intrigues visitors with its profound messages to locals and the world at large.

CULTURAL TOURS
Art & Culture Tours can be booked in advance and are available for small groups. Sometimes these occur in conjunction with local events such as Black Rock Rendezvous over Memorial Day Weekend, 4th of July, Gerlach’s annual Chili Cookoff in October, and others. Please reach out to Margie Reynolds, project coordinator, if you are interested in a tour. Tours also include fun facts, historic tales of intrigue, and geology/hydrology discussions.

This project is funded by a grant from Travel Nevada, supported by Friends of Black Rock-High Rock. Help keep sharing the story of the region. Donate today.