Thunderstruck 2.0: black hole sun

a Thunderstruck Collective group exhibition

September 11 - September 26, 2021

Opening Reception

Saturday, September 11th, 6-9pm*

Open Hours

Fri-Sun 12-5pm*
drop in or by appointment 

Email Info@carnationcontemporary.com
to schedule a visit


*Masks required inside the gallery

Exhibition Statement

Thunderstruck 2.0: black hole sun is the second in a series of exhibitions inspired by journeys to classic land art sites in the American West. For this exhibition, three artists and one curator traveled to Western Utah to see Nancy Holt’s 1973-76 work Sun Tunnels on the Winter Solstice, shivering and windblown. For the Summer Solstice, the original four returned with three new companions, expanding the collective to seven artists, blasted by sand and sun. The artists participating in Thunderstruck 2.0 bring diverse materials into their work--drawing, painting, photography, dirt, salt, magnetic waves, sound, light, and more--in order to transport viewers and offer an authentic sense of place. At the same time, Thunderstruck 2.0 asks questions of the Sun Tunnels… How does this site frame our perception of light, scale, and emptiness? Who did Holt make this work for? What is the relationship between land art and spectacle?


Curated by Dr. Jessi DiTillio, the Thunderstruck Collective is a growing group of artists committed to collaborative engagements with the land arts of the American west through exhibitions and publications.

Current participating members are in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Portland:

Katherine Spinella 
www.katherinespinella.com @katherine.spinella

Michael E. Stephen 
www.michaelestephen.com @michaelestephen

John Whitten
www.johnwhitten.com @john.whitten

Kristin Hough  
www.kristinhough.com @kristinhough

Morgan Rosskopf 
www.morganrosskopf.com @morgan_rosskopf

Ashlin Aronin  
www.ashlin.me @scenictanker

Part travelogue and part creative revisionism, the Thunderstruck project conjures new responses, affective, energetic, and communal, to art historical sites designed for isolation, solitary contemplation, and transcendence.


@thunderstruckcollective