RHYOLITE -- The Goldwell Open Air Museum will hold an opening reception for a new exhibit by artist Sam Davis.

Davis, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas graduate, is based in Los Angeles, Calif., and specializes in sci-fi landscapes and "robot dreams."

He began his "exploration of the spectacular" while still a student at UNLV and continues the quest in Los Angeles where he is a full-time instructor at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif.

Of his work, Davis said, "I have a memory that is not my own. Somewhere around nostalgia and wishing, there are the things I am most interested in -- collected stories of amazing things that happened before my time.

"I am obsessed with that which I did not see, what I cannot see; an atomic test, an Apollo rocket taking off, giant airships."

His choice to use film instead of digital provides an opportunity to reflect on questions of reality and what is conceivable in the desert's expanse of place and time.

Davis' images "combine obscure technology, science fiction and childhood fantasy to call into question notions regarding memory, nostalgia imagination and pulp/cyber folklore."

The reception will be at 2 p.m., July 6 at the Red Barn Art Center, part of the Goldwell Museum, in Rhyolite.

The exhibit will only be open to the public on weekends through Aug. 31.

The Goldwell Open Air Museum is best known for the ghostly "Last Supper" sculpture by Belgian artist Albert Szukalski.

The life-sized sculpture is the anchor for the eight- acre outdoor sculpture park and has drawn attention from the Smithsonian Institute.

It is made from disposable material and meant to erode away in the elements. The concern now is that it will and the art will disappear with no reminder of the artist who has since passed away.

In the fall, the museum hosts Albert's Tarantella, a macabre festival of sorts which last year featured a play by the Cockroach Theater, dancing performed by Threshold Dance Theatre, a presentation on Kymaerica (a rather unique way of looking at the world) and music by a local musician.

Goldwell Open Air Museum is located four miles west of Beatty. Admission to the exhibit is free.

Call Suzanne Hackett-Morgan, 702-870-9946, for more information.