On Recklessness and Water is a collaborative exhibition by Reno based curator Autumn Loewen and San Francisco based curator Kate Ortega. It is a continuation of their 2025 Exhibition and burgeoning collective, Near Wild Heaven. It features regional artists from Northern Nevada and the Bay Area. Artists Julianne Clark, Aiyana Graham, Beth Padilla, Beck Neal, and Peter Whittenberger are featured in this exhibition.

Hundreds of millions of years ago, the Nevada desert was fully submerged underwater. This sea would expand and contract across the eons. The Great Basin, unlike most regions in the west, does not flow its water to the Pacific. The strange and insular nature of water here directly opposes the dynamicity of San Francisco’s Pacific Ocean and bay, which will someday swallow parts of the city. Data centers are instigating talks of water rights, political protections and non-protections of our land and environment. Some of our artists on display have moved between the Bay and the Basin, and their work reflects these changes of landscape and how they relate to them. On Recklessness and Water seeks to use this geographical, historical, and political backbone as a means to explore the role of fluidity in Queer philosophy and experience. It is about how artists relate to and interpret water in their lives and identities, and how water’s ability to expand, shrink, create, and destroy ties these two regions together.

Kate Ortega and Autumn Loewen have continued their interest in identity and space through this second installation of their collaborations. On Recklessness and Water was created to expand perspectives in localities, examine how space affects an individual and a community, and to bring a collection of artists together across geographic space to create something that flows organically together.

On Recklessness and Water is a multi-medium exhibition, where the five featured artists use mediums such as painting, photography, videography, textiles, and ceramics to examine these ideas.