Whitney Lynn: Atomic Open House

Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum is pleased to present Atomic Open House, a large-scale, site-specific artwork in Beatty, Nevada by Artist Fellow Whitney Lynn. On view outdoors from sunrise to sunset, Atomic Open House turns the architecture of nuclear spectacle into a roadside attraction, using a deceptive trompe-l’oeil façade to expose the uneasy relationship between what we see and how we are positioned to look. 

“Having grown up on military bases,” Lynn states, “I have spent years examining the unstable boundary between military and civilian landscapes, and how architecture, images, and familiar stories make systems of power appear ordinary. My work disrupts that familiarity by shifting perspective.”

Located 18 miles from the western edge of the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), Atomic Open House sits within a community shaped by the region’s intertwined histories of military land use, nuclear testing, and tourism. In the 1950s, atmospheric nuclear tests at the NNSS (then known as the Nevada Test Site) were extensively photographed and televised, transforming a once-secret military program into a carefully managed public spectacle. In nearby Las Vegas, that spectacle became “atomic tourism,” with businesses hosting bomb-viewing parties and promoting atomic-themed cocktails and beauty pageants.

Atomic Open House reinterprets two structures built to witness above-ground tests at the Site: the Apple-2 House, a Colonial-style home constructed to observe how a “typical American home” might withstand a nuclear explosion, and VIP viewing benches were military and government officials, press, and other invited observers watched detonations from close range. The artwork’s 33-foot-wide by 22-foot-tall building façade, modeled on the Apple-2 House, is a flat surface that looks three-dimensional only from a specific angle, like a Hollywood backlot set. Viewing benches face the façade from the perspective needed to experience the illusion, inviting visitors to occupy and participate in this carefully prescribed vantage point.

In a community where many residents still remember the nuclear tests and their impacts, Atomic Open House uses the slippage between reality and perception to invite reflection on land use, environmental risk, and the ways architecture, media, and entertainment have shaped public perceptions of nuclear arms development and military presence in the American West.

Black Cube expects to publish an Atomic Open House catalog in Spring 2027. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.

Atomic Open House is supported by VIA Art Fund, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the David & Laura Merage Foundation, University of Washington, and the WC & EJ Thornton Foundation. Special thanks to the Town of Beatty, Bob Barjam, Rent2Go, and Demiurge.

About Whitney Lynn
Whitney Lynn (b. 1980, Williams Air Force Base, Arizona) is an artist whose work examines how images, objects, and stories construct ideas of power, desire, and belief. Lynn’s work has been presented at SFMOMA, the de Young Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, among others. Her public commissions include projects for the San Diego International Airport, the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, the City of Reno Arts & Culture Commission, and Sound Transit. She has held residencies at the de Young Museum, The Neon Museum in Las Vegas, and the Internet Archive. She is Chair of the Division of Art and Associate Professor of Photo, Media, New Genres at the University of Washington.

About Black Cube
Unlike stationary museums defined by their permanent architecture, Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum roams from place to place, producing site-specific artworks in the public realm. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, our 501(c)(3) nonprofit endeavors to nurture the sustainability of today’s artists and inspire audiences across the globe to discover contemporary art beyond the confines of a gallery. Over the past decade, Black Cube has activated diverse spaces—from city plazas to historic landmarks to fields—with thought-provoking installations reimagining the relationship between art and place.