Member Art Galleries
Exhibit at the Court House
CCAI Courthouse Gallery
Visual Oasis: Works from Creative Growth
Exhibition at CCAI Courthouse Gallery
Reception: Friday, June 1,
5 – 7pm
Exhibition: June 1 – September 27, 2018
at the CCAI Courthouse Gallery
885 E Musser Street, Carson City, Nevada
The Capital City Arts Initiative [CCAI] presents its group show, Visual Oasis: Works from Creative Growth, at the CCAI Courthouse Gallery. CCAI will host an opening reception on Friday, June 1, 5-7pm. The exhibition with art by 17 artists will be in the gallery from June 1 – September 27, 2018.
The Courthouse is located at 885 E Musser Street, Carson City. The reception and the exhibition are free and the public is cordially invited. The gallery is open Monday – Friday, 8am – 5pm.
Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, CA, describes itself as “the oldest and largest nonprofit art center for adults with developmental, mental, and physical disabilities. Since 1974, Creative Growth has played a significant role in increasing public interest in the artistic capabilities and achievements of people with disabilities, providing a professional studio environment for artistic development, gallery exhibitions and representation, and a social atmosphere among peers.” Learn more about CGAC at www.creativegrowth.org/
CGAC’s large multi-room studio serves over 140 client artists weekly with instruction by professional artists in fiber arts, sculpture, painting, ceramics, printmaking, drawing, photography, and video animation. The Center’s gallery presents eight group shows annually making the prolific artists’ work available to the public year-round. CGAC continues to contract with Target stores for product design.
Visual Oasis: Works from Creative Growth includes mixed media and 3-D art by: Jo Beal, Susan Glikbarg, Cedric Johnson, John Martin, Paulino Martin, Donald Mitchell, Julie Swartout, Christine Szeto, and Ed Walters. Mixed media and 2-D works include pieces by Marion Bolton, Kerry Daminanakes, Joseph Fagnani, Franna Lusson, Miguel Palacios, Tony Pedemonte, Ruth Stafford, and Merritt Wallace. Three of these artists’ bios follow.
Kerry Daminanakes’ uses pastel on paper to create her energetic, expressionistic, and
compelling drawings of food with accompanying text/recipes. Her work has been shown widely in the Bay Area and in Korea. In 2014, she was the recipient of the Wynn Newhouse Award, a grant awarded by the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation to artists of excellence that happen to have disabilities.
Merritt Wallace’s shares his vision of busy and crowded city life with his imaginative urban maps including numbers, arrows, coffee monsters, and more. Merritt’s drawings served as inspiration for fashion designer Erica Tanov’s 2013 Spring/Summer collection of clothing and home goods. His art has been exhibited internationally in New York, Berlin, Paris, and Korea.
Tony Pedemonte works with wooden armatures or repurposed items like bicycle wheels, wrapping with one spool of thread after another until the structural frame is nearly concealed. Distinguished by their smooth texture, a monochromatic palette, and geometrically-driven configurations, Pedemonte’s sculptures exude a presence that is both tactile and enigmatic. His work has been shown in San Francisco, New York, Miami, and Paris.
Essay writers Andreana Donahue and Tim Ortiz are co-founders of Disparate Minds , an interdisciplinary project dedicated to increasing visibility and discussing the work of marginalized self-taught artists. They are co-authors of the multiple essays discussing work by people with disabilities published at their site, disparateminds.org. Through their research, writing, lectures, and curatorial projects, Donahue and Ortiz share their insights informed by extensive experience in this field as practicing artists, artist facilitators, and dedicated disability rights advocates.
Donahue was awarded a Fellowship in Visual Art from the Nevada Arts Council in 2018. She shows her art nationally and lives in Las Vegas. Ortiz works as a home/community-based personal care provider for adults with developmental disabilities; he exhibits his art nationally and lives in Grinnell, Iowa.
This exhibition is supported by lead donations from Carson Miller and from Nancy Raven.
The Capital City Arts Initiative is an artist-centered organization committed to the encouragement and support of artists and the arts and culture of Carson City and the surrounding region. The Initiative is committed to community building for the area’s diverse adult and youth populations through art projects and exhibitions, live events, arts education programs, artist residencies, and online projects.
CCAI is funded in part by the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, National Endowment for the Arts, Nevada Arts Council, Carson City Cultural Commission, NV Energy Foundation, U.S. Bank Foundation, Nevada Humanities and National Endowment for the Humanities, and John and Grace Nauman Foundation.
top image: Kerry Damianakes, “Cream of Tomato Soup for Lunch”, pastel on paper, 15″x22″, 2012
bottom image: exhibition flier
Jenny Raven: The Creative Growth Years 1979 – 1984
Exhibition at the Sierra Room
Reception: Friday, August 17, 5 – 7pm
Exhibition: July 2 – October 18, 2018
at the Sierra Room, Community Center
851 E William Street, Carson City, Nevada
Jenny Raven: The Creative Growth Years
Exhibition at the Sierra Room
Reception: Friday, August 17, 5 – 7pm
Exhibition: July 2 – October 18, 2018
at the CCAI Courthouse Gallery
885 E Musser Street, Carson City, Nevada
The Capital City Arts Initiative [CCAI] presents its exhibition, Jenny Raven: The Creative Growth Years 1979 – 1984 with artwork by artist Jenny Raven in the city’s Community Center Sierra Room, 851 E William Street, Carson City. The exhibition is available to the public from July 2 – October 18, 2018. CCAI will host an exhibition reception on Friday, August 17, 5-7pm in the Sierra Room.
Jenny Raven lived in San Diego, California, until the middle 70s. Following surgery for a brain tumor that left her disabled with limited short-term memory, her family moved to Berkeley, California. There she was able to access purpose and artistic guidance at Creative Growth Art Center. Raven worked in a variety of media, but she preferred drawing with pen and ink. During the last five years of her life, she thrived as an artist at CGAC.
CCAI is proud to show Raven’s work — with thanks to Nancy Raven, her mother, who resides in Minden, Nevada. Raven’s exhibition is a companion show to Visual Oasis: Works from Creative Growth, a survey of art in the CCAI Courthouse Gallery.
The Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, CA, describes itself as “the oldest and largest nonprofit art center for adults with developmental, mental, and physical disabilities. Since 1974, Creative Growth has played a significant role in increasing public interest in the artistic capabilities and achievements of people with disabilities, providing a professional studio environment for artistic development, gallery exhibitions and representation, and a social atmosphere among peers.” Learn more about CGAC at www.creativegrowth.org/
CGAC’s large multi-room studio serves over 140 client artists weekly with instruction by professional artists in fiber arts, sculpture, painting, ceramics, printmaking, drawing, photography, and video animation. The Center’s gallery presents eight group shows annually making the prolific artists’ work available to the public year-round. CGAC continues to contract with Target stores for product design.
Essay writers Andreana Donahue and Tim Ortiz are co-founders of Disparate Minds, an interdisciplinary project dedicated to increasing visibility and discussing the work of marginalized self-taught artists. They are co-authors of the multiple essays discussing work by people with disabilities published at their site, disparateminds.org. Through their research, writing, lectures, and curatorial projects, Donahue and Ortiz share their insights informed by extensive experience in this field as practicing artists, artist facilitators, and dedicated disability rights advocates.
Donahue was awarded a Fellowship in Visual Art from the Nevada Arts Council in 2018. She shows her art nationally and lives in Las Vegas. Ortiz works as a home/community-based personal care provider for adults with developmental disabilities; he exhibits his art nationally and lives in Iowa.
The Sierra Room is open to the public during Carson City official meetings including the first/third Thursdays, 8am – 5pm, and many weeknights Monday – Thursday, 5pm – 8pm. For Sierra Room access, call 775.283.7421 or check meeting schedules online at www.carson.org/government/meetings-and-events
This exhibition is supported by lead donations from Carson Miller and from Nancy Raven.
The Capital City Arts Initiative is an artist-centered organization committed to the encouragement and support of artists and the arts and culture of Carson City and the surrounding region. The Initiative is committed to community building for the area’s diverse adult and youth populations through art projects and exhibitions, live events, arts education programs, artist residencies, and online projects.
CCAI is funded in part by the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, National Endowment for the Arts, Nevada Arts Council, Carson City Cultural Commission, NV Energy Foundation, U.S. Bank Foundation, Nevada Humanities and National Endowment for the Humanities, and John and Grace Nauman Foundation.
image: exhibition flier
Reception: Friday, September 7, 5-7pm
at the Community Development Building [the Brick]
108 E Proctor Street, Carson City, Nevada
The Wind Calls
CCAI Student Art Exhibition at the Brick
The Capital City Arts Initiative announces its exhibition,
The Wind Calls,
at the Community
The Wind Calls includes work by Mahedi Anjuman, Nicki Bracco, Mark Combs, Teal Francis, Hannah Huntley, Gwaylon Leaf, Frances Melhop, Ally Messer, and Carla Miller. The artists used a wide variety of art media including mixed media, ceramics, sculpture, painting, printmaking, and photography to make their art and comments on contemporary life and society.
Frances Melhop made large-format color photographic “portraits” of three aging residences/structures as part of her
The Comstock Portrait Project
. Carla Miller’s
Little Adults
painting presents two children faced with adult concerns when they should be care-free and playing. Damaged motor vehicle body parts serve as stand-ins for the human body and reflect in ongoing healing processes in Mark Combs’ sculptures; his work refers to his twenty-two years of active duty with the Air Force Medical Corp. Nicki Bracco’s delicate ceramic sculpture uses
Gwaylon Leaf’s large abstract paintings use light and color to reveal the theme of constant change. Teal Francis uses animals as stand-in for humans to challenge how we think about the influence of social norms in our everyday lives. Hannah Huntley’s etchings explore the relationships between expectations of female beauty and the media and how these impact personal self-worth. In Pieces , a small etching by Ally Messer, combines both humor and pain in its image. Mahedi Anjuman’s work is a metaphor for how contemporary society can suffocative individual expression.
This show is another in CCAI’s ongoing series of student exhibitions in the Brick.
The Capital City Arts Initiative is an artist-centered organization committed to the encouragement and support of artists and the arts and culture of Carson City and the surrounding region. The Initiative is committed to community building for the area’s diverse adult and youth populations through art projects and exhibitions, live events, arts education programs, artist residencies, and its online projects.
The Capital City Arts Initiative [CCAI] is funded in part by the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, John and Grace Nauman Foundation, Carson City Cultural Commission, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, U.S. Bank Foundation, and Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation.
top image: Nicki Bracco,
On the Backs of Giants
;
ceramic, wax, line; 2018
second image: Mark Combs,
Orthopedic Consult,
3′ x 6′ x 12′; recycled car fender, steel rod, stainless steel cable, steel brackets, hardware; 2017
bottom image: exhibition flier
Nevada Artists Association Gallery
Brewery Arts Center
Regular Members Show
New Years Show runs from January 14-February 16
Winter Show Runs from February 18-March 30
Spring Has Sprung show runs from April 1-May 4
Landscape Show runs from May 6-June 15
Photography Show runs in July
Autumn Show runs in August
Nevada Day Show runs in September-October-November
The NAA gallery is located at Carson City’s Brewery Arts Center complex. The Gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free and all art is for sale. Go to www.nevadaartists.org for more.
Nevada Arts Council OS X Gallery
MOUNTAIN PICASSOS: Basque Arborglyphs of the Great Basin
July 30—Sept 7, 2018
Reception & Talk: Tuesday, August 28, 2018, 5:30 to 7:30 PM, Artist Talk @ 6:15 PM
Sponsored by Smith’s Food & Drug Stores, Inc.
Basque tree carvings, or “arborglyphs,” have long been of interest to historians, Basque scholars, foresters, and hikers. These carvings have been extensively documented in Nevada and California with photographs and through cultural asset mapping.
For more than half a century, Jean and Phillip Earl of Reno used clues from old maps, letters, and books to hunt for and document “Mountain Picassos,” distinctive figures carved into aspen trees found in the high country meadows of the Great Basin. These figures, along with names, dates, and sayings, were carved by Basque sheepherders in the early to mid- 20th century. Jean Earl evolved a unique method of preserving the carvings using canvas and artists’ wax to create rubbings, two dimensional representations of the carvings that are works of art themselves, eventually assembling over 130 wax-on-muslin rubbings made directly from the carvings. Mountain Picassos explores the unexpected intersection of art, culture, and nature.
This exhibit comprises 26 of these rubbings— along with text panels, contextual photographs, and streaming video. It provides a rare opportunity to see some of the intimate personal images inscribed by Basque sheepherders in the aspen groves of the Great Basin during the first half of the 20th century.
This exhibit was curated by Sheryln HayesZorn (Nevada Historical Society) and Patricia A. Atkinson (Nevada Arts Council Folklife Program), in consultation with the UNR Center for Basque Studies and Jean and Phillip Earl. MOUNTAIN PICASSOS: Basque Arborglyphs of the Great Basin is part of the Nevada Touring Initiative–Traveling Exhibition Program. It was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Nevada State Legislature. The Nevada Arts Council is a division of the Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs.
EXHIBIT PHOTOS
Western Nevada College Art Galleries
The arts are alive at Western Nevada College! Numerous art galleries feature a variety of works at Western Nevada College Carson City campus. Three exhibition spaces are located in the Bristlecone Building, featuring a continually rotating series of shows. The Main Gallery features paintings, sculptures, and other art works. The College Gallery is located on the main floor of the Bristlecone Building and features student and other art works. The Atrium gallery offers a brightly lit open space for art. Additional student galleries include the Harold LaVigne Art Wall in the Aspen Building, and an art wall in the Dini Student Center. All galleries are open to the public with free admission.
Coming Soon
