New Crop 2016

The Capital City Arts Initiative [CCAI] announces its exhibition, New Crop 2016, by five artists from Sierra Nevada College and the University of Nevada Reno at the CCAI Courthouse Gallery. CCAI will host a reception for the artists on Friday, June 3, 5-7pm and the artists will give brief talks about their work at 5:30pm. The show will be open to the public Monday – Friday, 8am -5pm from June 3 – September 29, 2016. The Courthouse is located at 885 E Musser Street, Carson City. The reception and the exhibition are free.

The artists in the exhibition are Tom Drakulich, Mahsan Ghazianzad, Quynh Tran, DePaul Vera, and Kelly Wallis, all five Master of Fine Arts [MFA] candidates.

Tom Drakulich is a multimedia artist, primarily devoted to ceramic sculpture, but also is involved in painting and photography. Deeply influenced by Nevada’s landscape, Tom’s large ceramic sculptures navigate the space between abstraction and representation. A Reno native, Tom received a BA in Criminal Justice from UNR, and will complete his MFA from UNR in May 2017.

Mahsan Ghazianzad paints to capture the essence of her personal experiences in her abstract compositions. She earned her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts at the Sooreh Art University in Tehran, Iran, and emigrated to the US five years ago. She received her MFA degree at UNR this May. Mahsan has participated in numerous exhibitions in Iran, Canada, and the United States including the National Law Immigration Center, Los Angeles, California, and the Women’s Muse World Conference, Bend, Oregon.

Quynh Tran’s colorful and bold prints, reflecting traditional scrolls, are presented as sculptural forms. She was born in Hanoi, Vietnam, and came to the U.S. for her undergraduate study. She earned her BFA in Printmaking & BA in Advertising from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. Currently, Tran is pursuing her MFA in Studio Arts–Concentration in Printmaking & Book Arts at UNR. Her work has been exhibited nationally.

DePaul Vera is a graphic artist and designer pursuing his MFA degree at UNR. His present work consists of comic-like pop art illustrations. In the exhibition, he presents hyper-saturated pop art portraits of the five artists in the show. He received a BFA in Drawing from Murray State University in western Kentucky, 2014. As a freelance artist, he is available for photographing weddings, engagement photos, family portraits. depaulvera.com

Kelly Wallis creates paper collage “security blankets” by transforming #10 security envelopes into quilt-like blankets. She disassembles and crumples the envelopes until soft, then glues and forms them into a blanket making a comment on current obsessions with privacy. Kelly earned a BA degree in Journalism with an emphasis in advertising at UNR. She is currently the workshop manager at Atelier Truckee and a MFA candidate at Sierra Nevada College.

CCAI commissioned Kris Vagner to write the exhibition essay for New Crop 2016. She has written over 400 articles and essays for the Reno News & Review, East Bay Express, Las Vegas Weekly, SF Weekly, San Francisco Examiner, Salt Lake Weekly, Chicago Sun Times, Ceramics Monthly, and others. She also runs her own Double Scoop Art Blog and teaches journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. She believes that art deserves to be thought about in depth and accessible to a wide audience. 

During the exhibition, the artists will give talks about their artwork to students at area high schools in fall semester.

New Crop 2016 is supported by a lead donation from the NV Energy Foundation.

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 activities.

CCAI is funded in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Nevada Arts Council, City of Carson City, U.S. Bank Foundation, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the John and Grace Nauman Foundation.

For additional information, please visit CCAI’s website at www.arts-initiative.org.