Capital City Arts Initiative 'Mimic' exhibition featured at Carson City WNC campus gallery
The Capital City Arts Initiative presents its exhibition, "Mimic," by artist Ahren Hertel at Western Nevada College’s Bristlecone Gallery at 2201 W College Parkway, Carson City. The exhibition will be in the gallery from now through April 23, 2021.
The gallery is open to the public, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.l to 7 p.m. Due to public health concerns, there will not be an artist’s reception. A virtual tour of the exhibition will come online soon.
Through his paintings, Hertel focuses on both portraiture and landscape, and in this exhibition he creatively blends the two. He said, “Landscape is a participant in forming our identity and setting the stage for our relationship with nature. A bond strong enough to compel us to shroud ourselves in a representation of that place. Our cities in the west are islands surrounded by an ocean of terrain, a great expanse, a distant horizon on a sea of sagebrush. I’m interested in that space. How we see the land, how we remember a place and how we show reverence to something that is so much a part of us.”
Hertel’s father was an exploration geologist and moved the family between Chile, Bolivia, and Reno, Nevada, while his son was growing up. Hertel attended the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, where he received his BFA in Illustration in 2002. He later received his MFA from the University of Nevada, Reno, in 2009. Interested largely in environmental issues, his work consists of both landscape and figurative work. He has displayed his paintings in solo and group exhibitions across the United States, including “Tilting the Basin” at the Nevada Museum of Art and “Match” at Oats Park Art Center in Fallon, NV. He received the Nevada Arts Council 2012 Visual Arts Fellowship Grant, among other awards. Currently he is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Nevada, Reno, and a working artist.
Western Nevada College is a component of the Nevada System of Higher Education with campuses in Carson City, Douglas County, and Fallon. The Capital City Arts Initiative is an artist-centered not-for-profit organization committed to community engagement in contemporary visual arts through exhibitions, illustrated talks, arts education programs, artist residencies, and online activities.
The Initiative is funded by the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, John and Grace Nauman Foundation, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Carson City Cultural Commission, Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, Kaplan Family Charitable Fund, U.S. Bank Foundation, RISE, Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation, Steele & Associates LLC, and CCAI sponsors and members.
The Governor’s Office of Economic Development provided additional support through its Nevada Pandemic Emergency Technical Support Grant for 2021.
For additional information, please visit CCAI’s website here.