'Face to Face: Contemporary Portraits' exhibition featured at Carson City's Courthouse Gallery
Submitted by Carson Now Reader on Mon, 11/01/2021 - 9:50am
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Repeats every week until Thu Feb 10 2022 .
November 1, 2021 - 10:00am
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November 8, 2021 - 10:00am
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November 15, 2021 - 10:00am
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November 22, 2021 - 10:00am
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November 29, 2021 - 10:00am
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December 6, 2021 - 10:00am
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December 13, 2021 - 10:00am
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December 20, 2021 - 10:00am
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December 27, 2021 - 10:00am
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January 3, 2022 - 10:00am
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January 10, 2022 - 10:00am
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January 17, 2022 - 10:00am
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January 24, 2022 - 10:00am
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January 31, 2022 - 10:00am
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February 7, 2022 - 10:00am The "Face to Face: Contemporary Portraits" exhibition presents Zoe Bray’s formal portraits and smaller intimate works of family and friends from her personal collection. The Capital City Arts Initiative presents Bray’s exhibition at the Courthouse Gallery now through Feb. 10, 2022.
The Courthouse is located at 885 E Musser Street, Carson City. The gallery is open Monday through Friday, 8a.m. to 5 p.m. CCAI will host a reception for the artist on Friday, Nov. 5, 5 to 6:30 p.m., with the artist introduction at 5:30 p.m.
Bray said, “My art focuses on traditional portraiture, illustration, and working with upcycled and natural materials. I combine fine art with ethnographic inquiry to address issues of contemporary life, including identity and human-nature relations. I am passionate about the nexus of art, society, and the natural environment. I use art and teaching to build bridges between diverse cultural communities, and to create an awareness for the environment and its conservation needs.
“My practice focuses on painting and drawing from life, using the traditional techniques of fine art. I specialize in naturalist portraiture and illustration. I produce life-size portraits of people, created in collaboration with them, over long periods of time. They provide the opportunity to gain a deep personal understanding of the person portrayed, and thereby transmit unique life stories. This time spent together, the person posing and me painting or drawing them, are a fundamental part of the creation of the artwork as they embody our collaboration and our place in time and space.
“For the past years, one of my major projects has been to paint the portraits of Nevada's diverse inhabitants. I focused most recently on the Basque Nevadan community, and have produced thus far over 15 portraits of local individuals. These have been exhibited as a touring show in Nevada and parts of the American West, that then went to the Basque Country of France and Spain in 2019. They made it back this summer to Nevada, and a selection of these are in this exhibition.”
Bray trained as a painter at the Charles Cecil Studio and the Florence Academy of Art [Italy], and briefly with internationally known painters Antonio Lopez Garcia and Guillermo Munoz Vera [Spain]. Her art is included in public and private collections in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and the US.
She earned a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence [Italy] in Social and Political Sciences and an MA from the University of Edinburgh [UK] in Social Anthropology. Bray came from the Basque Country to Nevada in 2011 and from 2011 to 2015, she was Assistant Professor at University of Nevada, Reno’s Center for Basque Studies. She now maintains a full-time studio practice in Reno with her family.
Dr. Pierette Kulpa wrote the essay for Bray’s exhibition. Kulpa has published on the reception and appropriation of the Renaissance under fascism and investigates the history of Michelangelo’s legacy in the centuries after his death. She received her doctorate in art history from the Pennsylvania State University and her master’s degree from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. She teaches art history at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania.
Carlos Ramirez, a Western Nevada College Latino Leadership Academy student, provided a Spanish language translation of the show’s wall text.
CCAI 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 and Grace Nauman Foundation, Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Kaplan Family Charitable Fund, U.S. Bank Foundation, 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 at www.ccainv.org.
