Capital City Arts Initiative

Artists’ Reception: Friday, February 11, 2011, 5 – 7pm
Exhibition Dates: February 6  – May 13, 2011
Exhibition Venue: CCAI Courthouse Gallery 885 E Musser Street, Carson City, Nevada

The Radiant City: Work by 5 Las Vegas Contemporary Artists 

The Radiant City: Work by 5 Las Vegas Contemporary Artists exhibition continues at the Carson City Courthouse through May 13, 2011. The show presents artwork by Catherine Borg, Justin Favela, Noelle C. Garcia, Emily Kennerk, Wendy Kveck. The gallery, in the Carson City Courthouse’s second floor atrium, is open to the public 9am – 5pm, Monday – Friday.

On February 11, the Capital City Arts Initiative Courthouse Gallery opens “The Radiant City,” an exhibition of work by contemporary Las Vegas artists Wendy Kveck, Emily Kennerk, Noelle Garcia, Justin Favela, and Catherine Borg.

The Radiant City, co-curated by Las Vegas cultural animator Lisa Stamanis and CCAI curator Jon Winet, borrows its show title from an affectionate nickname used by local hipsters for Las Vegas. The moniker makes a nod to both the city’s atomic past and to its glowing neon vistas. The artists’ work in the show reflect the spirit of scientific research that helped usher in the nuclear age, and the glitz and glamour that attracts over thirty-five million visitors annually to Nevada’s largest city.

Wendy Kveck’s exquisite paintings conjure up frothy confections that are a guilty pleasure and a decadent indulgence – all the while paying homage to the aesthetics of abstract painting. Deceptively simple on the surface, at their sugary core is a bright address of notions of femininity and the contested space of the female body.

Justin Favela’s Estardas, the largest work in the exhibition, most directly references Las Vegas’ signature architecture of excess, while at the same time signaling the changing social and demographic profile of the state. Estardas simultaneously evokes monuments and an unexpected, touching frailty.

Catherine Borg, with a more understated, clinical approach dissects the cityscape and its formal possibilities with a striking study of Las Vegas’ ubiquitous concrete walls that serve both as ornamental objects and the first lines of home security. In a tangentially linked suite of effortlessly elegant mixed-media drawings, Ms. Borg points to the narrative possibilities of the spaces inhabited by the city’s dwellers.

Emily Kennerk’s artistic approach more directly suggests the social. For The Radiant City, she has reworked visual elements of her exhibition America’s No. 1 Foreclosed City: Las Vegas, presented initially at the Contemporary Arts Center in 2009. Her work coolly confronts the tragic foreclosure story that far too many Las Vegans are now living.

In paintings derived from family snapshots, Noelle C. Garcia’s paintings hint at a complex domestic story. Her paintings are rendered in a technique that quotes the Palmer Paint Company’s Paint-by-Number kits that were a hobbyist’s delight in the 1950’s; Ms. Garcia manages to marshal this approach without the postmodern irony all too common in contemporary art. She invites us, sincerely, to explore the self, and the intimate relationships of couples and families.

Guest Curator Lisa Stamanis comments: “It’s noteworthy that all the artists included in the exhibition work for non-profit organizations, from the City of Las Vegas Arts Commission to the University of Nevada Las Vegas. This coincidence likely reflects our interest in presenting artists fully engaged in the life and culture of this extraordinary community.”

CCAI Curator Jon Winet adds: “The Capital City Arts Initiative is honored to produce an exhibition in northern Nevada spotlighting this exciting group of emerging Las Vegas artists. In the process, we hope to encourage greater dialog between artists in the north and south of the State.”

We extend special thanks to the Carson City Courthouse and the City of Carson City for their partnership with CCAI. Our continuing thanks to Justin for his contribution to the show and his invaluable help transporting all the work in the show from Las Vegas to Carson City.

top images: Justin Favela’s Estardas; second image: gallery reception; bottom image: exhibition flier, front