Capital City Arts Initiative

Exhibition Dates: July 1 – September 24, 2020
Reception: TBA, if health concerns allow
Exhibition Venue: CCAI Courthouse Gallery
885 E Musser Street, Carson City, Nevada

H₂O 2020
Exhibition at CCAI Courthouse Gallery

The Capital City Arts Initiative presents its exhibition, H₂O 2020, with work by eight Great Basin artists in the CCAI Courthouse Gallery: Cyndy Brenneman, Vanessa Martinez, Nolan Preece, Nancy Raven, Craig Sheppard, Dylan Silver, Cathryne Trachok, and Candida Webb. The exhibition will be in the gallery from July 1 – September 24, 2020. For a virtual exhibition tour with optional closed captioning, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLjIPto1Eco

The Courthouse is located at 885 E Musser Street, Carson City. The public is cordially invited to the second-floor gallery which is open Monday – Friday, 8am – 5pm. A reception will be scheduled if health concerns allow.

All of the artists’ work is focused on the theme of water, selected as an appropriate and cooling theme for Carson City’s hot and dry summer days.

Cyndy Brenneman’s watercolor scenes from her international travels inspire each of us as we wait out the pandemic at home.

Three still-life photographs from Vanessa Martinez’s Perspective series show the ways water can manipulate our vision.

Nolan Preece’s chemigrams produce intriguing levels of abstraction through his use of photographic chemicals, acrylic paints, and intuition. http://www.nolanpreece.com/

Lost Soles, the installation by Nancy Raven, combines found single shoes left behind on a central California beach with photographs and prints recording their lonely existence. https://www.lizardsrockmusic.com/

The late Craig Sheppard (1913 – 1978), a former chair of UNR’s Art Department, spent a sabbatical painting in France giving us A Bridge in Paris. http://www.onlinenevada.org/articles/craig-sheppard

With images from his Tahoe Clarity series, Dylan Silver combines his loves of photography and scuba diving to present a diver’s diverse views of Lake Tahoe. http://www.tahoeclarity.com/

Cathryne Trachok values collaborating with the viewers who see her paintings. In this piece, she collaborated with artist Marti Bein on the composition to give us another view of water. http://catrachokstudios.com/

Candida Webb dedicates her strong color sense to teasing vibrant hues out of her landscapes and onto her canvases. She paints serene locations as an expressionist to offer fresh views of remote areas of the west. http://www.candidawebb.com/

Carlos Ramirez, a Western Nevada College student, provided the Spanish translation of this text for the gallery handout.

CCAI is an artist-centered not-for-profit organization committed to community engagement in contemporary visual arts through exhibitions, arts education programs, artist residencies, and online activities.

The Initiative is funded by the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, John and Grace Nauman Foundation, Carson City Cultural Commission, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, Kaplan Family Charitable Fund, U.S. Bank Foundation, NV Energy Corporation, Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation, Steele & Associates LLC, and its sponsors and members.

Funding to support CCAI has been provided by Nevada Humanities through Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the CARES Act economic stabilization plan of 2020. 

top image, right: Candida Webb, Juxtaposition [Virginia Lakes Basin]; oil on canvas, 2019
2nd image, left: Cathryne Trachok, Nevada Waters: Ode to Frida,  oil on canvas, 2011
bottom image: H₂O 2020 exhibition flier