Capital City Arts Initiative

Exhibition Dates: July 11 – November 10, 2016
Artist’s Reception: Friday, September 9, 5-7pm
Exhibition Venue: Sierra Room, Carson City Community Center 851 E. William Street, Carson City, Nevada Open to the public Fridays, noon – 5pm, and during all City public meetings

Silver State Swimmer 
Exhibition in the Sierra Room

The Capital City Arts Initiative announces its exhibition, Silver State Swimmer, with artwork by Michael Malley at the city’s Sierra Room located in the Community Center, 851 E William Street, Carson City. There will be a public reception for the artist on Friday, September 9, 5-7pm in the Sierra Room with a brief artist talk at 5:30pm. The free exhibition is available to the public from July 11 – November 10, 2016.

The wilderness, and the Sierra in particular, has always been a paramount source of inspiration for Malley as an artist. Using the Lahontan cutthroat trout as a muse, he focused his sculptures and drawings on this iconic and threatened species.

For Malley, the Lahontan cutthroat trout, Nevada’s State Fish, represents the wilderness and the resources that Westerners treasure. This freshwater native lives land-locked in the driest state in the union. Honoring heroes is an ancient role for an artist. Malley feels that often our heroes are human, sometimes they are other spirits, which he honors through his art.

Malley illustrates this reverence through his drawings, paintings, and sculptures. He uses graphite, ink, gouache, and oils to create his drawings and paintings, and uses woodwork, ceramics, leather, and oxidized copper to build his sculptures.

Malley has taught Art at Carson High School since 2006. In 2000, he earned a B.A. in Art/Painting from the University of Nevada, Reno, and earned a teaching credential from Sierra Nevada College in 2006. His show, Fifty-Seven Saints, with historically-based mixed media pieces, was in UNR’s McNamara Gallery in 2000. Malley lives in Gardnerville, Nevada.

Previously, Malley studied Illustration at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, and did special effects work for Disney Animation on feature films The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Hercules, 1996-1997.

During his active military service [1986 – 1990] and reserve service and activated reserve deployments [1994-2010] with the U.S. Navy, Malley served as a Draftsman/ Illustrator for the Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Fleet and worked with the Public Affairs Officer in Philadelphia. Locally, he has worked as a portrait and sketch artist in Lake Tahoe on the M.S. Dixie, Tahoe Queen.

The Sierra Room is open to the public every Friday, noon – 5pm; during all Carson City official public meetings, including every first and third Thursday, 8am – 5pm; and most weeknights Monday – Thursday, 5pm – 8pm. For additional Sierra Room access, call 775.283.7421 or check meeting schedules online at www.carson.org/government/meetings-and-events

Enjoy photos of the Silver State Swimmer exhibition project at http://www.arts-initiative.org/photo-gallery/malley-silver-state-swimmer-2/

CCAI 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 its online projects.

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

top image: Mike Malley in his Carson High classroom, 2015
center image: Mike Malley in his barn studio, 2016
bottom image: Silver State Swimmer flier, summer 2016