Exhibit opens at St. Mary’s Art & Retreat Center

St. Mary’s Art & Retreat Center in Virginia City and Capital City Arts Initiative will host a reception 1-4 p.m. Sunday at the art center to mark the opening of a new exhibit, which features indoor and outdoor installations of oil and watercolor paintings and portraits, photographs, sculptures, cloth stitchings and more.

The display includes Capital City Arts Initiative’s exhibition “Mark Twain’s Suicide Table Blood Bucket Ghost Bonanza Amen” by Justin Favela, who created paintings and sculptures based on Virginia City’s iconic signage and history. His colorful artworks have little in common with Nevada’s countless high-end and expensive electric casino signs.

Instead, he uses common cardboard, wire, glue, glitter, bed sheets and paint to recreate the signs listed in his show’s title. He reproduced Amen from a sign he found in St. Mary’s Catholic Church and Ghost from a Fourth Ward School sign — both in Virginia City.

The show runs through the end of August.

Other featured artists include: Zoe Bray; Justin Favela; Claire Scully; Stewart Easton; Dale Laitinen; Brandon Lacow; Megan Berner; Jared Stanley; Paula Morin and Michelle Lassaline. Emmanuel Ortega, an art history teacher at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, wrote an essay titled “Virginia City Pavilion” for the exhibition.

The reception offers a silent auction of original pieces and refreshments and wine by Core at the Cider Factory. Steven Christie will play the banjo.

The art center, located at 55 R St. in Virginia City, also offers summer workshops and classes taught by professional artists.

Nolan Preece will hold an open studio from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays starting on the first of July.

“Combat Paper and More: An Exploration in Western Hand Paper Making” will be from 10 a.m. on July 10 to 4 p.m. on July 12.

Nancy Peppin will hold open studio watercolor workshops from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month through September.

“The Threads of St. Mary’s,” an illustration and embroidery workshop by Stewart Easton, will be from 10 a.m. on July 21 to 4 p.m. on July 25.

Claire Scully will hold a creative illustration drawing workshop from 10 a.m. on July 26 to 4 p.m. on July 30.

Preece will offer an intaglio print making workshop from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 5 and Sept. 2

Michelle Lassaline will instruct a papier-mache mask-making workshop from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 13.

Eva S. Nichols will host a workshop about watercolor techniques from 9 a.m. on Sept. 20 to 5 p.m. on Sept. 21.

For more information or register for any of the workshops, go to stmarysartcenter.org.

For more about Capital City Arts Initiative, go to www.arts-initiative.org. For more about Favela, go to http://www.justinfavela.net/.