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 through Feb. 10. The Courthouse is located at 885 E. Musser St. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CCAI will host a reception for the artist from 5-6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5; artist introduction at 5:30 p.m. “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,” Bray said. 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 U.S. She earned a Ph.D. from the European University Institute in Florence in Social and Political Sciences and an MA from the University of Edinburgh 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. 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 information, visit CCAI’s website at www.ccainv.org.
