Gig Depio: Americana with Cadmium Orange
The Capital City Arts Initiative [CCAI] presents its exhibition, Americana with Cadmium Orange, by artist Gig Depio at the CCAI Courthouse Gallery. CCAI will host an opening reception on Friday, October 5, 5-7pm. The exhibition will be in the gallery from October 5, 2018 — January 31, 2019.
The Courthouse is located at 885 E Musser Street, Carson City. The reception and the exhibition are free and the public is cordially invited. The gallery is open Monday – Friday, 8am – 5pm.
In an interview for this exhibition, Americana, Depio described his approach for this series of paintings: “I was initially painting pictures of popular historic towns and landscapes of Nevada. This idea was partly inspired by the research I was doing for the 40-foot wide Moapa Valley Mural commissioned by the Clark County Public Arts Program. I had come across a culturally dense 600-page book, “Muddy Valley Reflections: 145 Years of Settlement” by Beezy Tobiasson, who had compiled historical and anecdotal vignettes that captured a richer image of how the early settlers of Nevada had lived. The book was about how its people persevered in spite of their obstacles and harsh environment, and their settlement eventually grew into an important town of the region in the 19th and early 20th century. As the ideas and sketches progressed, I realized that I had to rethink the scope of Americana — that I had to extend the lessons of an inherited past to its relevance to contemporary American life as we experience it today.”
Depio will give a talk about his art practice to Carson High School students in October.
Depio is an artist and an advocate for public art in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was awarded the 2016 Fellowship Grant in Painting by the Nevada Arts Council (NAC). He has worked on various exhibitions and projects with the Nevada Museum of Art, Nevada Arts Council’s OXS Gallery, and UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum, among others. Depio graduated from Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. He lives in Las Vegas with his family.
Josie Glassberg wrote the exhibition essay for Americana with Cadmium Orange. She is a freelance writer, teacher, and Midwest transplant living in Reno. She attended St. Olaf College for printmaking and enjoys writing about outsider art, earthworks, and The West. In her free time, she practices permaculture and hangs out with her 6-year-old.
This exhibition is supported by a donation from the Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation.
The Capital City Arts Initiative 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 online projects.
The Capital City Arts Initiative [CCAI] is funded in part the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, John and Grace Nauman Foundation, Carson City Cultural Commission, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, U.S. Bank Foundation, and Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation.