NVN Big Deal 2024

The Capital City Art Initiative’s Nevada Neighbors series of public talks includes interviews with artists in their studios or a gallery setting. CCAI presents Stephen Reid talking with artist Joan Arrizabalaga about her work in the Bristlecone Gallery exhibition, Big Deal.
The Capital City Arts Initiative’s exhibit is in Western Nevada College’s Bristlecone Gallery, 2201 W College Parkway, Carson City. The show is up through September 12; the gallery is open to the public, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Arrizabalaga said, “My present work is concerned with games and gambling. I am interested in how people are involved with temptation, risk, and winning. Using certain symbols, talismans, and behaviors to realize our expectations fascinates to me. This activity is present in everyday life and seems to go well beyond the more straightforward casino world. Everything can be a gamble and I see the use of the magical world to gain success, help us win, or keep us safe. I also like all the mechanisms and paraphernalia concerned with gambling.
“ ’The roll of the dice’, ‘easy money’, ‘the luck of the draw’, ‘manna from Heaven’, and ‘dealer’s choice’ are all expressions that I use as metaphors in my art. I like the familiar faces of the playing cards for my characters because they are subconsciously recognizable even out of context. The Joker is very important. He has many parallels, like the trickster in Native American lore.
“I work with all kinds of materials depending on where the piece is leading me. I will start in a certain way and then allow the piece to evolve. Often it has a life of its own. I like to use classical references in unexpected and humorous ways and to juxtapose the old with the new. My homage to the Old Masters comes in part from their knowledge of what God looks like. Myths of all kinds, western and historical references, and personal experiences all blend together in my fascination for what we worship, our superstitions, and the search for luck.”
Joan Arrizabalaga has been creating and showing her art for over four decades. Arrizabalaga creates both sculptural pieces and flat work using clay, wood, metal, fabric, machine and hand embroidery, and found objects. Known for artwork about Nevada and the Casinos, she also makes use of common gaming materials such as felt, dice, and cards.
Arrizabalaga has participated in many group and one-person exhibitions at the regional and national levels, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. She is a graduate of the University of Nevada, and studied with Marguerite Wildenhain at Pond Farm Pottery, Guerneville, California. Living in London, England, for 3 years in the 1970s, she was much inspired by the life and times, glitter, glitz, and art of the British Rock and Roll world. As wardrobe mistress and dresser to the stars at Harrah’s Reno, Arrizabalaga got a closer view of the classic casino finding a great source for ideas. Her art can be seen in numerous private, corporate, and public collections.
Stephen Reid is a visual artist whose work has been shown nationally and in Japan. His paintings reside in the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical College as well as several private collections. He earned a MFA in 2006 from the University of Massachusetts and a BFA in 2001 from the Virginia Commonwealth University. He has taught as an adjunct instructor at Keene College in Keene, New Hampshire, and at Western Nevada College in Carson City. Reid has been the Artist Services Specialist with the Nevada Arts Council since 2017 where he manages the exhibition installations for the agency’s visual arts programs: the Nevada Touring Initiative-Traveling Exhibition and LXS-Legislative exhibition Series. He lives in Dayton, Nevada, with his family.
CCAI is an artist-centered nonprofit 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 Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, Carson City Cultural Commission, Kaplan Family Charitable Fund, Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation, Steele & Associates LLC, and CCAI sponsors and members.