Paula Chung reception at Courthouse Gallery in Carson City Feb. 7

The Capital City Arts Initiative presents its exhibition, “Impact,” by artist Paula Chung at the CCAI Courthouse Gallery. The Initiative will host an opening reception from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Feb. 7; the artist will give a brief talk about her work at 5:30 p.m. The exhibition will be in the gallery from Feb. 7 through May 28.

The courthouse is located at 885 E. Musser St. The reception and the exhibition are free and the public is cordially invited. The gallery is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Paula Chung’s “Impact” works address violence on sports fields, battlefields and the streets. Through the use of medical imagery, she illustrates how violence affects us all.

Chung bases her work on enlarged MRI medical scans for their beauty and universality. She searches for images on the Internet or receives them from friends and acquaintances; she then converts and manipulates the images using Photoshop. After transferring and enlarging the MRIs onto a water-dissolvable film, she uses multiple-colored threads to machine embroider and create the desired values and hues. She sews on different substrates including used tea bag papers, mulberry and rice papers to convey a sense of fragility and impermanence. The enlarged pieces invite the viewer to become a part of the experience. Photographs of her work are available at http://paulachung.com.

Chung lives in Zephyr Cove, where she gardens and maintains her art practice. Originally from Southern California, she moved to Lake Tahoe upon retiring from public school teaching. She began taking art classes at Lake Tahoe Community College, where she began her studio career as a quilter, creating large silk abstract florals. Continuing her work with fibers, she experiments with different substrates, techniques, and now emphasizes social issues.

In addition to her talk at the opening reception, Chung will participate in the Initiative’s Nevada Neighbors series of public art talks with Phyllis Shafer and will give two school talks about her work for art students and faculty at one of CCAI’s partner rural high schools and at Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village.

Chris Lanier, professor of digital art at Sierra Nevada College, will write the exhibition essay, which will be published as a gallery handout and archived online. Working in digital animation, Web production and comics, Lanier enjoys producing hybrid forms. His animations have screened at Sundance, and he won the Grand Prize for Internet Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. His art criticism essays have appeared in numerous online and print publications, including the Believer, Comics Journal, HiLobrow, Furtherfield, Rhizome and the San Francisco Chronicle.

A Western Nevada College Latino Cohort student provided a Spanish language translation of the exhibition’s wall text.

CCAI is an artist-centered, not-for-profit organization committed to community engagement in contemporary visual arts through exhibitions, arts education programs, artist residencies, and online activities.

The Initiative is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, John and Grace Nauman Foundation, Carson City Cultural Commission, Nevada Arts Council, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation, U.S. Bank Foundation and its sponsors and members.

For information, visit CCAI’s website at www.ccainv.org.