Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

CAC offers a portrait of a a fund-raiser

SUN STAFF REPORTS

Think of it as an evening of wine and poses.

At the Contemporary Arts Collective's Sunday fund-raiser, the lucky can take home a few bottles of expensive wine, while the flush can buy a relatively inexpensive portrait of themselves.

The event is tied to CAC's current exhibit, "Not Just a Pretty Face," a diverse selection of portraits by local artists. Sunday, many of those artists will auction their services as portraitists. Collective officers are touting it as the perfect offbeat Christmas present for that hard-to-shop-for.

"It's a rare opportunity to have, maybe, a ceramic artist do your portrait," says President Jim Stanford, gesturing toward a "Growing Antique in Las Vegas," a large ceramic by Monika Roer.

There will also be a raffle for three wine packages valued at around $300 each and featuring such vintages as a 1982 Gevrey Chambertin Burgundy and a 1973 Chateau d'Yquem.

Judging from the pieces in the show, there's an artist available to match almost every taste in self-imagery, however traditional or out there. Stanford himself is represented by several pieces in a light, almost whimsical graphic style. Paintings by Susan Forestieri, meanwhile, have a more textured, impressionistic feel.

Then there's Diane Butner, who tucked an old photo into a wood and found-object assemblage for her contribution, "Portrait." In Tony Hugo's "Untitled Portrait," vaguely human features rise from the brutally applied paint. Tom Holder montaged photo and drawn elements into "Many Moods, One Master," a homage to Picasso.

Other notable pieces in the exhibit: "James Pink's "Caus Ti-gers Play Too Rough," a dark image of Elvis and a floating teddy bear; Mary Warner's lush "Claire"; Merrilee Hortt's witty "Do-It-Yourself Portrait," drawings with holes where the faces should be.

Some of the pieces in the show will also be available for people who don't want their art to reflect them quite so much.

Tickets for the fund-raiser are $30, with 25 percent of each purchase going to the artist, the rest to support the organization. There will be minimum bids for custom portraits, starting at about $150 and going up, depending on the medium the artist uses.

The exhibit will be previewed through Saturday; call 382-3886.

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