FreyBoy Art Salon’s inaugural show features British-born photographer Cig Harvey
Near the end of January, FreyBoy Art Salon, (also known as FAS44), celebrated its grand opening in Las Vegas. The curated space presents “Stories,” which features the “Blue Violet” collection by English photographer Cig Harvey.
Local art collector and founder of FAS44, Michael Frey and featured artist, Cig Harvey, warmly greeted guests. Attendees sipped on wine while exploring the 1,300 square foot space. The ethereal photographs on display ranged from $2,500 to over $10,000 per piece.
Frey’s fine art gallery is a sleek salon with white walls and optimal lighting. With a warm and inviting atmosphere, the sophisticated space offers infinite possibilities like a blank canvas. Without a doubt, it is likely to become a new haven for art enthusiasts to gather and spark stimulating conversations.
The exhibition is a collaborative engagement with New York City’s Robert Mann Gallery. This new studio expands on the elevated art scene that’s blossoming in Las Vegas.
“After 30 years of collecting art and photography, I’m thrilled to have this passion project as my next endeavor,” said Frey in a statement. “I am happy to be working with the Robert Mann Gallery to present Cig Harvey’s work, which I have been collecting for the last several years.”
Harvey praises Frey’s charming new art museum. She notes several details she appreciates about the gallery’s design.
“I’m thrilled to be [featured as] the inaugural show with Michael and it’s been a wonderful experience,” says Harvey. “The room is very elegant and it’s beautifully lit. I like the division between the two smaller rooms.”
Harvey’s photographs transcend mundane moments into spellbinding scenes. Based in Maine, her artwork captures poetic instances throughout the seasons of life and echoes the complexities of human nature.
More than 60 artworks by Harvey are on display. Each piece is “rich in implied narrative” and embraces “the most human of things—to feel.”
The inspiration behind her vibrant new book and colorful exhibition was to comfort a friend battling a terminal illness. When Harvey’s friend, Mary, was diagnosed with a form of Leukemia, she started sending her photographs of “blossoms exploding, life exploding and just great beauty” beyond the walls of her hospital room.
“It became this sort of quest to make something more beautiful and more excessive and opulent, you know, so she could start to live vicariously through the pictures,” explains Harvey. “And I think also for me, I felt useful. This is something I could do because I think you just feel completely useless in those times”
The gallery features striking works of art such as “Cleaver and Petals,” which is a knife on a cutting board drenched in rosy nectar beside scattered petals and stems. The artwork conveys aspects of both life and death in a subtle but effective way.
Sprinkled throughout the art salon, visceral poems hang on the walls like “Go outside and cram a fistful of wild flowers into your mouth” and “I’m a star clematis. By summer I’ll make more flowers than any other plant in your garden…”
Although the lyrical notes in the exhibit complement the artworks beside them, she wrote and shot the pictures independently of one another. Piecing the two together was more like creating a puzzle.
“I’m not trying to illustrate the writing with the images or vice versa. They’re two sort of independent things that somehow relate,” says Harvey.
Photo Courtesy of Robert Mann Gallery
The collection’s stories don’t follow a traditional through-line. Rather than following a single narrative, the artwork explores a sequence of senses that evokes a “call to live.”
“I do believe that if we feel more as people [that we] will be more compassionate to each other,” says Harvey. “Nature can do that, but art can do that, too.”
Art aficionados interested in seeing Cig Harvey’s exhibit must make an appointment via email or call 702-735-8322. The show will be open until February 26. FAS44 is located on 4044 Dean Martin Drive.
“Blue Violet” by Cig Harvey is now available for purchase.