THE FOUNDATION AT BE HOME SOON: BUILDING A SENSE OF HOME FROM WITHIN
Reception held on August 27, 2026
Rotunda Gallery | Clark County Government Center | Las Vegas
On August 27, 2026, Joice Gabriela attended the reception for BE HOME SOON at the Rotunda Gallery inside the Clark County Government Center in Las Vegas. Her mixed-media artwork The Foundation was selected for this juried exhibition by Jennifer Kleven.
Presented by the Clark County Public Arts Office from July 20 through August 27, 2026, BE HOME SOON brought together artists born outside Las Vegas and invited them to reflect on migration, memory, belonging, and the experience of building a new home.
HOME BEYOND A PHYSICAL PLACE
At the center of the exhibition was a meaningful question: What does home become as we move through new environments, personal changes, and different chapters of our lives?
Rather than defining home exclusively as an address or geographic location, BE HOME SOON explored how a sense of belonging can be reconstructed through memory, adaptation, resilience, and personal transformation.
The exhibition considered what remains within us when our surroundings change: the memories we preserve, the experiences that reshape our identities, and the internal foundations we create while developing roots in a new place.
Sometimes, home is not simply a place. It is what we build within ourselves.
THE FOUNDATION
Within this curatorial context, The Foundation explores what remains inside us through change and new beginnings.
Created with epoxy resin, river stones, mineral pigments, and sculptural compounds, the 24 × 24-inch work presents an abstract material investigation of belonging. Its layered surface suggests both a physical terrain and an internal emotional landscape, a place shaped by memory, experience, and the need for stability.
The river stones carry a particular significance within the composition. Gradually transformed by time, movement, and erosion, they become metaphors for the way human identity is also shaped by experience.
Although each stone retains its individual form, together they become part of a new structure. This relationship reflects how people carry elements of their histories forward while adapting, creating new roots, and building a renewed sense of belonging.
The work exists within the tension between movement and stability, transformation and continuity, displacement and connection. It proposes that beginning again does not require erasing what came before. Instead, every experience becomes part of the foundation upon which something new can be built.
The message at the heart of the work is:
“You are your own home. You are your own foundation. You can always begin again.”
AN ARTISTIC PRACTICE ROOTED IN BELONGING
Born in Brazil and currently based in Las Vegas, Joice Gabriela is a mixed-media artist whose practice explores belonging, transformation, memory, and the emotional landscapes created by change.
Working with crystals, shells, raw stones, sand, glass fragments, mineral pigments, and layered resin, she transforms natural materials into abstract compositions that embody resilience and permanence.
These materials are not used only for their visual qualities. Their physical histories the effects of time, pressure, movement, and transformation, become part of the conceptual meaning of each work.
Through texture, weight, transparency, and light, Joice creates compositions that reflect how identity continues to evolve within new environments while remaining connected to its origins.
For the artist, home is not simply where a person comes from. It is also the internal space created through memory and experience, as well as every place where one chooses to establish roots and grow.
RECEPTION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The August 27 reception brought together participating artists, visitors, and members of the Las Vegas arts community for an evening of contemporary art, conversation, and live music.
Joice Gabriela extends her sincere appreciation to juror Jennifer Kleven for selecting The Foundation for the exhibition and to the Clark County Public Arts Office team for organizing and presenting BE HOME SOON.
She also thanks the participating artists, visitors, and members of the community who attended the reception, experienced the work, and made the evening so memorable.
ARTWORK DETAILS
The Foundation, 2026
24 × 24 inches
Epoxy resin, river stones, mineral pigments, and sculptural compounds
EXHIBITION DETAILS
BE HOME SOON
July 20–August 27, 2026
Reception: August 27, 2026
Rotunda Gallery
Clark County Government Center
Las Vegas, Nevada
