Lily and Brian Sarinova are getting to ready to open their new art gallery in town, called the Ice House Gallery, located on Spring Street in Nevada City.

The gallery will feature what they call contemporary art and will celebrate its grand opening on December 10, featuring a vast number of Brian’s pieces which run the gamut from paintings and photography to sculpture.

The Sarinovas plan on hosting about six shows per year, relying on Brian’s own art as well as pieces from both local and international artists.

“It’s really visionary artistic voices that we’re curating, and we’re starting with Brian’s show, just because we have the work here ready to go,” said Lily. “We do plan on having a rotating roster of artists coming through, and Brian will be showing quite often too, because he’s amazing.”

Brian, who works in all sorts of mediums like photography, painting, and sculpture, said that he’s been an artistic fellow from his early days but in the last year and a half procured his general contractor’s license, which takes his artistry to a different level.

“Some of my clients would start with me selling them commissioned work or whatnot, and then they’d be like, ‘Oh, we were interested in getting this wine cellar done,’” Brian Sarinova said. “I’d say, ‘Well, I can build that for you.’ I would be working on a project, and then it’d be like, ‘Well, I’m also a fine artist.’ Then at some point in time, we would have that conversation come up, and then they would purchase work that way.”

Brian said the majority of his projects begin in the photography realm; he works with live models, though not exclusively, in an effort to see forth the production of his paintings and sculptures.

“I’ll find certain images that stimulate me in a way that evokes back to the vision that I perceived before I started the exploration,” he said. “Then from those photographs, let’s say I shoot 1,000 shots, and I pull out 100 shots that’ll look in that (desired) way.”

He added that out of those shots he tries to bring something “further” to the process before using the photographs as the basis of his paintings.

Once walking into the Ice House Gallery—at least at this point—there is also a gallery of ceramic rabbit sculptures, all designed and created by Brian.

“I work all in ceramic,” he said of his sculptures. “I used to do bronze, but it’s just not something I really prefer anymore. And I like the tangible aspect and the warm quality of ceramics.”

Brian and Lily met in Santa Cruz—she is originally from New York and he from California. They started visiting Nevada City from their Bay Area locale and fell in love with the town and its commitment to the arts and all things creative. Their decision to relocate came at a time when they were becoming disillusioned by their convivial town of Santa Cruz. They sought more.

“The vibrancy and the way that the town receives the artists here is pretty unique; and being from Santa Cruz and the Mecca that it is, and what it’s all connected to, it’s losing that. It just became less supported. And not necessarily me as an artist, but the art scene in general…it became more gentrified,” said Brian.

Brian and Lilly decided to get married and do what they could to move forward with their artistic dreams in a town they had fallen in love with.

Lily and Brian chose Nevada City for its vibrant and welcoming art scene, and are technically tenants of the Nevada Theatre which lies on the same property though on different streets.

“We still want it to be very welcoming for the community, and we want people to feel like art is for everyone,” Lily said. “It’s not this elitist luxury thing. It’s something that elevates the everyday experience of everyone and creates meaning and beauty. I think that’s one of the things that fundamentally makes us human; how we experience life and how we make meaning of it. That really matters to me and to us, and we want to bring it and contribute it to this community.”

Brian Sarinova will host his opening show “Conception” at the Ice House Gallery on Wednesday December 10 from 6 p.m – 9 p.m at 404 Spring Street in Nevada City.