NEVADA CITY, CA – Artist Joie King presents a hallucinatory new body of work, “Ghosts of Commercial Street: A Fever Dream of the Chinese Legacy in Nevada City.” Through bright, surreal color and layered symbolism drawn from Chinese mysticism, the series resurrects the buried stories of Chinese laborers who helped build the town’s foundations during the Gold Rush era.
As a Chinese American artist living in Nevada County, Joie brings a deeply personal lens to this work—threading together archival research, spiritual inquiry, and ancestral grief, she offers not just a confrontation—but an invitation.
“How do we hold the tragedy of abuse and hardship,” she asks, “while still celebrating their undeniable contributions? How do we humanize and honor them, not as strangers, but as ancestors of this place?”
The series was born from years of quiet investigation, but the inspiration came when given the opportunity to show her art at Winnie Superette, a boutique Asian market on Commercial Street. “Just the existence of Anne’s shop here in what was the Chinese quarter, was always so radical to me, a historical synchronicity,” she says. “I’d been exploring these ideas for years, but never had a venue that felt safe and appropriate to share these stories.”
Rendered in bright, acidic hues, the paintings act as spiritual portals—windows into a parallel Nevada City where the events of the past coexist with the present. Sacred motifs curl through historic architecture and the spiritual guardians that the Chinese migrants brought with them linger through time.
“I’m painting for my children,” Joie explains, “to help them understand what happened here, to feel proud of their heritage, to know they belong.”
While the work centers on the brief but vital presence of Chinese immigrants in Nevada City’s past, it is created with the understanding that this land has been home to the Nisenan people for thousands of years and without whom no conversation about history, memory, or belonging would be complete.
”Ghosts of Commercial Street” is an offering—a chance to adopt the forgotten as ancestors, to grieve, and to celebrate. Joie King is a painter and muralist based in Nevada County, California. Her work explores themes of cultural identity and belonging in the American landscape.
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Joie King
Ghosts of Commercial Street: A Fever Dream of the Chinese Legacy in Nevada City
June 6-July 6, 2025
Opening reception:
First Friday Art Walk, June 6, 6pm-9pm
Winnie Superette
315 Commercial St.
Nevada City, CA 95959