Discover the ‘Artistic’ Side of Vegas

If you didn’t realize you’d been meandering past and around some notable works of art on recent trips to “Sin City,” don’t feel badly.  Most visitors, as well as most locals, aren’t aware of these hidden works of art scattered throughout the city, from stunning Picasso paintings and larger-than-life contemporary sculptures to perspective-changing works of light.

Although some of the works of art are secluded in galleries and museums, many are displayed in some surprising venues. With much of Las Vegas’ art on display in public spaces, the more than 40 million visitors who visit each year rarely need to purchase a ticket to enjoy the growing cultural side of the city.  The city’s public art program currently maintains more than 100 works of art selected or commissioned by the Las Vegas Arts Commission which is tasked with promoting art in the city that is seeking to expand on another kind of tourism—cultural.

View Las Vegas’ ‘original’ art

To pay homage to art in Las Vegas you have to go to its authentic roots—those iconic signs that symbolize everything exciting the city has extolled to visitors for decades—in bigger- and brighter-than-life proportions. The Neon Museum was established as a non-profit organization in 1996 to collect and exhibit these scintillating beacons—the art form synonymous with Las Vegas. Each of the more than 200 neon signs in the current collection has a unique story to tell about the personalities who created it and the role it played in Vegas’ history, from the 1930s to today. The two-acre campus includes the highly photographed Neon Boneyard of signs that promises to fascinate. (Photo courtesy Neon Museum)

In a fitting public art program, the Neon Museum has united with the city of Las Vegas on “The Las Vegas Signs Project.”  In 2009, the stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard between Sahara Avenue and Washington Avenue became one of only three urban streets in the U.S. to be named a Federal Scenic Byway. The Signs Project was created to install restored signs from the museum’s collection along this area in the heart of downtown Vegas.  You can already view several that have been installed, including the iconic Palomino sign from the Hacienda Hotel, the Silver Slipper and Binion’s Horseshoe.

After you’ve taken in the historical neon art, continue your quest to discover more surprising artistic finds. Don’t be surprised to find this art is full of its own brand of glitz and glitter:

The Park

In early April 2016, artist Marco Cochrane’s Bliss Dance debuted as the newest and perhaps most striking installation on the Las Vegas Strip with the opening of The Park, an outdoor entertainment and dining district lodged between the Monte Carlo and New York-New York.  The breathtaking 40-foot-tall sculpture of a dancing woman was created for Burning Man in 2010 and now has a permanent home in this Nevada desert. Bliss Dance is Cochrane’s powerful statement about female strength and self-confidence. Weighing more than 7,500 pounds, the dancer’s form achieves lightness and momentum through ingenious structural engineering that conveys a body in motion. Glimmering beneath the sun by day and illuminated by 3,000 colored LED lights by night, Bliss Dance is a visual spectacle. (Photo courtesy Marco Cochrane)

 

ARIA Campus Fine Art Collection

ARIA features Las Vegas’ first major permanent collection of art to be integrated into a public space. With works by acclaimed artists, sculptors and visionaries including Maya Lin, James Turrell, Nancy Rubins, Frank Stella, Henry Moore and Richard Long, among others, it is one of the largest and most ambitious collections in existence today. Several pieces are prominently placed throughout walkways, lobbies and multiple hotels, engaging guests on a daily basis. Get a full guide to Aria’s fine art here. Look for these as you walk ARIA’s environs:

Big Edge – Using salvaged goods, big-piece artist Nancy Rubins created an adventurous and colorful installation outside ARIA’s sister Vdara Hotel and Spa. Measuring approximately 57 feet by 75 feet, Big Edge is a colorful composition of aluminum rowboats, canoes and other water vessels finessed into a gravity-defying form that Rubins calls “a blooming flower.”

Silver River – Considered one of the most important artists of the 21st century, Maya Lin’s remarkable first work in Las Vegas is perched high above ARIA’s reception desk as a centerpiece to the main lobby. “Silver River,” a 3,700- pound, 84-foot cast of the Colorado River is an ode to the beauty, awesome power and resourcefulness of water.

The Shops at Crystals: Located within ARIA’s The Shops at Crystals is HOTO, a contemporary piece created by one of Japan’s most influential artists, Tatsuo Miyajima. Inspired by Buddhist scripture, HOTO – meaning “treasure pagoda” – refers to a story about a monumental bejeweled tower that emerges from the ground, floats midair and covers half the world, symbolizing the miracle of human life. The towering 18-foot-high monument plays on modern technology by featuring 3,827 vibrantly colored LED numerical displays in varying sizes. The LED displays flash the numbers one through nine in a continuous, repetitive series, representing the never-ending cycle of life. HOTO originally toured around Japan and China before making its home here in Las Vegas. (Photo courtesy of Powers Imagery)