Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/533211
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JERRY METELLUS (DOZEN); JOE DURKIN (ACUNA); SAEED RAHBARAN (BOEHMER) CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: A candid moment in our photo shoot with the men of the Vegas Dozen at Saks Fifth Avenue, captured by Jerry Metellus; my friend Alex Acuna and I toasted chef Kerry Simon's 60th birthday before Simon Restaurant and Lounge's last day in the Palms; NARS's director of global artistry, James Boehmer, showed me the brand's fabulous new Christopher Kane line at the new store in The Forum Shops at Caesars at an event we cohosted. My daughter, Emily, gave final approval on the cupcakes for the evening. Follow me on Twitter at @andreabennett1 and on vegasmagazine.com. ANDR EA BENNETT LAS VEGAS'S UNLIKELY AND SOMETIMES UNEASY RELATIONSHIP with the vast desert that surrounds us is a recurring theme for those of us who return home from a glamorous event at Harry Winston to find a scorpion luxuriating in our bathtub. For instance. And the tension of our situation— not a new idea—always seems to find new ways of being fascinating. A preoccupation of many right now is protecting the isolated desert acres that hold some of the most important land art in the world, much of it quite close to Las Vegas. This spring, I attended a conversation between Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and renowned art critic (and former UNLV professor) Dave Hickey, known for his love/ hate relationship with Vegas. (He opened with a crack about frittering away his MacArthur Fellowship money in our casinos.) Their talk concerned City, a monumental earthwork roughly the scale of the National Mall that artist Michael Heizer has been constructing for 43 years in Lincoln County. The land around Heizer's magnum opus is under threat from fracking and proposed rail lines; a bill introduced in January by Senator Harry Reid and a petition drive are among the measures being taken to protect 800,000 acres of federal land around it. "What could be more American, more interstellar?" Hickey asked about City. Like our own all- American skyline, Heizer's city depends on the land around it for its drama. Some of our most relevant artists, such as cover artist J.K. Russ, successfully articulate this. This summer, Vegas holds an event to benefit some of these important earthworks, generously supported by Russ, who created Spring Romance for us to auction. Please enjoy our issue celebrating both the art of the desert and the art of the city. 28 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM LETTER from the Editor-in-Chief