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Vegas - 2015 - Issue 4 - Summer - Art of the City - J.K. Russ

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.

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Rondinone's land art isn't intended to endure for generations. After two years, it will be carted away. "It won't live for 30 to 40 years in the landscape," says Walker. "It's a moment in time, which makes it so special. He's just interested in making this large poetic gesture in the desert." (He'll likely make a healthy profit, too, when Rondinone's reps, New York's Barbara Gladstone Gallery and Zurich's Galerie Eva Presenhuber, offer the work for sale after the installa- tion concludes.) Heizer has also been in the news recently. Best known for Levitated Mass—a 340 -ton boulder perched precari- ously above a walkway at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art—the reclusive 70 -year-old artist has spent more than four decades working on his secret masterpiece, City, 100 miles north of Las Vegas in Lincoln County, at a cost of more than $25 million (mostly from donations). The one-and-a-half-mile-long structure, large enough to be seen on Google Earth, is inspired by mining and Mayan architecture, and after shrouding it in mystery for so long, Heizer is finally ready to unveil it to visitors ( just as efforts are acceler- ating to have it designated a national monument under the Antiquities Act). Another Heizer work, Double Negative (1969), is so named because it consists of two giant rectangular cuts and the space between them in the cliff edges of a tall desert mesa near Overton, about 70 miles from Vegas. Such large-scale artworks, embedded in the earth or made from it, are becoming a signature of Las Vegas and its environs. (Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty in Utah and James Turrell's Roden Crater in Flagstaff, Arizona, are other nearby examples.) According to local collector Patrick Duffy, they ref lect an acceptance of the city's geographic, more than merely its psycho- graphic, identity. "The traditional perception of Southwest art is cowboys, [Frederic] Remington, and [Albert] Bierstadt," he says. "But these land art projects are minimalist Southwest art. You can't get any more minimal than taking the raw earth and tweaking it a little, then calling it art." Quinn agrees: "We're not a place that a museum, where you just go and look at art on walls, works. But our identity as an art community can center on large- scale outdoor works. We have space and land, and Las Vegas from the beginning rose up out of the desert." Adds Walker, "It's challenging to establish a visual arts institution in Las Vegas. Look at the competition with the spectacle that exists, which makes it a little harder to see through the trees, so to speak." Celebrating the city's raw surroundings acts as a cultural palate-cleanser. As the passion for such monumental artworks grows, Melissa Petersen, president of the Contemporary Arts Center, thinks that within a decade, Las Vegas could become known globally as the place to go to experience some of the world's best land art. "People have a natural hunger for art, at least if you present it to them in a way they can process," she says. The open nature of these works also suits the egalitarian character of Vegas—and the ubiquity of GPS makes tracking down an elusive piece like City significantly easier. More than anything, though, the imminent unveiling of City and Seven Magic Mountains signifies a new mood in the city, according to Quinn. "People are recognizing the landscape, not denying it." Contemporary arts Center After a rocky period when budgetary prob- lems threatened to shut it down, the edgy, upstart Contemporary Arts Center has re-emerged under the leadership of local scion Melissa Petersen. Elected president last spring, the longtime supporter of the center—who had anonymously funded many of its programs for some time—has ambitious plans to turn it into a pop-up operation, allowing it to stage guerrilla happenings across the city rather than be ring-fenced by a physical space. She is already spearheading a series of book groups and film screenings, as well as talks by local art leaders, such as well- known critic Dave Hickey. 1217 S. Main St., 702-496-0569; lasvegascac.org mCQ Fine art advisory Gallerist and private art consultant Michele C. Quinn has served as curatorial advisor for some of the largest public and corporate contemporary art collections in the United States, including the fine art program at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. In addition to her curatorial and advisory roles, Quinn also actively exhibits in her own space in Downtown Las Vegas. 620 S. Seventh St., 702-366-9339; mcqfineart.com sin City Gallery Dr. Laura Henkel is former assistant curator of the Erotic Heritage Museum, and her Sin City Gallery explores provoca- tive themes. Its "12 Inches of Sin" is an international juried exhibition that examines eroticism through contemporary art, and she fully funded the printing of a four-volume book series of the same name through Kickstarter. Featuring 126 daring artists from 16 countries, as well as art critics from the world of contem- porary art, the books are in many ways an extension of the suggestive and often challenging works her gallery exhibits. 107 E. Charleston Blvd. #100, 702-608- 2461; sincitygallery.com A rendering of one of the massive stone columns of Ugo Rondinone's Seven Magic Mountains. Michael Heizer's City will soon be unveiled to curious art lovers. Complex I of Heizer's City. vegasmagazine.com  85

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