If You Go
- What: “12+7: Artists and Architects of CityCenter”
- When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday and Thursday; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, through April
- Where: Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art
- Admission: $15, $12 for Nevada residents and seniors, $10 for students, teachers and military, free for children 12 and younger; 693-7871.
Sun Archives
- Lack of museum leaves gap in art for Clark County students (9-8-2009)
- JW Caldwell, artist and preparator (4-22-2009)
- Art museums on the Strip: Why only one survives (4-13-2008)
Sun Coverage
Beyond the Sun
At the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art an art handler is on a ladder making some final adjustments to a Jenny Holzer installation while colleagues look on with anticipation.
He connects a few wires and the lighted phrases scroll across the screens. A chorus of oohs and aahs erupts from the onlookers.
The scene conjures thoughts of a postmodern Rockwellian Christmas.
To top it off, there are presents galore: a Frank Stella on one wall, Nancy Rubins collages on another and two Peter Wegners waiting to be hung on the wall with care.
Then came the uncrating of Claes Oldenberg and Coosje van Bruggen’s “Ship Knife 1:12,” which had been sitting on the floor throughout the flurry of activity. There was a moment of silence and awe as the crew looked at the sculpture. Holzer’s truisms blinked and paraded in the background — “A little knowledge can go a long way ... A positive attitude makes all the difference in the world ... Even your family can betray you.”
Whether visitors to the gallery experience the same magic remains to be seen.
The “12+7: Artists and Architects of CityCenter” exhibit, opening today in the gallery, is a direct reflection of the $40 million art project at CityCenter.
It includes 21 works by the 12 artists and seven architects of CityCenter, including artists Maya Lin, Nancy Rubins, Richard Long and Isa Genzken, and architects Daniel Libeskind, David Rockwell and Cesar Pelli.
Filled with impressive works by great names in contemporary art, the exhibit bridges the artists and architects by merging preliminary sketches, artistic renderings and models of buildings with artwork by artists featured on CityCenter’s property. It also includes architectural story boards used in presentations to executives.
Call it clever marketing, call it informational. Mostly, it’s a teaser, an amuse to whet the appetite for what visitors will see in December when the $8.5 billion CityCenter opens.
A smaller version of Lin’s “Silver River,” an 84-foot rendition of the Colorado River in the Aria resort, snakes up a wall in the Bellagio gallery. Long’s works on paper emulate his “Circle of Life and Earth” mud drawings, 80 feet high by 50 feet wide works that will be in the lobbies of Veer Towers. Wegner’s stacked paper works, “Red (The Sun as It Sets)” and “Blue (The Moon as It Rises),” are studies of the larger works — one is 45 feet, the other is 35 feet — that will be in the Vdara Hotel concierge lobby. Holzer’s installation in the gallery is only a sliver of a piece in comparison to “Vegas,” a 280-foot LED wall that stands 18 feet tall at the valet exit at Aria.
Antony Gormley’s “Bodies in Space VIII” is a steel molecular sculpture. His “Feeling Material XXVIII,” a reinvention of the human form from an ongoing series created from mild steel bar (resembling sketches in space), will hang from a ceiling inside Aria.
A small version of Oldenburg and van Bruggen’s 19-foot “Typewriter Eraser, Scale X” sculpture is also part of the show.
Michele Quinn, MGM Mirage’s curatorial adviser who manages CityCenter’s art program, said an exhibit of the artists of CityCenter was inevitable, that she’d wanted to expand the concept of what the CityCenter collection is about and that she’s always wanted to do an architectural show.
The art was borrowed from private collections and galleries, and is arranged so that art works are displayed near architectural renderings of properties where the art will be. Francois-Xavier LaLanne’s “Ane Bate (grand)” is placed in the same room that features colored charcoal works of the Crystals retail area. There are interior sketches of the Harmon and a model of what is informally referred to as “the treehouse,” an astonishingly gorgeous organic-like structure by the Rockwell group that will fit inside Crystals and house a bar.
Some might wonder why they should pay — $15, $12 for locals — when they see much larger versions of the artists’ work at CityCenter for free. That depends largely on how interested one is in seeing works that rarely, if ever, come to Nevada.
The idea of the exhibit was to give a broader perspective of selected artists’ work and show the art and architectural process, Quinn says.
It does not go into any great depth, but is a delightful sample platter.
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