Art on the strip - various artists, various venues, Las Vegas, Nevada

Art in America, Feb, 1997 by Alisa Tager

Within this diverse group, a few artists have banded together in a small movement they call "post-mediocrity." Westfall invented the title and elucidated its initial terms. Acres, Argent, Callister and Siemens all subscribe to its tenets, while many others would consider themselves sympathetic, if not overtly affiliated. The artists are united philosophically, not stylistically. They take for granted artistic independence, risk-taking and market viability, and focus their manifesto, with deadpan facetiousness, upon the broader social responsibilities of being a post-mediocre artist: always tipping waitresses and waiters, never having dessert before a meal, and other ideals which, appropriately for Las Vegas, transcend the distinctions between art and life.

With the increasing number of artists choosing to live in Las Vegas come plans for new art institutions. In addition to NICA's grand project, there's the art complex of collector, artist and real-estate developer Steven Molasky, who will soon open a self-funded exhibition space on a large lot just behind the strip. Currently under construction and scheduled to open early in 1997, the project will have more than 6,000 square feet of exhibition space and a back lot of approximately 30,000 square feet. Molasky is already installing several huge earth-works by Michael Heizer, involving trenches up to 60 feet long and 12 feet deep. The two biggest are projects from the 60's that were only realized temporarily in dry lakebeds as models a couple of feet long. He will also show some Heizer rock pieces, six or seven works in all. Molasky is modeling his exhibition space on Dia in New York: he win provide artists with the space to make works they may not be able to realize elsewhere, which will remain on view for several months. He also has plans for performance spaces, maybe an outdoor movie screen, and a small auditorium for lectures and panel discussions.

By the end of 1997, Las Vegas may well have two fully functional galleries dedicated to exhibiting contemporary art. Mary Warner, a painter who has been teaching at UNLV for six years, is renovating a building which she hopes to convert into a gallery. It is an early (1936) Las Vegas home which is conveniently located in a commercial area. One of the founders of CAC, Warner says that Las Vegas is ready for a for-profit art gallery. She says that there are so many interesting artists and dedicated collectors in Las Vegas that the city needs a gallery to show local and international contemporary art. After opening her space next year, she hopes to buy the neighboring buildings for use as a cafe and possibly a book shop or photo gallery. Another Las Vegan, Lisa Livingstone, also has plans for a contemporary art gallery and is currently looking for spaces and organizing an exhibition schedule.

Also in the planning stages is a neon museum which would resurrect some of Las Vegas's classic signs. This is to be a two-step project, with the first stage, opening in the fall of 1997, being a neon walk-way on Fremont Street, the heart of the old strip. Unearthing legendary emblems from a "neon boneyard," called the Young Electric Sign Company, this project aims to revivify a strip of the old town by reinstalling some of its own historic past. Project coordinator Barbara Molasky has arranged for the Fremont Street display, assembled a board of directors and secured a nearby building for a permanent museum of neon which is to open at the end of 1997 or begining of 1988. This venue win house some of the signs which are too small or too small to go outside, and will also explain the history of neon and how signs are manufactured. The museum will occassionally take traveling shows.