I recently went on a trip to Las Vegas. In addition to doing all the standard Vegas fun activities, I had some quiet moments to visit a few galleries on Gallery Row at Aria Resort & Casino.
I saw some amazing art work by American master sculptor Richard MacDonald. There were art pieces from the series he did while behind-the-scenes to Cirque du Soleil, pieces for the Royal Ballet School, and many other art work. Each piece has such incredible detail, expression, and emotion. There were videos at the gallery to show Richard’s approach and working process and it’s amazing how quickly he moves while sculpting. He observes the live model and their performance and immediately shapes and sculpts the art piece. It’s incredible how much detail he can remember in such a short period of time and have all that translated to a sculpture. Most of the pieces are placed on a rotatable display plate so one can feel free to rotate the piece around and really observe various angles. It’s such a great interactive way to appreciate the art pieces. I was completely mesmerized and I don’t think I’ve ever felt so moved by sculpted pieces.
I then ventured into The Gallery at Citycenter which was exhibiting beautiful glass pieces by Dale Chihuly. He played a major role in bringing glass into the scope of contemporary art. He did all the glass art at the Bellagio hotel and casino in Vegas and have permanent collections and exhibitions all over the world. There were beautiful glass artwork in different color, shape, and sizes, and to add to the exhibition they were also some acrylic paintings done by Chihuly. He uses such vibrant colors in both his glass art and paintings.
To round out the evening, I admired over the landscape photography by Rodney Lough Jr. His works are shot with Arca Swiss camera which has great versatility allowing to shoot up to medium format and panoramic images and allows for proper tilt-shift adjustments. All the photography artwork are captioned with the exact camera setting information. As a photographer, this information helps me better understands how Rodney captured the images which actually makes me feel more engaged in his process. He offers wilderness photography workshops too but unfortunately nothing overlapped with my travel schedule, so perhaps next time I visit Las Vegas and the Nevada state I’ll get to take his workshop.
It was great to be able to have a balanced experience in Vegas, so I highly recommended to check out the art galleries in between all the gambling, buffets, and shows!
By Joyce Yung
