MGM Resorts Art & Culture was established in 2016 to manage all of the MGM Resorts’ collections. The public and guests staying at the Park MGM Hotel and Casino can take a free concierge led art walk every Wednesday at 10 a.m. The enriching tour includes information about the artists and art pieces through the Park MGM, ARIA, Vdara and Bellagio properties.
Guests staying at the resort will notice original artwork from commission artists made from mixed media paintings, glass, paper and natural products offering interesting landscapes and gardens.
In the lobby of the Park MGM, an enormous root scupture made of branches is the creation of Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira. Located on the lobby’s ceiling near the concierge desk, the wood branches spread outwards towards the edges of the room. He used reclaimed wood sourced from Brazil and the surrounding areas of Las Vegas.
This dynamic and unique piece brings elements of a park and nature to the renovated and reimagined Park MGM (formerly the Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino). On the tour participants learn how the artist wants guests to look up and reimagine themselves underneath the root system of a gigantic tree.
Iranian artists Shoka Azari and Shahram Karimi create multi-media art forms shooting a video of trees that are displayed at the Park MGM Concierge desk. Dreamscape is a merge of traditional painting on canvas with a video projection to infuse life and movement. This piece offers guests the perspective of lying down on the grass, while looking up and seeing the leaves gently move in a breeze.
Scotland-based artist Patricia Cain has a piece behind the bell desk, greeting guests with an explosion of line, color and shape. The vertical diptych (two canvas) painting offers abstracted tree branches that challenge the viewer's depth of field.
The NoMad, a high-end boutique hotel that takes over the upper floors inside the Park MGM Hotel and Casino, offers a separate reception lobby, restaurant, bar, and casino. The design offers bits of Las Vegas mixed with a luxury New York flair.
Inside the beautiful dimly lit rooms are some of the best art displays and framed pieces on the walls. Near the exquistie NoMad Restaaurant is an exquisite Katie McGuire sculpture made with 2,000 magpie bird feathers.
Also displayed in NoMad near the restaurant, is a group of framed art pieces featuring models from JET and Ebony magazines that are enhanced by artist Lorna Simpson.
There are three Israeli artist Guy Yanai commissioned pieces on display in Park MGM's pool promenade and elevator lobbies. Executed with a dense series of narrow, horizontal brushstrokes, Yanai’s bold candy-colored paintings feature women, exteriors and interiors of houses, parks and potted plants.
Woman Outside, 2018 is oil on canvas that is 71' x 119' large, demonstrating how his linear bold brush strokes look like pieces of tape to create a colorful and bold landscape with simplified shapes.
Walking through the Park MGM Casino, we stopped at the Oxacan themed Mama Rabitt Bar, home to over 200 different mezcals and tequilas. On the wall is a massive colorful Okuda San Miguel mural titled “Mother Natura” inspired by the legend of Mayahuel, the Mexican goddess of agave and fertility. Through his pop-surralistic style goddess Mayahuel is looking down upon a valley of agave pryamids.
Mama Rabbit Bar is a MGM partnership with James Beard Award-winner Bricia Lopez, dubbed a “Oaxacan Princess” by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jonathan Gold. The concept celebrates Oaxacan culture and spirits with craft cocktails, and a menu of small bites.
ARIA Hotel and Casino offers The ARIA Fine Art Collection. One of the most fascinating pieces of art is a model of Seven Magic Mountains. The actual art exhibit is located about 20 minutes from the resort in the middle of the desert at June Dry Lake.
Swiss born artist Ugo Rondinone’s colorful art installation is a collection of 33 enormous boulders weighing 10 to 25 tons. They are painted bright coats of whimsical neon colored paint, before the artist stacked the enormous rocks into totem towers reaching up to 35 feet tall. They rest on the warm desert floor among flora, fauna, and animal species including endangered desert tortoise and snakes that live in this area.
Pop art Seven Magic Mountains draws attention to the beauty of the desert near Las Vegas, a city known for its award winning art, music and sports.
Walking from ARIA to Vdara, we noticed a striking sculpture by artist Nancy Runbins. She assembled over 200 colorful canoes and kayaks called 'Big Edge' as the centerpiece of the Las Vegas City Center roundabout. It looks like a unique, enormous spiky flower arrangement.
Vdara is one of the non-gaming, non-smoking, pet friendly MGM properties. The voluminous Vdara lobby walls display 'Day For Night, Night For Day' by American artist Peter Wegner. It's a fusion of art and architecture presented in towering sculptures made from almost 2 million post card size pieces of colored paper suspended from a steel compression frame.
The golden pixilated solar burst on a red background is featured on the West Wall. The cool moon on the East Wall is 45' x 10' 9'. This talented artist also created the light fixtures hanging down next to these pieces illuminating the lobby.
The 90 minute tour ends in the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino to admire one of the world's leading glass art sculptures by American glass artist Dale Chihuly. Looking up, we admired 2,000 hand-blown colorful glass flowers titled “Fiori di Como.” This 2,100 sq. ft. glass sculpture hangs for thousands of people to admire these stunning glass blossoms.
Next time you visit Las Vegas, take a tour to learn about the award-winning art pieces and people who created them.
