Las Vegas native Mark Brandvik talks art & his Green Felt Jungle Gym...

This week one of my favorite local artists Mark Brandvik will be giving a presentation about his latest exhibition the Green Felt Jungle Gym. Featured at the Clark County Government Center rotunda, Mark builds his latest creation inspired by one of Las Vegas most notorious books the Green Felt Jungle. A must read for any Vegasphile, the book was published in 1963 and details, quite unapologetically, the tangled relationship between organized crime and Las Vegas' primary industry, its casinos. For a native like Mark and even me, the book could easily be an inspiration for any project an artist could undertake. Knowing Mark and his work you know you are in for a treat, especially when it has anything to do with Vegas.

If you want to be inspired by this amazing artist, its high time you go and check out his exhibition. But more importantly come and meet him for yourself, this Wednesday, February 8th at the Clark County Government Center in Downtown Las Vegas. The talk will take place in the Pueblo Room at 6:30pm. The event is free and open to all.

The Clark County Government Center
500 S. Grand Central Pkwy.
Las Vegas, NV 89155

http://www.clarkcountynv.gov/ 

For more information about Mark and his work - http://www.markbrandvik.com/

For more information about the exhibition - 

The title of Mark Brandvik’s Rotunda Gallery exhibition plays off the 1963 book The Green Felt Jungle by Ed Reid and Ovid Demaris that exposed the relationship of organized crime to the Las Vegas tourist industry. Mark Brandvik’s paintings and sculptures locate the viewer within a specific setting or narrative that builds upon larger themes of place and location. Earlier paintings featured iconic Las Vegas architectural structures as idealized or essential forms, and Brandvik revisits this imagery in three-dimensional format for his current Government Center installation. The artist selected hotel/casinos that span a vast swath of Vegas history and design; this site-specific metal sculpture layers four iconic forms into an oversized children’s jungle gym. The resulting non-functional adult playground might suggest the ruins of abandoned construction or the potential for new development in the valley. 

A Las Vegas native, Brandvik earned his bachelor’s degree in art at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1996 and his master’s degree in fine art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1998. He currently teaches as an adjunct professor at UNLV and has been a contributor to downtown’s redevelopment through his own historic preservation projects since 2000. Brandvik exhibits nationally in New York, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, where he recently participated in “Top Ten Now” and “Tel-Art-Phone”, and his work has been featured in New American Paintings. He is the recipient of a 2012 Jackpot Grant for his Government Center project. 

This exhibition has been funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency and by the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency.

Nevada Public Radio

For more information on the Cultural Arts in Las Vegas please visit Nevada Public Radio. NPR has detailed listings of many cultural and civic events hosted by area non-profits click on this linkhttp://www.knpr.org/common/psa/listNEW.cfm and if you are planning an event in the next few months, be sure to get your free listing in Nevada Public Radio's Desert Companion magazine by submitting the information here at http://www.knpr.org/culture/eventaddnew.cfm

Have You donated to KNPR? Pledge Now at http://www.knpr.org/index.cfm

Brian Paco Alvarez enculturating Las Vegas into the millennium...