Downtown Las Vegas — not just for hookers and crackheads … mostly

Occasionally — or maybe more often, but outside of this insider’s perspective — Las Vegas’ art scene actually makes itself visible outside of the monthly ruckus that is First Friday. Yesterday was one such day, where the axes of the universe aligned to draw moderate interest to downtown, both in the beleaguered Arts District and the now neon-lit Entertainment District.

Over at Marty Walsh’s Trifecta Gallery (inside the Arts Factory, 103 E. Charleston Blvd.), Eric Joyner was on hand for the opening reception of his new show, “A Twist of Fate.” There were (of course) donuts on hand for the donuts-and-robots-themed show. I made it over there with perfect timing: after the crowds (well, assuming there were crowds) left, but before Joyner left. We had a nice conversation about his art, my robot tattoo and how his mother basically bribed him into attending church with donuts.

Jerry Misko’s Smoke & Chanel Around the corner (OK, technically around three corners and about half a mile south) at Rick Dominguez and Cindy Funkhouser’s Fallout gallery (1551 S. Commerce St.), most of the same crowd that attended Joyner’s reception showed up for the opening of Jerry Misko’s new exhibit, “Smoke & Chanel.” Yes, it was more of Misko’s signature paintings of neon signs. But damn, no one paints neon signs with more vibrancy or compositional creativity than Jerry Misko. Now, if only I could ever afford one of his damn pieces.

Though your faithful blogger did not make it over there, the Downtown Cocktail Room (111 Las Vegas Blvd. S.) hosted an opening party for the Vegas Valley Book Festival, which runs this weekend, partially in concurrence with First Friday, which–oh look at that–runs tonight from 6 – 10 p.m. in the Arts District. There are some pretty cool readings, workshops and events taking place for this year’s Book Festival–follow the link above to find out more.

And don’t forget, among all the other First Friday nonsense and above-mentioned shows, “Wanksy” opens at Art Bar (1511 S. Main St.) tonight, presumably during the same time frame as all other First Friday nonsense. Look for the 16-foot “Wanksy” spray-painted on the side of the bar’s lime green exterior. Want more info? You should totally click here to read a certain awesome preview of the show and comments from the artists.

This entry was posted by on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 at 1:31 pm. It is filed under Art, Books, Las Vegas and has these tags: , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “Downtown Las Vegas — not just for hookers and crackheads … mostly”

  1. P.L. Walsh, Esq. says:
    November 2nd, 2007 at 3:00 pm

    Just as an aside:it may be worthwhile if you noted the official kick-off time for the “Wanksy” affair.

    In other words, “Emo-sochistics” (i.e. Banksy whores) or haughty female Vegas natives filled with too much vitriol may want to check out the seen and smoke an endless abundance of black clove cigarettes while quoting the Marquis de Sade (the cloves description naturally referring to the vitriolic Vegas native)…

    Your hyperlink neglected to mention it, so please engage the populace and let us in on the time of this noteworthy shin-dig. Thanks in advance.

  2. P.L. Walsh, Esq. says:
    November 2nd, 2007 at 3:01 pm

    Oops! “Seen” should be replaced with “scene” !!! :( My apologies for the grammatical faux pas.

  3. Seen, scene, all is viewable. Um … time is same as all First Fridayness, 6 – 10 p.m. And for the rest of the month. But I’ll maybe note it.