Do you like to gamble? Our editor certainly does. Why else would he send us to Las Vegas for 48 hours with orders to file a 2,000-word report on hotel and casino art? He’s betting this piece will clinch our first Pulitzer in the vaunted field of travel journalism—and odds are he might be right.
As the authors of a long-running “Hard Truths” advice column and the “Hard Choices” series of interactive quizzes, our assignment came as a surprise. But in this age of continually defunded high culture we wondered: what does art look like when you leave Tribeca? Some writers go on Hajj to Marfa to feel the minimalist wind blow sand into their eyes, while others schlep Brooklinen tote bags as they chase biennials across small European cities. Being earnest art-world advice columnists, we prefer to explore more democratic forms of visual culture—the kind that ribaldly stages a two-hour revue called The Empire Strips Back: A Burlesque Parody. (Tragically, that show was sold out when we were in town. Not even press passes could get us in. So much for democracy.)
In terms of aesthetics and curatorial vision, nearly every stop on our compressed three-day trip was its own Gesamtkunstwerk—created by people who have, in general, cast off the shackles of fine art and haughty museum models. We found art functioning less as a critical statement and more as ecstatic ambience within the highly trafficked mega-casinos and downtown haunts frequented by locals. Once you are in Sin City, age-old debates about high vs. low and authentic vs. commodified culture simply do not apply. Art in Vegas doesn’t judge; it seduces. The real Vegas experience is a confectionary collision of art and entertainment wrapped in a glitter-drenched, aggressively carpeted hallucination. One of the most important lessons we learned is that the art here must be “hospitality grade”—able to withstand the splash zone of cocktails, bodily fluids, and blissed-out detritus, all while maintaining a positive guest experience.
Here, then, are our Hard Tripping highlights from a visit to the neon vortex…
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Plaza Hotel
Image Credit: Courtesy Plaza Hotel On the first morning of our trip, we entered the Plaza Hotel to smell the tangy casino and behold its towering outdoor mural program. The enterprise’s marketing manager shepherded us an all-access tour of the 21-story artworks by Shepard Fairey, Faile, and D*Face that wrap the façade of this proudly beige downtown stalwart. Trailing behind her on a walk through the public areas and private corridors felt exactly like a spiraling tracking shot straight out of Martin Scorsese’s Casino, which as it turns out was filmed here.
These gigantic attention-grabbing murals, originally commissioned for the local Life Is Beautiful Festival, extend the rambunctious energy of Fremont Street onto the architecture itself. There is something about street art writ large—extremely large—that allows dogs playing poker, a goth Roy Lichtenstein, and a Russian constructivist Andre the Giant to make more sense than a Whitney Biennial. When art is this gargantuan, people cannot help but notice.
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Corner Bar Management
Image Credit: Photo Anthony Mair Have you ever found yourself caught in a “trip trap?” This term, introduced to us by nightlife and culture impresario Ryan Doherty, describes an art spectacle engineered to command total attention while you teeter on the edge of disbelief. An oracle of downtown’s Fremont area, Doherty is the personable founder of Corner Bar Management as well as a major collector of Pop Surrealism. He has masterminded an art-forward nightlife empire that reflects his eclectic taste in bric-a-brac and a keen sense of fun. Step into one of his venues—among them Discopussy, Cheap Shot, and We All Scream—and you might meander from a tentacled EDM dance floor to a rustic Mexican cantina to a padded speakeasy to a gnome-filled burger bar—and it’s all happening within a single Vegas bender.
Under Doherty’s discerning and playful art direction, the interiors at his clubs feature bewildering works by artists like Marion Peck, Bob Dob, Glenn Barr, and Mark Ryden. His exquisite new cocktail bar, Doberman, is a fully realized grown-up vision: an eerily English hunting manor for those who’ve graduated from vodka slushies to vested mixologists. Look up and you’ll see a glorious and ginormous penny-farthing adorning the walls!
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Fergusons Downtown
Image Credit: Photo Carissa Beasley On a rare rainy Vegas afternoon, we stopped by Fergusons Downtown—a classic mid-century motel that has been lovingly transformed into a creative hub for entrepreneurs with small-batch vibes. Initially helmed by the late tech entrepreneur Tony Hsieh, who was a major force in the revitalization of downtown, the communal vision of the project lives on in the able hands of general manager Hannah Kelley, an actual Vegas native whose indefatigable energy and positivity radiate across the picturesque courtyard.
Burning Man DNA runs deep here: see Big Rig Jig (2007), a sculpture by Mike Ross with two spooning 18-wheelers suspended midair. How did he do it?! Among the charming local vendors with offerings for sale on-site, we were wowed by Tofu Tees, a shop run by 17-year-old powerhouse Kumei Norwood, who started the brand at the age of eight as an outgrowth of her political activism. Norwood’s incredibly cute T-shirts (Gen Z) serve social commentary with Gen Alpha bite—including one with text reading “I went to Las Vegas & all I got was this cute shirt from Tofu Tees, a Black youth-owned business.”
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Resorts World
Image Credit: Courtesy Chen & Lampert Resorts World, a sprawling Hilton complex comprising three different tiers of hotels, opened in 2021 with a novel idea: the “no-theme” hotel. Gone are the faux-Egyptian temples, frightening clowns, pirate coves, and Venetian gondolas. In their place: a calming muted color palette and easily breathable interiors.
Wandering around, we discovered art popping up in unlikely places. Warhol reproductions printed on canvas and a curious waterproof Chagall tucked into a corridor share space with floating elephant photography (by Marlies Plank), bronze dog-on-hippo sculptures (Gillie and Marc), and a red Volkswagen Beetle squashed into a perfect sphere (Ichwan Noor). Again, there is no theme, but this only ups the surprise quotient, especially when turning a corner and happening upon an object as resplendent as Liberace’s very own mirrored piano. After basking in beguiling ballerina holograms and surrealist installations, we followed our stomachs to Crossroads, a plant-based restaurant in the casino festooned with oversized photos of rock legends like Elton John and Jimmy Page. After a non-stop day of slackjawed gawking, we savored the tranquility and relative quiet of the room almost as much as we did the delectable lion’s mane mushroom steak.
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The Palms Casino Resort
Image Credit: Erin Marie Photos Now under the ownership of the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation, The Palms Casino Resort is the first Vegas casino fully owned and operated by a Native American tribe. A cultural pivot from its Playboy-era heyday and time as a Michael Jackson haunt, the hotel still exhibits numerous major pieces carried over from the art-collecting Maloof family’s former ownership. The most immediately eye-catching work is a monumental Damien Hirst formaldehyde shark that is the centerpiece in the casino bar. It almost doesn’t call attention to itself, but when you look up, the shark’s cold, cold eyes are looking at you. Want more Hirst? You’ll have to shell out for it by booking The Empathy Suite, an over-the-top penthouse festooned with yet more Hirst-authored sharks, pills, dots, and diamonds. The suite (with two bedrooms and a private pool) is both deluxe and slightly emetic, but if you are dropping tens of thousands of dollars for a night, then you probably know that already and dig it.
If cynicism isn’t your bag, then you may prefer one of The Palms’ distinctive new attractions: a touching, incredibly adorable line-drawn structure that artist Josh Vides modeled after the site of Britney Spears’s awesome, inebriated 55-hour marriage to childhood friend Jason Alexander in 2004. Stepping into this black-and-white wedding chapel installation, which feels like a mix between the inside of a shoebox and a minimalist set from George Lucas’s film THX 1138, your heart cannot help but to skip a beat. Something tells us this chapel might be ready to say “Oops!… I did it again” on a nightly basis. (Apologies to the Pulitzer family: we tried our hardest to avoid this joke. Let’s move on…)
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Bellagio Las Vegas
Image Credit: Photo Jennifer Burkart/Courtesy Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art At the Bellagio, we were transported to Tuscany and Manhattan’s Brookfield Place shopping mall at the same time. The legendary indoor conservatory was in full spring-season mode when we visited, drawing photo-hungry crowds to its elaborate garden installation of oversized tulips and animatronic butterflies. The installation team that changes over this green space every season are maestros of the highest order when it comes to horticulture. Even flower-haters must give it up when they see and smell such sensorily tripping blooms.
Outside Cirque du Soleil’s theater, we were lucky to meet virtuoso sculptor Richard MacDonald in his eponymous gallery, through which more than 800,000 people pass through annually on their way to the circus. MacDonald’s meticulously cast sculptures of bodies in motion and perfect stillness manage to defy gravity and express a humanism that feels like an offering from a contemporary Rodin. He’s a one-man art industry: foundry owner, gallerist, sculptor, raconteur, and motivational force. And most of his sculptures are available in multiple sizes.
The artistic highlight of our entire trip undoubtedly came with our visit to the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, where we were genuinely astonished by the exhibition “American Duet: Jazz and Abstract Art” curated by Demecina Beehn, curator and manager of MGM Resorts’ art collection. Featuring works selected from the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, the show includes killer pieces by heavy hitters like Mickalene Thomas and Beauford Delaney alongside revelatory gems by Adger Cowans, Sam Gilliam, and Herbert Gentry. A world-class exhibition tucked between a Perrotin gift shop and a craps table? This show should travel to museums (hint hint).
In addition to organizing excellent exhibitions, Beehn also has a budget to acquire art for the collection of Bellagio owner MGM. She told us they own more than 1600 works, and that 95 percent of the collection is on public display across MGM’s 12 resort properties around the world. Given that a museum like MoMA only ever shows an extremely small percentage of its collection at any given time, Beehn may have one of the best jobs in the art world.
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The Fontainebleau
Image Credit: Photo Mark Mediana/Courtesy Fontainebleau Las Vegas The Fontainebleau, a beloved Miami transplant that is now the newest casino in town, feels like the future of Vegas hospitality: modernist, meticulous, and less chaotic than its neighbors. Erudite designer Jon Rawlins carries the Morris Lapidus torch with sumptuous interiors full of clever nods—most notably a recurring bowtie motif that threads through the property. The main casino floor lacks in off-putting odor and buzzes with activity, and it is in no way overwhelming or even remotely depressing. We noted that Fontainebleau visitors tended to be wearing pants and dresses rather than shorts and sweats. It’s not more upscale than the other casinos (remember, Vegas is a democracy), but you could say that it is far more refined. Wearing a blazer in such a classy place just feels good.
Here, we found the largest Urs Fischer blob we’ve ever seen—Lovers #3 (202)—in a soaring atrium and in close proximity to massive works by Richard Prince and Gonzalo Lebrija (whose History of Suspended Time features an old Ford Galaxie standing nose-down in an outside fountain) as well as a kinetic mirror sculpture by Breakfast that visualizes international tides in real time. Also, there are VIP lounges inside VIP lounges that house VIP art for the VIP elite. For everyone else? Have a drink at the Nowhere jazz bar. Oh, and don’t forget to snag a reservation at Don’s Prime, where we ordered the absolute best steak we’ve ever eaten. If meat could be art, this would be the Girl With a Pearl Earring of Wagyu New York strips.
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Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art
Image Credit: Photo Krystal Ramirez/Courtesy Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Just a short ride off the Strip, the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas delivers a welcome shock of authentic art clarity. It is located on the UNLV campus, which is home to one of the most diverse student bodies in the country—a true testament to the burgeoning immigrant population in the metro area. Executive director Alisha Kerlin toured us through a sizable and compelling survey of Yoko Kondo Konopik (think: Japanese-American Ellsworth Kelly with better vibes and story) as well as a timely show titled “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights: International Posters on Gender-Based Inequality, Violence, and Discrimination.” With roots as a former basketball gym, the Barrick Museum now features gems from the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection (including works by Richard Tuttle, Lynda Benglis, Neil Jenney, Robert Barry, and Mark Kostabi) and consistently punches above its weight in contemporary programming. It is easy to see that Kerlin and her crew are performing a vital service for the university and the local community of artists. Tourists should be sure to make a visit if/when they need a reprieve from all the sharks and slots elsewhere in town.
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The Writer’s Block and Antique Malls
Image Credit: Photo Patrick Gray Vegas isn’t just about bachelor parties and blacking out anymore—the city grew 5.4 percent between 2020 and 2024, fueling a thriving local indie culture and vintage treasure-hunting. The Writer’s Block, a vast bibliophile emporium that was built to browse in, features a world-class selection that would make it a great destination in any city. The bookshop hosts readings and writing workshops, and serves as the headquarters for a real literary community.
If you have extra space in your suitcase, make sure to swing by Antique Alley Mall, a sprawling trove of Vegas kitsch where you can score everything from vintage casino swag to original postcards from multidisciplinary art pioneers Ant Farm. It’s one of the many enticing boutiques, clothing stores, and curiosity shops in the Arts District. While exploring, you might want to get your carb on with pizza and pasta at the delicious Esther’s Kitchen, or perk up with a quadruple espresso at Vesta Coffee Roasters.
We came to Las Vegas expecting artifice, but the strange thing is that we didn’t expect to be so moved by it. By day three our irony and SPF 90 sunscreen had completely worn off. Vegas may be the only city where artwork can be both a selfie backdrop and a sacrament. Art here doesn’t just survive—it thrives on spectacle, excess, and sparkle. As for us? We left feeling slightly more cultured, totally depleted, and completely sure that “trip trap art” will one day have its own wing in the Smithsonian.
