Atomic Ruin

Atomic Liquors. To quote Obi Wan Kenobi: "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."

If you ever find yourself in fabulous Las Vegas, please do stop in for a whiskey and check out the atmosphere and cast of characters, like something out of a Bukowski novel. Atomic Liquors is the diviest of dive bars, located on East Fremont in a sketchy part of Vegas, populated by skeezers, tweekers, sketchoes, hookers and pimps. I spent a night there and bought a beer for a broken down, round, Native American woman, whose man then promptly showed up and started yelling at her until he flew out the door. I thought it best I take the party elsewhere before he returned to stab me.

This piece is for my friend Erin Stellmon (who introduced me to the Atomic), who is putting together a show featuring line drawings from artists who have lived or visited Las Vegas and invited me to do a piece. Of course, I'm sending it 2 days late. If you're swinging through Vegas soon, go check the show out:

Reign of Glass, Erin Stellmon
June 3rd - July 23rd
Opening Reception, Artist’s Talk June 3rd 6-9

Erin Stellmon plans to address issues within the largest privately funded construction project in US history, the MGM Mirage City Center.  The goals are to foster a dialogue surrounding our preoccupation with hope and the continuing cycles of architecture in the Las Vegas Valley.

In conjunction with two exhibitions--Emily Kennerk's "America's Most Foreclosed City" and Erin Stellmon's "Reign of Glass"--the CAC will host a panel discussion moderated by Kirsten Swenson, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art at UNLV.  Dr. Swenson will present ideas from her recent scholarship on land use and contemporary art, placing Kennerk and Stellmon's critical investigations of the spatial politics of Las Vegas in the broader context of artists who are working at the intersections of art and geography, sociology, and economics. Time and date TBA

--B