A word to the would-be chic: Watch your mojito. As served at a "Mojitos & Modernism" evening at BlankSpace, the rum-based drink comes with a long straw in a slender glass with a high center of balance. When you set it on a glass shelf, you are likely to tip it over simply by removing your hand.
So I did last Friday, providing the only unpleasant twist—and a mint twist at that—to an otherwise stylish and informative evening at the Mandalay Place store. A BlankSpace staffer quickly dashed in with a rag while I slung ice cubes back into the clear-plastic cylinder that had just surrendered them, and architectural historian Elizabeth McMillian never skipped a beat.
The California-based McMillian, a former editor at Architectural Digest, showed slides from two of her books, Living on the Water (2002) and Beach Houses: From Malibu to Laguna (1994), and talked about various architects' approaches to shoreline domiciles. Her audience numbered roughly 30, business-casually clad, sitting or standing around the rear area of the home-design store, mojitos firmly in hand.
According to BlankSpace buyer and General Manager Sandra Sharma, "Mojitos and Modernism" complements the developing art and design scene in Las Vegas, only on the last Friday of the month instead of the first. And, one might add, in a sleek, mall-bound, South-Strip setting. Its ties to the grittier Downtown scene run through the former occupant of this space, Godt-Cleary Gallery, now G-C Arts on North Main Street. The transverse central wall, which once held prints and paintings by James Rosenquist and Peter Alexander, supports the quirky pottery of designer Jonathan Adler, the previous "Mojitos & Modernism" speaker.
The other side of the wall bears a litany of mostly lighthearted affirmations: "We believe that when it comes to decorating, the wife is always right (unless the husband is gay)"; and "We believe our designs are award-winning, even though they've never actually won any." Along with Adler's work, examples include teardrop-shaped, veneered-plywood vases from Urbana Design and tumblers and vases made from recycled beer and wine bottles by Artecnica.
Into this realm of offbeat elegance BlankSpace also has introduced the work of local artist Jessica Starkey, a former student and adjunct faculty member of UNLV's art department. Starkey's slim, horizontal, wall-hung boxes sport images of women, sometimes in mirror-reverse configurations, apparently spewing liquids from/into their mouths.
At least they didn't spill anything.
McMillian, meanwhile, professed herself delighted to take part in a series that adds to the city's cultural awareness.
"It's another level to life in Las Vegas," she said. "There are people who are serious about design here."
If they could just hold on to their Mojitos ...