Dennis Oppenheim lounges around Brett Wesley Gallery, talking about fine art, public art, Joan Rivers, skateboarding and whatever else comes up while watching a lighting display of one of two sculptures that make up his “Paintbrushes.”

Dressed casually—black T-shirt, black shorts, black socks and Birkenstock sandals—he occasionally interrupts himself to comment on the lighting effects created on a laptop in the parking lot by programmer Jason Goldenberg, who controls each of the more than 120 individual lights in the 45-foot brush.

Painting with light

“We oughta let him do what he wants,” Oppenheim says, dazzled. “Look at that green.”

Jutting at a slant from the sidewalk on Charleston and Casino Center boulevards, the paintbrush stem illuminates color patterns while its top flickers in rows of colors, shifts to a solid blue, then moves in a wavelike pattern. It spells “art” in various fonts before turning into sparkling white lights.

“Paintbrushes” is a month away from completion. One of the two brushes needs to be realigned. But contention over the piece is already heated. Many hate it, see it as trite, lacking artistic integrity and insulting to Las Vegas. Some joke about urinating on the pieces. Others celebrate the work’s artistic merit. There are those who welcome anything spectacular plopped Downtown. That Oppenheim is internationally famous for complex works in biennales, museums and galleries both irks and inspires critics. His public commissions, tame compared to his fine art, are often surprisingly more controversial.

Miguel Rodriguez, whose team of artists lost to Oppenheim in the selection process, says the piece will likely be well-received by the public, but is critical of its merits. Anything that makes the arts district more appealing is good, he agrees. “That said, the pieces look pretty weak. If the city wanted conceptually and aesthetically pedestrian public work to distinguish the arts district, they should have hired Yesco or E-gads. Either company could’ve pulled them off much better. I genuinely respect Oppenheim, but when you compare the ‘Brushes’ with the scope of his work, they just don’t hold up.”

Todd VonBastiaans, who owns Alios, an architectural and entertainment lighting company in the arts district, says the project’s success relies on proper programming of the LEDs. “These are living lighting sculptures, not just sculptures that have lighting as a minor part of their execution. Elegant programming is easy to achieve and will make these sculptures beautiful works of art.”

This is one of Oppenheim’s first large works using lights. He’s experimenting and willing to put his faith in the programmer.

“This is complicated with all the electrical stuff,” he said, even joking that he’s merely supplying the prop that’s being acted upon. Oppenheim says guest programmers could be invited in “like DJs.”

“With public art … you have to confer with others. It becomes more corporate.”

The project’s thrust will be the beams of light shooting 2,000 feet into the dark sky.

“We’re putting a lot of trust and hope into the coherency of the projected light—the pathway into the darkness, the unknown,” he says. “There is a lot of mystique. Art is largely mystique as a discipline, but I don’t want to be too poetic.”

He’s aware of the critics, but shrugs them off.

“Requirements bearing down on some public artwork stifle the imagination. But if it’s too placated, watered down, then it ceases to be pertinent as art. Because of this compromise, public art, for a long time, has been considered low-grade art. Art can be truly strange if you’re free enough to allow that.”

Looking at the brush, he says, “This is not satirical. This is what it is.”