Last year, Downtown lost two of Jerry Misko’s neon-inspired murals. His Emergency Arts mural was painted over for Life Is Beautiful (which didn’t upset him), and his Arts District mural was destroyed by taggers (which did). But balance has been restored: In roughly the space of a month, Misko created two new murals—one on Inside Style on Main Street, and the other on the construction wall surrounding the former Beat Coffeehouse on Fremont. And yes, you can call it a comeback. “I felt the need to get back in the saddle,” Misko says. He’ll also be doing gallery shows in 2017 and offering new prints of his work to benefit Casa de Luz. –Geoff Carter
Speaking of murals, drive west on Charleston past Artifice and you can’t miss Gear Duran’s glowing cobalt image on the south-facing side of the former Mission Linen Warehouse. The Las Vegas-based artist and former Skin Wars contestant started the piece as a show of support for Native Americans protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline, which, if built, will run through sacred burial grounds and threaten the Standing Rock Sioux’s water supply. “I wanted to do something that’s just very raw and very symbolic,” Duran says. “It’s not just their water; it’s the planet’s water.” While the Army Corps of Engineers has halted the pipeline for now, the mural serves as a necessary reminder of what’s at stake for all Americans—Las Vegans included. –Leslie Ventura
It looks like the Tazmanian Devil’s tornado pirouetting in place over the sand. Or a mushroom cloud, seen through the aviators of Hunter S. Thompson. Or, when reflecting the Strip’s illuminated skyline, an EDC dancer wrapped in her own glowstick swirls. You likely have your own interpretation if you’ve spotted it driving on Russell Road along McCarran Airport’s northern border. Local artist and CSN instructor Wayne Littlejohn’s 26-foot-tall “Dream Machine” sculpture has been up for about two months, but its official dedication took place Tuesday at Siegfried & Roy Park. How does the artist himself describe it? “A fusion of light and movement, inspired by the geological and technological forces that shape the Southwest,” he says in a statement. “It arises from the earth like some mysterious atomic love child of dust devils and drones.” –Mike Prevatt
The world can be an ugly place, but the City of Las Vegas is taking decisive, well-funded steps to pretty up our corner of it. It’s currently taking submissions for two public art projects: one for artistic bike rack designs and one for artists to paint electrical utility boxes on Maryland Parkway as part of the ongoing AMP project. The bike rack competition is budgeted at $10,000 per design, plus reimbursement of up to $5,000 for engineered drawings (for info, call 702-229-6231). And artists approved for the utility box project will be reimbursed $2,500 for up to four boxes. –GC