Aesthetically speaking, Bellagio is always in season. With the help of a small horticulturist army, the Strip hotel and casino transforms its 14,000-square-foot conservatory and botanical gardens into a blooming arcadia every few months. It’s a symbolic tradition, imbued with the intention of a fresh, life-affirming start. And in many ways, Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art’s springtime exhibit, In Bloom, is a harmonious extension of that.
“In Bloom connects our shared experience of seasonal change and rebirth to artworks that either address ideas of transformation directly, subversively or abstractly,” Demecina Beehn, director of art and culture for MGM Resorts, explained in a press release. “With this exhibition, we ask our audience to consider their perspective around the new growth that comes after a cold winter.”
Through the vibrant display of more than 20 globally recognized contemporary artists’ works, In Bloom sprouts new narratives around humanity, identity, rejuvenation and what drives us to transform. In collaboration with the Tia Collection in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Bellagio Gallery selected paintings, sculptures, sketches and portraits by Regina Bogat, Salvador Dalí, Nick Cave, Martine Gutierrez, Alex Katz and many more to challenge our conventional understandings of change—and to inspire us.
Here are a few works that stood out during my recent visit.
“Soundsuit 8:46” (2021) by Nick Cave
Standing over 8 feet tall, this piece is as menacing as the story behind it. Following the brutal beating of Rodney King in 1991, Cave, a Black, Missouri-born sculptor, erected his original “Soundsuit,” a life-size costume consisting of hundreds of small, jagged twigs. “I built this sort of suit of armor, and by putting it on, I realized that I could make a sound from moving in it,” Cave told The Washington Post in 2012. “It made me think of ideas around protest and how we should be a voice and speak louder.”
“Soundsuit 8:46” carries that mantle of social justice forward. But here, instead of twigs, it’s adorned in bright sequins and silk floral arrangements similar to the May Queen costume in the 2019 film Midsommar. The added “8:46” numbers refer to the duration of time Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on George Floyd’s neck before he died. (It’s now estimated to have been even longer.)
Powerful doesn’t begin to describe Cave’s visual embodiment of this story. His soundsuits, while physical manifestations of the past, motivate me to never forget what we’re fighting to see changed in our future.
“Demons, Xochipilli, The Flower Prince” (2018) by Martine Gutierrez
In this stunning portrait, model and photographer Martine Gutierrez feminizes the persona of Xochipilli, the male Aztec god of art, flowers and games, with a tie to the queer community. Adorned in the regalia of the mystical Flower Prince with nose and lip jewelry, textured garbs and a crown of braids and metallic flowers, “Xochipilli” is a hallucinatory vision. As a trans artist exploring identity, sexuality and everything in between, Gutierrez has always been her own muse. The Brooklyn-based artist spent four years creating Indigenous Woman, a 124-page magazine highlighting portraits of Indigenous deities in high fashion, and each portrayal loosens the rigid constructs of gender. By embracing femininity and masculinity to exaggerated lengths, Gutierrez challenges us to move beyond the boundaries we unconsciously set for ourselves.
“Bicycle Basket With Flowers” (2014) by Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei’s “Bicycle Basket With Flowers”
After being detained for 81 days by the Chinese government for baseless economic crimes and having his travel restricted for more than two years, artist Ai Weiwei fought back.
In 2013, the outspoken activist announced a plan to place a bouquet of flowers into the basket of a bicycle outside his studio every day until his passport was returned. The act drew the attention of The New York Times and other national publications as Weiwei protested for his freedom. Two years went by before he received it. “Expressing oneself is a part of being human,” he has said. “To be deprived of a voice is to be told you are not a participant in society; ultimately it is a denial of humanity.”
These porcelain flowers are a commemoration of Weiwei’s power struggle. They’re a showpiece of resistance, and a reminder that change doesn’t always happen overnight, but it can over time.
IN BLOOM Through September 10; daily, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; $20. Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, bellagio.mgmresorts.com.
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