A&E

Downtown’s Cultural Corridor gains an eye-catching new mural

Image
James Stanford’s “From the Land Beyond”
Photo: Ken Lui / Courtesy

On June 6, artist James Stanford debuted a 154-by-19-foot mural on the Neon Museum's recently-acquired Reed Whipple building (821 Las Vegas Blvd. N.), titled “From the Land Beyond.” Featuring imagery from Old Vegas casinos, the mural has a cinematic, dreamlike quality.

Stanford, 72, says he has “experienced every change that’s come down” in Las Vegas. With this work, he nods to past iconography—the Dunes’ sultan and the Stardust’s sign and Easter Island-style Aku-Aku heads—in a piece intended to act as the “gateway to the Neon Museum,” which stands across the street.

“I feel really privileged to present a bit of the memory of my youth and the Las Vegas that I loved and remember so well,” he says.

Stanford completed the piece with help from artists Nanda Sharifpour, Ali Fathollahi, curator Laura Henkel and local donors. It took a year of planning and three weeks of painting.

That stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard also features Stanford’s “A Phalanx of Angels Ascending,” a 2,000-square-foot homage to the Vegas statue the Blue Angel.

Share
Top of Story