If, as The Killers assert, "There is an old cliché/ Under your Monet, baby"—well, baby, we've got chestnuts roasting in an open gallery. Tell the cousins, uncles and assorted hangers-on in your household to go round up a few.
Once again, in the spirit of public service so scarce in other arenas of this modern world, the Weekly art column gives you its annual "Get Out of the House!" feature, a compendium of art-related excursions geared to clearing your well-decked halls of squatting relatives.
And we start with Monets, five of them at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, where The Impressionist Landscape from Corot to Van Gogh remains camped through April. Maybe it's a sign of growing cultural sophistication that Monets have become clichés here, thanks to the BGFA—and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which has supplied the paintings for The Impressionist Landscape and its predecessor, Monet: Masterworks from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. When Landscape closes in April, it will have been 28 months of MFA Monets at Bellagio. But, hey, it's Monet! And Renoir, and Van Gogh—so go, get out, already! [The Bellagio, 693-7871, 9 a.m.-10 p.m. daily, $15; Nevada residents and students, $12; 65 and over, $12.]
If you're wishing your guests really gone, get them to Russia. Or, perhaps, RUSSIA! The Majesty of the Tsars: Treasures from the Kremlin Museum at the Guggenheim Hermitage. This "chapter" of the RUSSIA! show at the Guggenheim Museum in New York comprises imperial and religious artifacts from the Kremlin Museum in Moscow, and a picture of pre-Catherine royalty. It's not Fabergé-style opulence but is spectacular in its own right. [The Venetian, 414-2440, 9:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m. daily, $19.50; seniors and Nevada residents, $16.50; students, $14.50; children 6-12, $9.50; under 6, free.]
Meanwhile, yes, Virginia, there is an art museum in Las Vegas, and the Las Vegas Art Museum is showing signs of life under new management. Director Libby Lumpkin, whose résumé includes helping Steve Wynn organize the original Bellagio art gallery, has set the tone with an exuberant exhibition of latter-day abstraction. Michael Reafsnyder, Painting and Sculpture, 2002-2005 could be great family fun—they could play "find the smiley face," as Reafsnyder puts one in each zesty painting. [9600 West Sahara Ave., 360-8000, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday; 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Sunday; $6; seniors, $5; students, $3; under 12, free.]
If everyone in your household has had just a little too much Christmas cheer, and you're searching for an antidote—well, that's why we have a growing Downtown art scene. You might want to start with Human Inhumanity, a collaborative installation at the Contemporary Arts Collective that brings together Jorge Catoni, KD Matheson and Kate Jackson. We haven't seen it yet, but given the artists and the title, the guess is good it's not exactly cheery. Unfortunately, you've got today and Friday to see it, as CAC closes until January 2. [101 E. Charleston Blvd., 382-3886, noon-4 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday.]
Continuing the Scroogist tour, MTCZ gallery, an outpost for the homegrown, Downtown art scene, continues its group invitational, Unhappy Hellidays, through January 2. The gallery, run by artists Mark T. Zeilman and Cybele, will actually be open 6 to 10 p.m. Christmas Day. MTCZ, through its website (http://mtzc.com/), invites the reveled-out to bring a scorned present and smash it, for free. Otherwise, enjoy the anti-seasonal show, which includes works by 23 artists, including Catoni, Matheson and Jackson. [1551 S. Commerce St., 610-5718, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays and by appointment.]
And that concludes our guest-scattering recommendations. With any luck, you'll have the holidays to yourself next year.