Renowned Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone‘s colorful large-scale, public artwork “Seven Magic Mountains” is a two-year exhibition located in the desert outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, featuring seven thirty to thirty-five-foot high dayglow totems comprised of painted, locally-sourced boulders.
Visible across the desert landscape along Interstate 15, Seven Magic Mountains offers a creative critique of the simulacra of destinations like Las Vegas. According to Rondinone, the location is physically and symbolically mid-way between the natural and the artificial: the natural is expressed by the mountain ranges, desert, and Jean Dry Lake backdrop, and the artificial is expressed by the highway and the constant flow of traffic between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
The artwork extends Rondinone’s long-running interest in natural phenomena and their reformulation in art. Referring concurrently to the natural world, romanticism, and existentialism, Seven Magic Mountains encapsulates a sort of mental trinity that has underpinned the artist’s work for more than two decades. In a new iteration of themes and materials, Seven Magic Mountains creates a sense of romantic minimalism.
Seven Magic Mountains is produced by the Art Production Fund, New York and Nevada Museum of Art, Reno. The piece will be on view for two years beginning May 11, 2016.
Images courtesy of Art Production Fund and Nevada Museum of Art
Discover: sevenmagicmountains.com | www.nevadaart.org
