Sin City Gallery Checks Into Art Motel for Life Is Beautiful

LAS VEGAS—Next month’s Life Is Beautiful event, a music, art and culture confab in Las Vegas, might not have much to do with the adult industry. But it just got a little more intriguing for the sex-positive crowd with the announcement that arts organization Sin City Gallery will be mounting an exhibition during the festival. Titled Intimately Female, the group show offers a look at visual expressions from a diverse group of female artists. Their work will be on view at the Art Motel inside the Life Is Beautiful Music & Art Festival on September 25-27 in downtown Las Vegas. Curated by gallery director Laura Henkel, Intimately Female promises an “unparalleled up close and personal view of new trends in contemporary art while unmasking secrets of the female imagination.” Artists include Shelbi Schroeder, JK Russ, Nancy Good, Nanda Sharifpour, SM Shifflett, Marne Lucas, Sarah Jane Woodall and Dorit Schwartz. Photographer Shelbi Schroeder creates provocative fine art Polaroids with an mysterious figures awash in an aura of light. New Zealand’s JK Russ reimagines the beauty and complexity of the natural world in collage, and Las Vegas artist Nancy Good plays with morphed body parts to create mesmerizing trompe-l'œil photographs. San Francisco artist SM Shifflett’s lustrous paintings are a celebration of the diversity of feminine experience. Crossing boundaries of identity, Iranian artist Nanda Sharifpour’s portraits offer unseen views of the private feminine, made invisible by fundamentalist rule in her home country. On the flip side, a thread of irreverence and rebellion runs is seen through New York artist Marne Lucas’ counter-culture pinup that embraces masculine beauty. And confrontation and humor are front and center in Las Vegas artist Sarah Jane Woodall’s live-action performance, Wonderhussy, which celebrates female power. As she puts it, “Since the dawn of time, it has remained a thing of mystery and even shame. It has been idolized, fetishized, monetized and demonized ... but its full power has never been realized. Until now.” Israeli sculptor Dorit Schwartz is more quiet in her evocation of the feminine, using simple shapes to express a vision of something deep within. Henkel said, “This reveal of new ideas and practice in art, erogenous secrets, and the unspoken realms of art and amour means this absolutely is a show not to be missed, a fascinating audience driven exhibition that promises unforgettable experiences.”  The majority of these artists reside in Las Vegas, and their influences represent a global experience. For more information on Intimately Female and the latest festival news, go to LifeIsBeautiful.com.