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Exhibition

Double Down

Two Visions of Vegas
September 18, 2008–January 4, 2009

Half dream, half nightmare, Las Vegas captures a distinctively American mix of gumption and excess. Double Down presents a portrait of the city’s spectacular environment through two recent video works, Olivo Barbieri’s site specific_LAS VEGAS 05 and Stephen Dean’s No More Bets. Barbieri films Las Vegas from a helicopter, using a tilt-focus lens to render objects out of scale, transforming massive landmarks into souvenir-size miniatures. Dean’s film draws us into the city’s luminous signs, screens, and surfaces, abstracting its visual excess to reveal beautiful, unexpected patterns of color and light.

This exhibition is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

aerial photograph of las vegas hotel

Olivo Barbieri, site specific_LAS VEGAS 05 (still), 2005; courtesy of the artist and Yancey Richardson Gallery; © Olivo Barbieri

Stephen Dean, No More Bets, 2003; single-channel color video installation with audio, 7 min.; Courtesy of the artist and Sara Meltzer Gallery
Olivo Barbieri, site specific_LAS VEGAS 05 (still), 2005; single-channel color video installation with audio, 13 min.; Courtesy of the artist and Yancey Richardson Gallery; Olivo Barbieri
Stephen Dean, No More Bets, 2003; single-channel color video installation with audio, 7 min.; Courtesy of the artist and Sara Meltzer Gallery