This blog post is by Skin City’s Corporate & Sales Director Sue Pyne and Artistic Director Robin Slonina.
First Friday is always a great time at Skin City Body Painting, but one of the more memorable First Fridays to date was our Down the Rabbit Hole Art Show.
Skin City’s lobby art gallery was filled with sculptures and paintings by a whopping 42 local Las Vegas artists who participated in creating art in the theme of Alice in Wonderland.
The 300 guests entered on a “green carpet” strewn with flowers, complete with Alice falling down the rabbit hole with only her legs to be seen.
Upon entering, visitors were greeted by a magical garden sculpture by Leticia Lopez, featuring towering flowers with surprising faces, strewn with teacups and clocks. Walking under her sculpture gave visitors the feeling of being only “3 inches high”.
Once inside, one might run into one of the many Skin City body painted characters such as the Mad Hatter, Alice, The White Rabbit, and the Cheshire Cat. The rabbit and cat were painted by one of Skin City’s own, Niclucan Philip.
One may have also bumped into the Queen of Hearts whose costume was created and worn by Las Vegas Academy of the Arts’ costume design student Taya Pyne.
Skin City Artist Steven Horlock went above and beyond building a full size “Whack-A-Wabbit”, which provided a darkly humorous interactive element to the evening.
Another standout sculpture was the gorgeous and meticulously beaded sculpture of the Mad Hatter’s Hat by Lisa Fields Clark, complete with a miniature tea party.
Some of the artwork was quite personal. Benoit Beaufils painted a portrait of Alice, inspired by the true stories of one of his best friends Allison Wright who played the actual character Alice at Disneyland for over a decade! He transcribed her humorous and touching stories about being Alice directly on his painting.
If feeling “curiouser and curiouser”, a visit to our upper levels would find you in our Caterpillar’s den that was sponsored by Sitara Hookah Lounge. Our blue caterpillar body painted by Steve Horlock reclined on a giant mushroom while smoking fruity delicious hookah. Love Sac sponsored bean bags for our guests to relax and enjoy Sitara’s flavored hookah. Even Skin City Owner and Creative Director Robin Slonina had a taste!
While taking in all the Wonder-ful art, guests sipped on delicious libations sponsored by Campari and Bombay Sapphire, with specialty drinks created by local Las Vegas star bartender Jessica Westergom.
And of course no First Friday would be complete without enjoying live music by Skin city’s resident musician David Oliveri.
It was definitely a night to remember, proving “We’re all mad here”!
Thank you to our sponsors:
Sitara Hookah Lounge
Campari
Bombay Sapphire
Love Sac
Music:
David Oliveri
…and thank you to all of our artists who participated in Down the Rabbit Hole:
Alexander Franco
Allison Wright
Amy Stewart Hale
Ana Maria Robles
Benoit Beaufils
Bryant Nguyen
BubbleGum NightMare
Dan-O Florez
“Donny D” Huyghe
ED ZEPLN
Edrik Reyes
G.E.M. Artistry
Heather Richileau
Jean Manley
Jennifer Tam
Julia Parrot & Caio
Justin Lepper
Kat Tatz
Kate LaRoach
Leticia Lopez
Lisa Fields Clark
Liz Gopwani
Lonnie Darko
Loryanna Michalek
Luisms
Lyndel Palermo
Marie Valencia
Mowgli
Niclucan Phillip
Niki J Sands
Omayra Amador
Paul Barille
R.H. McClurg
Ragen Mendenhall
Rainbow Farts Art
Robin Barcus-Slonina
Sallie Douglas
sektor SEVEN
Steven Horlock
TAGZ1
Taya Pyne