Neon exhibit a tribute to glowing history

Thursday, Sept. 21, 2000 | 10:47 a.m.

What: "Neon: Current."

When: On exhibit through Dec. 2. Museum hours are 1-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Reed Whipple Cultural Center Gallery, 821 Las Vegas Blvd. North.

Cost: Free.

Information: Call 229-6211.

Las Vegas is the brightest spot on earth.

Neon flows through the valley like a phosphorescent river, bathing the streets in an iridescent glow that has become a scintillant beacon in the desert for fun-seekers from the four corners of the globe.

In 1997 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that one of its satellites discovered that Las Vegas -- which some call the Neon Capital of the World -- has the most intense light of all the cities on the planet.

Sure, it may be tacky, but it is brilliantly so and leaves no doubt in the eyes of the beholders that they have arrived at the entertainment mecca.

Although neon technology wasn't born here (that event took place in England in 1898), it was adopted in the mid-1930s by Las Vegans who had bright ideas about how to make the most effective commercial use of the cool, colorless and odorless gas.

With neon such a prominent element in American culture, it was only a matter of time before artists began using it as a means of self-expression.

Five of the country's top neon artists have samples of their electrifying creations on display at the Reed Whipple Cultural Center Gallery.

The exhibition, called "Neon: Current," includes works by Kim Koga, David Svenson, Ken Yuhasz, Christian Schiess and Willem Volkersz, who put the show together at the request of the Cultural and Community Affairs Division of the Las Vegas Department of Leisure Services.

In recent years neon has begun to brighten up the lives of a growing number of artists, who are using it as their preferred medium. But that number remains small, and most of them would agree that it is unlikely that neon ever will be a threat to replace paint, stone, wood and other traditional art mediums.

Those who have adopted gas and glass as artistic tools say they would be happy if people would just take them seriously.

"One of the biggest challenges is being accepted ... removing ourselves from (a perceived association with) the sign industry," Kim Koga, director of the Museum of Neon Art in Los Angeles, said. "But I enjoy being on the fringe with it."

Volkersz is a part-time professor of art at Montana State University in Bozeman and a full-time artist and collector of folk art.

"I started my neon art in 1969," said Volkersz, who also paints and is a photographer. "(The medium) can be traced to the mid-1960s, a time when artists were beginning to use more industrial materials."

Because the art uses glass, which can be broken, potential buyers often are reluctant to invest in it.

"The fragility scares people a little bit," Volkersz said. "It's scarier for real collectors, but I'm resigned to that."

He said there is more interest in neon as a genuine art form among artists than the general public. But when it comes to buying, it's the corporations that are the big spenders. They use neon art to enhance the decor and the architecture of their buildings.

"Most neon art, that I'm aware of, sells to corporate offices, where it is protected and guarded and can be somewhat distant from the public," Volkersz said. "My last two pieces, one was sold to a private collector and a larger piece to a corporate office."

Neon artists need some working knowledge of electricity because small transformers are used to light their work, which is another drawback to the medium.

"(Art) galleries are not comfortable with buzzing transformers," Volkersz said.

Tube benders

Many neon artists are skilled glass blowers, others are tube benders and others are adept at both. And others do neither.

"It is not necessary to be able to blow glass or bend tubes," Koga said. "You can take your design to a bender and they can follow a pattern."

Svenson is a glass blower who creates figures such as gas-filled lizards and frogs that reflect his love of nature. Although he teaches neon art one day per week at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, he lives in a rural desert area in Southern California.

"(As a child) I lived close to Route 66 (east of Los Angeles)," Svenson said. "I grew up with the (neon) artifacts. I was influenced by the signs. I'm intrigued with the lights ... the color palate -- there are 200 (neon) colors to choose from."

Until 12 years ago Svenson was primarily a wood sculptor but then his childhood infatuation with neon took hold.

"Light is such a dominant medium," he said. "You can have a six-inch piece of neon in a large work and all of a sudden it's neon art."

Svenson's work reflects his fascination with the relationship between nature and technology.

He speaks with authority about the technical side of the art -- the fact that neon is the brightest of the five noble gases (which also includes argon, krypton, helium and xenon); that neon has become a generic term and the gas used may actually be a mix of argon and mercury; and that radio transformers are used to excite the gases to get them to glow.

But Svenson doesn't want people to get caught up in the technology.

"How it is done is not so important," he said. " Hopefully, they will just enjoy the work. Neon is such a vibrant material -- it has a life of its own."

Yuhasz, of Spokane, Wash., is a professional neon-sign maker as well as a neon artist.

"I'm a tube bender," said Yuhasz, who started out as a graphic artist for a number of alternative newspapers in Nevada, California and Idaho before learning how to restore and create neon signs.

His artwork involves taking common household objects -- such as irons, toasters and blenders -- and using neon tubes to create the impression of other objects, such as airplanes. Or he may add neon tubes to the objects to alter the way the public perceives them.

"I embellish everyday objects with neon and argon-filled glass tubing to represent pieces of my past viewed through a slightly tweaked lens," he said.

Yuhasz has no trouble selling his artwork -- but he said he has encountered the same neon biases as his peers.

"I think my best supporters are other artists," he said. "They appreciate where the thoughts come from. But people that collect art -- art snobs -- may have a problem with it. They tend to think it's not real art."

Lisa Stamanis, senior visual arts specialist with the Las Vegas Department of Leisure Services, would like the show to help change those biases.

"Hopefully, this exhibition will open peoples' eyes," Stamanis said. "I don't think people are aware of (neon) artists. They always just think of it as a sign. It is not commonly known that it is being used in art."

Neon museum

Stamanis said the exhibit is being held to shed some light on the relatively young art and to highlight the local neon art museum -- officially known as the Las Vegas Neon Museum Bone Yard and Visitors Center.

The private, nonprofit museum (which held a public reception for the artists) was created in 1996, but it has no building -- merely a city-owned lot where old neon signs of historic and artistic interest are stored until they can be refurbished and placed at selected locations in the downtown area.

On Sept. 6 the city and museum agreed to a long-term, $1-per-year lease of a 1.3-acre site at 770 Las Vegas Blvd. North, across the street from the Reed Whipple center. The agreement requires that the museum begin building a visitor's center within two years and have it completed within five.

At present the museum has on display four historic signs at the Fremont Street Experience and on Nov. 15 will dedicate five more, which will be clustered at Third Street and Fremont Avenue. More sign clusters will be added downtown in the years ahead.

Many of the signs being preserved by the museum have been donated by the Young Electric Sign Co., the city's oldest and largest neon sign maker. The firm first turned on its lights in 1920 but did not start making the Las Vegas-type neon signs until 1935.

"We started with the Boulder Club and we've been doing it ever since," Steve Weeks, assistant division manager, said.

While artists are discovering neon, many casino corporate executives -- the men in gray-flannel suits who are concerned about the glitzy image neon represents -- are turning down their lights, especially on the Strip.

"A lot of the new properties have gone with a (beige) Mediterranean look, architecturally," Weeks said. "They are shying away from neon ... using the buildings rather than neon to advertise their properties."

Will a dim corporate mentality eventually relegate neon to museums and art galleries, thus bringing to an end Las Vegas' reign as the brightest spot on earth?

Even though it may seem that there is less neon, Weeks said the properties are using as much as ever, if not more -- but it is going inside the buildings, where it is used to create highlights.

"It is not rare to put 20,000 feet (of neon lighting) inside a property," he said. "The pillars at Bally's have 14 miles of it."

archive