LAS VEGAS.- The Las Vegas Art Museum is pleased to present an exhibition of recent paintings by Sush Machida Gaikotsu, April 13 – July 8, 2007. The exhibition is the second installment in the Las Vegas Art Museum’s ongoing 702 Series. The 702 Series features solo exhibitions by artists who were born or raised in Las Vegas, who initiated their careers in Las Vegas, or who live and work in our city today. The series showcases works by artists who exhibit regularly in one or more major art centers, and have achieved national or international recognition for their accomplishments.

Born in Maebashi City, Japan, Gaikotsu has been a Las Vegas resident since 1999. His works are regularly exhibited in galleries in Los Angeles and Tokyo. Gaikotsu blends Eastern and Western artistic traditions in figurative paintings that often feature stylized animals, such as fish, cats, rats, birds, and snakes. These figures are often interwoven with American-style Pop elements, such as a pack of Marlboro cigarettes, an M & M candy package, and graphics derived from snowboarding and skater logos, and tattoos. In recent works, the artist has reinterpreted the rhythmic and playful qualities found in the paintings of Edo-period Japanese masters, such as Jyakuchu Ito and Okyo Maruyama, while updating the compositions with complex structures that speak the current language of the digital computer screen.

Gaikotsu received the Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in 2002. His works have received critical praise in numerous national and international cultural publications. Gaikotsu has served as Adjunct Professor of Art at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and as Visiting Professor of Art at Otis College of Art and Design, in Los Angeles. He has previously exhibited in Las Vegas at the Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery and the Contemporary Art Collective. He also has organized exhibitions for the Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery, as well as for galleries in Tokyo. He has published art criticism in various Japanese cultural publications.

702 Series: Sush Machida Gaikotsu is organized for LVAM by David Pagel, of Los Angeles. Mr. Pagel is an art critic and curator, well known for his regular reviews in the Los Angeles Times. He also serves as a professor of art criticism and theory at the Claremont Graduate University, in Claremont, California. The exhibition features a selection of 16 paintings by Gaikotsu, produced since 2001. Approximately half of the works are new and have not before been exhibited. The group includes a dramatic, 24- foot-long painting created especially for the 702 Series exhibition.

The 702 Series showcases works by artists who represent Las Vegas in the broader national and international art communities. It provides Southern Nevada’s residents and visitors the opportunity to become acquainted with artists who reflect the cultural sophistication of Las Vegas, and who serve as Las Vegas’s cultural ambassadors to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Cologne, Paris, and Tokyo. The 702 Series is ongoing, with one to two exhibitions presented at LVAM each year.

The exhibition is made possible by LVAM’s Joyce Mack Exhibitions Fund and James and Michelle Zeiter Exhibitions Fund.

The Las Vegas Art Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, and is closed Mondays. General admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors 55 years and older, and $3 for students 13 years and older; children 12 and younger enter free when accompanied by an adult. For more information on exhibitions, membership, and education programs, please call (702) 360-8000, or visit www.lasvegasartmuseum.org.