Artists' Top Five: Audrey Barcio
China Ranch Date Farm, Tecopa, CA. Photo Mikayla Whitmore.
Dear Las Vegas,We had good times together, I remember that feeling I had the first time a flight attendant announced, "If Las Vegas is your home, welcome home." I walked off the skybridge with a smile on my face and ready for all that you had to give.
Las Vegas, I loved you for your Barrick Museum, UNLV Fall Lecture Series, Satellite Contemporary, CAC & my long-term relationship to Maryland Parkway. But, that's like saying I miss your sunshine and dry air. Of course, those are the obvious parts of you I will miss the most - but I never told you how much I appreciated you for these qualities too:
1. Imperial Health Spa - Oh you, with your hour long salt scrubs, jade room, clay room, herbal steam room. . . you sealed the deal with the ice room cool-down before heading back out into the heat.
2. Soho Sushi- Our Halloween tradition of dinner with friends has not been the same without you and your pop rock sashimi.
3. Mothership Coffee- You reminded me of San Francisco, but without the fog and you had friendly baristas?!? You were my Saturday ritual with the one I love the most.
4. China Ranch Date Farm & Hot Springs- Your 45 min. drive out of the city set the mood for a day trip love affair- your milkshakes were so good I wanted to cry. Oh and your natural hot springs nearby. . . on a full desert moon go there and howl with the wolves.
5. The Juhl - You were more than just an apartment building to me. Your luxury I'd never seen before! With your beautiful gym, roof top pool surrounded with palm trees, late night cookout dinner parties and our cherished outdoor 80's movie nights. Oh I missed you when I moved to Chicago and asked if the pre-war apartment came with central air...
Las Vegas, you were good to me and I love you endlessly.
To the future,
XX Audrey Barcio
Audrey Barcio, Untitled, 2017, acrylic and flashe on canvas, 60×50. (Image courtesy the artist)
Audrey Barcio received her BA from Herron School of Art and Design and her MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She attended the Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art in Brittany, France and completed the Vermont Studio Center Residency in 2017. Her work has been published in New American Paintings and has been included in group exhibitions across the US, including, Art in America at the Art Miami Satellite Fair and GLAMFA at UC Long Beach. She has has solo exhibitions in venues including Syracuse University in New York, and the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art in Las Vegas where her work is part of the permanent collection. She currently lives and works in Chicago.
Artists’ Top Five is an ongoing series sharing short lists of artists’ favorite things to do or see in Las Vegas. In some cases, these lists become more nostalgic or idiosyncratic musings about a city we call or have called home.