The Oconomowoc Arts Center in Wisconsin is the lucky venue for a tantalizing display of pastel brilliance opening August 25.

The Wisconsin Pastel Artists will soon present “Until the Equinox” — a group exhibition of members’ recent work at the Oconomowoc Arts Center in Wisconsin. Opening on August 25, this fall exhibition features many of the state’s most accomplished artists, including Rosalie Beck, Roberta Condon, Cynthia Dirtzu, and Colette Odya Smith.

To learn more, visit the Wisconsin Pastel Artists.

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The Westwood Gallery in New Jersey will be mounting “New Realism” this month with great anticipation, as the exhibition showcases the captivating realist works of these four painters.

On August 13, the Westwood Gallery will open “New Realism,” featuring new paintings by Allan Gorman, Cesar Santander, Mark Oberendorff, and Ilo Oxa. The show will remain on view through September 16.

Learn more about Westwood Gallery by visiting its website here.

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Uri Vaknin — a major real estate developer and partner in KRE Capital — believes that Las Vegas, Nevada, is becoming a world-class city. However, its vivacious and brilliant downtown is missing something.

In 2014, Uri Vaknin made a major bet on the Las Vegas condo market, building several luxurious high-rises downtown. Having met amazing success with those endeavors, the mogul believes this burgeoning world-class city needs something new: an art museum downtown.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal recently spoke with Vaknin, who offered his thoughts on why an art museum is just what “Sin City” needs:

“While I have only lived here a few years, I am already a proud Las Vegan and Nevadan. I relocated here in 2014 after my firm, KRE Capital LLC, took a major bet on Las Vegas, investing in the city’s condo market. An endeavor, by the way, which many thought was crazy. But we were, and still are, bullish on Las Vegas.

“Our portfolio has performed very well, easily proving the naysayers wrong. The Ogden is now more than 65 percent sold, One Las Vegas is approaching 45 percent sold; Spanish Palms is sold out; and we just opened Juhl for sales.

“What we understood in 2013 is now becoming reality: Las Vegas is becoming a world-class city. Its economic indicators are improving; tourism is returning to pre-recession numbers and has now surpassed them.

“We were impressed with Tesla’s move to the state and Switch’s development of its significant presence in Las Vegas. We saw good governance on the local, county, and state levels. And we believed in Mayor Goodman’s vision for the city of Las Vegas, particularly downtown, where two of our largest properties are located.

“Already a world-renowned dining, entertainment and shopping capital, our city is now becoming a cultural hub. The openings of The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, The Mob Museum, and the Neon Museum signals a clear move in that direction. Yet, I remain dumbfounded that Las Vegas lacks a world-class art museum.

“Some of my earliest indelible memories are family trips to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. I credit much of my business success to my exposure to the arts. It opened me to creativity. My properties have always outperformed similar developments — partly due to the creativity and arts infused into our communities.

“So, when I learned that there was a group rallying for The Art Museum at Symphony Park, I quickly became engaged and now proudly serve as a board member. I have not only given my own money and time to this effort, but my company is also championing this initiative.

“An art museum is important on so many levels. First and foremost, the Art Museum at Symphony Park will become a center of arts education for the valley’s children. Plus, an art museum is an economic driver. Every day, I speak with people who are moving to Las Vegas and are considering buying a condominium downtown. They want to live in a vibrant area with restaurants, boutiques, galleries and museums. Without the Arts District, The Smith Center and museums, I could not convince these folks to invest in downtown Las Vegas.

“Las Vegas is on the cusp of becoming a world-class city. We have great transportation and infrastructure; affordable housing; access to first-rate recreation like Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Lake Mead, Mount Charleston and nearby national parks; outstanding higher education including a new medical school and a nationally ranked law school; improving public education and remarkable private schools; exceptional governance and a business-friendly environment.

“And, now, we have not one but two professional sports teams — the Vegas Golden Knights and the Raiders — along with a second NASCAR race.

“Yet, the one area where we are lacking is in the arts, particularly the visual arts.

“My company is looking at some major new developments in the downtown Las Vegas market.

I can honestly say that the development of a world-class art museum in Symphony Park would be a key determining factor. It is the final ingredient for Las Vegas to claim its destiny as a world-class city.”

To learn more, visit the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

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A billionaire art collector has decided to invest in the Los Angeles’ booming Arts District by building a project aptly called 641 and located at 641 South Imperial Street in L.A.

Adam Lindemann, a billionaire who also has a passion for collecting art, is investing millions in L.A.’s booming Arts District by building a 12-story mixed-use project that includes 140 live-work lofts, 7,000 square feet of street-level retail and art space, and another 7,000 square feet of creative office space.

Architectural firm Johnson Fain recently revealed a striking design for the building, which features a wavy, fragmented façade and slender balconies. According to the firm, the building’s units will range in size from 600 to 1,300 square feet, with high ceilings and open interior space. The breezy design allows for floor-to-ceiling windows, as well as balconies for views around the neighborhood.

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A robust stack of master drawings and an iconic painting recently became part of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Who are the masters added to the growing world-class collection?

On July 20, the J. Paul Getty Museum announced its acquisition of a number of incredible master drawings and an iconic painting by French artist Jean Antoine Watteau. Acquired as a group from a British private collection, the 16 drawings are by many of the greatest artists in western art history, including Michelangelo, Lorenzo di Credi, Andrea del Sarto, Parmigianino, Peter Paul Rubens, Barocci, Goya, Degas, and others.

Getty Director Timothy Potts said, “This acquisition is truly a transformative event in the history of the Getty Museum. It brings into our collection many of the finest drawings of the Renaissance through the 19th century that have come to market over the past 30 years, including a number of masterpieces that are among the most famous works on paper by these artists. It is very unlikely that there will ever be another opportunity to elevate so significantly our representation of these artists, and, more importantly, the status of the Getty collection overall.

“No less exciting for the Department of Paintings is the addition of one of Watteau’s most famous and canonical works, ‘La Surprise.’ It was indeed a very welcome surprise when this lost masterpiece reappeared ten years ago in Britain. And one can see why: the act of seduction portrayed in the painting is matched only by the artist’s delicately flickering brushwork — the combination of titillating subject and charming rendition that made him the most esteemed painter of his day. It will be very much at home at the Getty, where it crowns our other exceptional 18th-century French paintings by Lancret, Chardin, Greuze, Fragonard, and Boucher.”

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Gallery Route One is poised to present once again its most successful fundraiser, an incredible idea they call THE BOX SHOW, which involves 150 artists, 150 boxes, and seven weeks of fantastical, wild, imaginative artworks.

Gallery Route One in Point Reyes Station, California, will open on August 11 its amazing BOX SHOW, in which the gallery distributes 150 identically sized wooden boxes to 150 artists. Each person creates a unique, extraordinary work of art that is on display at the gallery for seven weeks, through September 24. Silent bidding for the boxes occurs throughout the exhibition, culminating in the dynamic live auction on Sunday, September 24.

The exhibition benefits Gallery Route One’s programs in the community: the Artists in the Schools Program, the Latino Photography Project, With the Earth: Arts and the Environment, and Social Justice Exhibits.

To learn more, visit Gallery Route One.

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It’s always a joy to be presented with the opportunity to view works by acclaimed Anglo-American painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). This remarkable exhibition has brought together a special selection of these…

Renowned for his astute and sensitive oil portraits of the European elite in the 19th century, John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was also — surprise, surprise — incredibly talented with watercolors, many of which feature during a captivating exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery in Southwark, United Kingdom.

More than 80 paintings from both private and public collections compose the exhibition, “revealing Sargent’s idiosyncratic view of the world and the scale of his achievement,” the gallery writes. “Free from the constraints of his studio he was able to take inspiration from the places he visited — from the streams and glacial moraines in The Alps to the renaissance and baroque architecture he explored in Venice. Working en plein air, Sargent developed a distinctive way of seeing and composing, his subjects often appearing fragmented and disorienting — an expression of his personal, modern aesthetic.”

Titled “Sargent: The Watercolours,” the show opened on June 21 and will continue through October 8. To learn more, visit Dulwich Picture Gallery.

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