How Michael Heizer’s “City,” a work of land art about the size of the National Mall, transformed rural Garden Valley into a fine art destination.

Whenever another development threatens to push farther into the Mojave, the same words appear: beige, barren, empty, wasteland. But the Mojave Desert, which includes Las Vegas, is anything but. More than 50 mammalian species wander its foothills, more than 200 species of birds cross its skies, and more than 2,000 species of plants endure its extended droughts and blistering heat. It’s home to the Joshua tree, found nowhere else on Earth.

People misjudge how far it is to the horizon in Utah. They misjudge the stretch of desert to the mountains turned blue and purple by the miles of dry air. They misjudge how many years people have been trying to find a way to live here and how many times the words "discouraged" and "moved on" appear in the history books of the area.

Jung Min turns to look at a mural along one of the front beams leading into Frank and Estella Beam Hall on the UNLV campus.

I don’t know if they meant it this way, but the curators of Viva Las Vegas were smart to position Mary Warner’s 2008 oil painting “Vegas World” as the first thing you see when you enter UNLV’s Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery. Lushly rendered and utterly gorgeous, it depicts a local neighborhood streetscape at sunset, the old Vegas World casino lit up in the distance.

The upcoming show, Ripper Jordan Redux, is a great example of the Matt & Jo praxis. “The inspiration for this show was actually discovering a collection of the archive works held by Sean Slattery, an artist and UNLV professor who consistently churns out dense, tongue-in-cheek work that requires as much scrutiny as it offers.