Image provided by William Shea and Patrick Lai
In commemoration of Las Vegas reopening and the community’s vibrant cultural arts scene, Ms. Lanny Love, philanthropist and proprietor of the Adult Superstores has commissioned a large work of art by acclaimed Las Vegas based artist Gear Duran. Las Vegas art curator and advisor on the project Brian “Paco” Alvarez, envisioned a mural that would represent a unifying force and rebirth for a city rising again.
“The goal was to commission a mural that celebrated the reopening of Las Vegas, its rich cultural diversity and the beauty of love as interpreted in Chinese mythology.”
Brian “Paco” Alvarez, Curator
Artist Gear Duran was chosen to execute the auspicious mural because of his extensive experience creating large scale murals, art installations and transformative projects inspired by science-fiction writings and ancient mythology. Taking inspiration from the Lungshan Temple in Taipei, Taiwan, the 100’ x 30’ mural features the mythical animals of the Phoenix (Fenghuang) and the Dragon (Lóng). Together these two powerful celestial beings represent the balance between yin and yang, love and marital bliss.
"When the dragon soars and the phoenix dances, the people will enjoy happiness for years, bringing peace and tranquility to all under heaven."
Ancient Chinese saying
The mural represents the largest work of art commissioned in Las Vegas’ Chinatown neighborhood to date.
The mural is located at the Adult Superstore in Chinatown – 3226 Spring Mountain Road, Las Vegas, Nevada 89102.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Gear Duran
Gear Duran was born in Santa Maria, California in 1978 of Native American. Mexican and Chinese ancestry. Gear’s first job was airbrushing t-shirts in 7th grade after school and quickly learning the lucrative business of being both an artists and entrepreneur. Always being surrounded with Comic books, video games and late-night sci-fi shows with his grandfather, these were the visual building blocks he used as inspiration from an early age.
His Creations lean towards a dark surrealistic graffiti sci-fi approach. Having been exposed to digital art and photoshop back in 1997, he was living in the midst of the dot com boom era surrounded by hackers, musicians, pc building, pirate radio enthusiasts and guerilla artists. From there his love of cross pollinating both digital and traditional media exploded.
“Think Tron Meets Dark Crystal and Beat Street then toss in some Blade runner.”
Gear Duran, Artist
Gear has his Certificate in Digital Production from GNOMON School of Visual Effects, Games and Animation in Hollywood, California (2005-2007). He was also a Keynote speaker at the Consumer Electronics Show Intel’s booth representing Corel corporations release of Painter 2016 and their new physics driven particle brushes. He has working relationships with Wacom Technologies and has demoed with them on many occasions at tradeshows like CES, Adobe Max and NAB. He has had his two mural installations at The LINQ Promenade and at Neonopolis on Fremont Street. Gear was also featured on Netflix Reality TV Show “SKINWARS” season 1 and 3 episodes of SKINWARS (Fresh Paint).
Gear’s has completed projects for Intel, Microsoft, Adobe, Acer, Dell. HP, PPG, The Venetian, Bellagio, Red Bull, Wacom, Corel, Createx colors, Blue Pulse Studios, Requiem Coffee, The LINQ hotel and casino, Tangible Interaction, House of Kolor, Korn, Iwata Airbrush, SprayMax, Red Apple Fireworks, Las Vegas Atours.
Website: gearduranart.com
Instagram: @gearduran
Twitter: @GearDuran
Facebook: Gear Duran
ABOUT THE ADULT SUPERSTORE
The Adult Superstores is the longest operating adult novelty and bookstore(s) in Southern Nevada. Serving the Las Vegas community and visitors from around the world since February 1973. The Adult Superstore has been voted “Best of Las Vegas 2011-2019”, “Best of Las Vegas Readers Pick 2011-2019”, and “GOLD Best Adult Bookstore in Las Vegas 2016-2019” by the Las Vegas Review Journal.
Continuing its tradition of serving the Las Vegas community, the Adult Superstore is proud to celebrate and support Southern Nevada’s cultural arts by commissioning local artists to create works of art for everyone to enjoy. Local artists and photographers who have been commissioned in 2020; Gear Duran, Mario Reyes in collaboration with the Las Vegas Artists Guild, 3 BAAAD Sheep artists Eddie Canumay and Alexander Sky, artist Nancy Good and photographer Claus Schmidt.