TRAVEL

Opening Shot: The New Palms Casino Resort Might Be Las Vegas's Best Art Museum

As part of its $620 million renovation, the casino resort offers an insane collection of blue-chip works and contemporary street art, curated by executive creative director Tal Cooperman. We got the exclusive first look at the pieces on view.

Olivia Steele, "All I Want is Everything," 2018.

Opening Shot is a column that peeks inside new hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops with interiors to drool over. Happy scrolling. 

PALMS CASINO RESORT

Location: Las Vegas

Curator: Executive Creative Director Tal Cooperman

On Offer: A hefty collection of modern art masterpieces from the likes of Richard Prince, Andy Warhol, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, on loan from Palms owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, blended with contemporary commissions from stars of the street art scene, including Jason Revoke, Crash, KAWS, Timothy Curtis, and Eric Haze.

Standout Features: A Damien Hirst shark, titled “The Unknown,” hanging over a casino floor bar the artist designed himself, a private dining room at signature steakhouse Scotch 80 Prime features a triptych of early Basquiat works entitled “Speaks For Itself.” To further the property’s Instagram-friendly aesthetic, noodle bar Send Noodles is lined with murals by James Jean, the illustrator responsible for the movie posters for this year’s Oscar winner, The Shape of Water.

(Left) A Damien Hirst work. (Right) Richard Prince's "Nurse in Las Vegas" (2006-08) in the Camden Cocktail lounge.
John "Crash" Matos's "Saturday Morning Matinée" (2004).
Jean-Michel Basquiat's triptych "Speaks for Itself," (1981) hangs in the “Basquiat Room.”
(Left) Kaws's "Small Lie" (207) stands at the entrance of Scotch 80. Andy Warhol's "Dollar Sign (Quad)" screen prints.
Todd James's "All the Time in the World" (2018) in the VIP lounge.
Damien Hirst's "N-Methylhydroxylamine" (2007), Andy Warhol's "Repent and Sin No More" (1985-86), and Damien Hirst's "Beautiful, Black and White, Good and Bad, Laurel and hardy, Keystone Cops, The Beatles, David Bailey Made the 60’s" (2007) hang together in the restaurant Scotch 80 Prime.
Richard Prince, "Untitled (Vegas After Dark)," 2009.
Eric Haze's "Kings Only" (2018) and prints by Christopher Wool in the VIP lounge.
"Wish You Were Here" is a collaboration between photographer Keegan Gibbs and light artist Olivia Steele displayed at check-in.
(Left) Detail from one of Dustin Yellin's "Psychogeographies." (Right) Jason Revok's "Spirograph #2" (2017).
All Stories