Seven Painted Totems in the Ivanpah Valley
Drive south out of Las Vegas on Las Vegas Boulevard and the city thins into open desert. Near the far southern end of the boulevard, in the Ivanpah Valley, seven stacks of boulders rise from the flats, each painted in Day-Glo colors that flare in the sun. This is Seven Magic Mountains, a land-based installation by the Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone, commissioned and financed by the Art Production Fund and the Nevada Museum of Art. It is one of the largest land-based installations completed in the United States in the last forty years, and it sits against a backdrop of the McCullough Range, near Jean Lake.
The work is worth your time because of the idea behind it. Rondinone had previously made Human Nature, stone figures at Rockefeller Center, wanting to show something raw within an artificial environment. Seven Magic Mountains is the direct opposite: something artificial in a natural environment. He describes the site as physically and symbolically midway between the natural, meaning the mountain ranges, desert and Jean Dry Lake, and the artificial, meaning the highway and the traffic between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The work reads as a critique of the simulacra of destinations like Las Vegas. You are standing at that midpoint.
What You See and What You Do
The sculptures are stacks of locally sourced limestone boulders, held together by a backbone and covered in two layers of Day-Glo that the sun activates. Each boulder was selected by the artist for size and shape, and the boulders are stacked in groups ranging from three to six. The forms are inspired by the hoodoos of the Western United States. Las Vegas Paving Corp. sourced the boulders from its quarries, where they would normally be crushed for road and infrastructure use, and assisted with fabrication and installation.
What you do there is simple and mostly visual:
- Walk among the seven totems and watch the colors shift as the light changes.
- Photograph them against the desert and the McCullough Range; the site has become one of the most photographed artworks in the region, with the Reno Gazette-Journal estimating that more than two million people have taken photographs at the sculpture for Instagram.
- Read the landscape the piece responds to: the dry lakebed, the mountains, and the interstate traffic that Rondinone framed as the artificial half of the equation.
Climbing the artwork is prohibited, as you can fall. The site is not staffed, so treat the work with care. The boulders have had to be repainted more than once because of the weather, and the site is commonly vandalized, which is why cleanup happens with changing frequency.
How to Make the Most of a Visit
The colors are activated by the sun, so go in daylight and give the light time to work on the paint. Because the installation is unstaffed and the desert offers no shade, plan your stop around the heat rather than around a schedule. A visit takes only as long as you want to spend looking and photographing; most people treat it as a stop of an hour or less on the way to or from the city. The highlight is the whole ensemble: seven totems seen together against the open valley, with the McCullough Range behind them. Take that wide view before you move in close.
Reach it by car. From the Las Vegas Strip the drive is roughly 25 to 30 minutes, and the site is visible from Interstate 15; Las Vegas Paving built a graveled parking area next to the installation. Rideshare is an option, with fares of about $30 each way reported. The artwork was cut, cored and stacked in December 2015, painted in April 2016 and opened on May 11, 2016. It was originally meant to stand for only two years, until December 31, 2018, but drew so many visitors that the exhibition was extended for three more years and then extended again, until May 31, 2027. As of 2024 the installation could be relocated north to Washoe County, and when the exhibition ends, all traces of it and the parking area are to be removed, returning the desert to its prior condition. MGM Resorts International will retain one totem for permanent display in The Park, its entertainment district on the Las Vegas Strip.
What Else Is Close By
The site sits near Jean Dry Lake, where Michael Heizer and Jean Tinguely created land art works in the 1960s, so your stop can be part of a longer look at land art in the desert. Back toward the city, the Strip is a short drive north, and the installation's programming has been tied to partner sites including the Marjorie Barrick Museum at UNLV and ARIA Resort & Casino. If you want context before or after your visit, the official site offers on-site smartphone tours and education and interpretation materials that place the work in the tradition of land art on public lands in the Western United States.
Start planning around a clear desert day, point your car south on Las Vegas Boulevard, and give yourself the time to stand between the mountains and the highway, where Rondinone placed his painted boulders. The window is open until May 31, 2027, and the desert will look different once the totems are gone.