Jane Dickson's Las Vegas Paintings at Valentine Gallery Explore Neon and Abstraction

Jane Dickson's exhibition 'Eat Slots, Play Free' ran from March 23 to April 15, 2012 at Valentine Gallery in Ridgewood, Queens. The show featured her paintings of Las Vegas casinos, rendered in sunless, shadowless neon that strips away visual spectacle to reveal architectural bones. Dickson's work connects these spaces to 20th century abstraction, referencing artists like Frank Stella and Richard Anuszkiewicz. Her approach contrasts with photographers and filmmakers who treat Las Vegas with moralizing condescension. Dickson's artistic evolution includes earlier Times Square sex industry paintings from the 1980s and work on Astroturf surfaces. Her current canvases show influences from Georges Seurat's Pointillism and conté crayon studies, particularly in her treatment of light auras that simplify figures. The exhibition location was 464 Seneca Avenue, between Himrod and Harman streets. Dickson's work has affinities with East Village punk realism artists Martin Wong and Eric Drooker, as well as Yvonne Jacquette's urban structuralism and animator Suzan Pitt's visionary deliberation. Her Las Vegas paintings transform neon's synthetic cheer into what limelight was for Seurat's circus scenes.