2014 LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL Festival Announces Interactive Art Series, 10/24-26

Life is Beautiful Festival unveils another pillar for its 2014 culture festival taking place Friday, October 24 through Sunday, October 26. The art program is designed to create a live urban gallery that is seamlessly integrated into the festival footprint by employing several mediums of visual art from large-scale murals and instalments to interactive art centers and immersive galleries.

"The art program is as integral to the overall festival experience as any other aspect at Life is Beautiful," said festival founder Rehan Choudhry, " Our goal is to change individual's everyday relationship with art by inspiring creativity and challenging perspectives, especially amongst those who normally wouldn't consider themselves art enthusiasts."

The festival's art program is comprised of two separate initiatives, each bringing artists out of their traditional studios and galleries and into the streets of Downtown Las Vegas. The art program will be expanding in 2014 to also take over the Western Hotel to create a completely captivating space that will utilize all of the senses to offer a unique and engaging experience for festival goers.

Street Art

Evident by last year's successful program and the many murals that still exist on the streets of downtown today, the urban surroundings of the Life is Beautiful Festival provide a perfect backdrop for the eclectic and semi-permanent street art program featuring some of the biggest names in the international street art scene. Curated by Charlotte Dutoit (Justkids), the street art program will transform the festival landscape into a magical art-inspired playground to give people a playful and unexpected escape into art.

Contributing artists include:

Borondo (Spain) - Borondo is a rising Spanish urban artist, currently living in London, heralded for his classical painting techniques. Since his formal studies, Borondo has painted large-scale street art in the USA, Brazil, Turkey and across Europe. He quickly became London's most talked about artist.

CYRCLE. (U.S) - This collective of street artists, graphic designers and traditional fine artists from Los Angeles has been developing their own language for the past few years. In that brief time, CYRCLE. has made a massive impact on the street and gallery scene, quickly gaining the respect of the international art community. Their aesthetic combines Classic Romanticism with alchemic symbolism, introducing it to the contemporary world through street campaigns, gallery work, and collaborations.

D*Face (UK) - After participating in the 2013 festival, D*Face is involved once again in this year's street art program. Considered one of most prolific contemporary urban artists of his generation, he has been a leading figure in urban art for well over a decade. A contemporary of Banksy, he was at the forefront of the urban art movement, and has had a constant presence throughout its meteoric rise into popular culture.

Misaki Kawai (Japan) - Japanese Brooklyn bases artist, works with painting, drawing, sculpture, installations and books. Her works are filled with colorful characters, who appear to come from the dream world of film, music and comics. Strongly influenced by today's consumer society - of which she herself is a part - Kawai fuses East with West, humour with seriousness and dreams with reality. In 2014 she was oart of the show "This is not a toy" co-curated by Pharrel Williams along Takashi Murakami and Kaws.

Li - Hill (Canada) - He incorporates found objects and unconventional materials to structure complex multi-layered pieces that are as aesthetic as they are thought provoking. He has had works shown in such national institutions as the National Gallery of Victoria, The Art Gallery of Ontario and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

Fintan Magee (Australia) - Moving away from the traditional graffiti in recent years, the Australian artist has started to explore new ideas and imagery within his painting. In the last three years he has created some of the largest and most interesting street pieces around the world.

Maser (Ireland) - Maser first started painting graffiti in Ireland in 1995 and quickly gained a reputation as one of the most innovative artists working in the field. Alongside his paintings in the public realm, Maser also produces works on canvas, video and 3D installations.

ROA (Belgium) - Renowned for his unique portrayal of large scale urban wildlife, disquietly cohabiting city streets, hand painted in his distinctive black and white style. ROA has become famous from painting animals on derelict buildings, shutters & walls literally all over the world. He has also exhibited to much acclaim internationally and was also included in the MOCA exhibition 'Art In The Streets' in LA.

Edoardo Tresoldi (Italy) - Scenographer and sculptor Edoardo Tresoldi, creates amazing hand-made sculpture from metallic wire mesh, transforming a mundane industrial material into delicately crafted three-dimensional figures. His participation for the Life Is Beautiful Festival will be the first appearance of Edoardo Tresoldi's work in the United States

ART-tales

In addition to the street art, a first-class gallery art program curated by Patrick Duffy, President of the Las Vegas Art Museum, past executive board member for The Smith Center for the Performing Arts and Chairman of the UNLV Fine Art Galleries will also be presented at the festival. His program is set to take over the Western Hotel and will center on the visual manifestations of a selection of universal concepts and ideas including love, equality and family. Each transformed space will immerse attendees in the artist's world through utilizing a multitude of senses beyond just the visual component. Duffy's curation will include installments and collaborations from artists including: Audrey Barcio, Camilla Quinn, Eric Tillinghast, Gina Quaranto, Jerry M Misko II, Jesse Smigel, Jevijoe Vitug, JK Russ and Trifecta Gallery. Together with works by students from the Las Vegas Academy, Linda Alterwitz, Matthew Couper, Miguel Rodriquez, VAST Space Projects, Zak Ostrowski. and Aaron Sheppard.

In addition to both the local and international artists that will be participating in the 2014 art program, Life is Beautiful is proud to help facilitate collaborations between artists to create one of a kind works for the festival including an original mural design from Tim Bavington, best known for his brightly colored sculpture outside The Smith Center of Performing Arts and Sush Machida, contemporary Japanese artist whose work can be seen throughout Las Vegas.

"It's a wonderful opportunity that Life is Beautiful can help bring together artists from a multitude of different backgrounds ranging from students at the Las Vegas Academy to some of the most recognized names in the country," said Duffy, "It's our hope that through these works and collaborations we can leave our attendees slightly changed from the experience and to impress upon them that Life really is beautiful."

Tickets for the 2014 Life is Beautiful Festival are on sale now at www.lifeisbeautiful.com.

About Life is Beautiful - Life is Beautiful is an inspirational company dedicated to helping people conquer their fears and chase their dreams. Its signature project, the Life is Beautiful Festival was founded in 2013 and launched in October of that same year as a highly successful lifestyle event featuring marquee musicians, chefs, artists and speakers. Held in the heart of Downtown Las Vegas, Life is Beautiful Festival attracted more than 60,000 patrons in its first year, and is now branching out to an international online forum for social change. For more information on the company's projects and the latest festival news, visit www.lifeisbeautiful.com, or connect with Life is Beautiful socially at Facebook.com/LIBFestival, Twitter.com/lifeisbeautiful, Instagram.com/lifeisbeautiful and YouTube.com/user/LifeIsBeauitful.

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