When Ralph DeLuca—who is often described as the “art advisor to the stars” thanks to a roster of longtime clients that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Sylvester Stallone, and MGM Resorts International—purchased a home in Las Vegas, back in 2017, nobody could have predicted the changes that would transform the city (or the world, for that matter) into what it is, today.  But DeLuca (who splits his time between New York and Las Vegas) began planting strategic seeds with his peeps among the art world cognoscenti, encouraging them to join him in the desert.  

One of those seeds planted by DeLuca took root with his friend, the New York gallerist Alex Shulan.   Lomex, Shulan’s gallery, debuted in 2015 in the one-time Bowery studio of Eva Hesse (the acclaimed German-born American Post-minimalist sculptor) and has since expanded to occupy a pair of locations in TriBeCa.  With its emphasis on “new New York art” and engagement with the aesthetics of youth culture, Lomex has earned a reputation for elevating a new generation of New York artists while also presenting culturally influential figures whom the art world may have overlooked.

In mid-2024, Shulan visited DeLuca in Las Vegas, and the two began searching for an OG mid-century modern home in a historic neighborhood to convert into an experiential art gallery.  Upon finding a house in the Paradise Palms neighborhood that suited their needs, they enlisted one of DeLuca’s new Vegas pals, the vintage enthusiast-cum-interior designer, “Queen of Kitsch” ​Carlotta Champagne, who passionately transformed the mid-century house's interiors into an immersive work of art inspired by Atomic Age design.

Now, beginning on New Year’s Eve, and running through February 16, 2026, Lomex Las Vegas—a collaboration between DeLuca and Shulan—will be presenting its inaugural exhibition, The Dream, featuring works by two artists, photographer Heji Shin and painter and multidisciplinary artist Mathieu Malouf, a married couple who tied the knot in Las Vegas, and live in New York, yet despite their successful careers, have never exhibited together.

A photographer known for her high-octane images rooted in the language of fashion photography, Heji Shin uses irony and wit to produce incisive social commentary; perhaps my favorite being her “Big Cocks” series featuring massive portraits of roosters.  In The Dream, following her recent exhibitions at the Aspen Art Museum and Zwirner 52 Walker Gallery, Shin will present large-format photographs of rockets launching from Cape Canaveral, images that render the rockets somewhere “between a heroic vehicle of triumph and a toy.”  Displayed in an Atomic Age home, detecting the implicit allusion to nuclear testing won’t require a private investigator’s license.

Painter and multidisciplinary artist Mathieu Malouf will present large-scale chrome and gold works—which he created in Las Vegas, mind you!—the construction of which incorporated dehydrated mushrooms.  Operating as a kind of frenzied spectacle, drawing on Pop Art and German Expressionist painting, Malouf’s works make a tacit comment on how networks of consensus emerge in the art world (kinda like fungi!).  Coming on the heels of recent exhibitions with Greene Naftali and Nahmad Contemporary (both in New York), The Dream is a continuation of Malouf’s long-running “Mushroom Paintings” series.

With The Dream, Lomex Las Vegas is excited to inaugurate its program of rotating exhibitions, which will bring a bevy of new contemporary artists to Las Vegas for many years to come.

The Dream | Heji Shin and Mathieu Malouf
Lomex Las Vegas (by appointment only)
3586 Spencer Street | Paradise Palms
Opening: Wednesday, December 31 | 2-8PM
Click HERE for details and appointments

Get into it!
#LomexLV