When the samurai charged into battle centuries ago, they didn't do so in matching camouflage or simple plate armor. Rather, the warrior elite donned intricate suits equally fascinating for their form and function, with the same remarkable attention applied to their horses' armor, their swords, even their arrows.
"The arrows specifically are amazing," said Tarissa Tiberti, executive director of art and culture for MGM Resorts International. "That you would take the time. They're beautiful and they're a weapon."
Tiberti is responsible for bringing "Samurai: Armor From the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection" to the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, where more than 50 pieces of samurai apparel and equipment will arrive Nov. 3 and stay on display through April 29.
The show is an exciting departure for the resort's gallery, which typically features two-dimensional works, but it's not the only new exhibit earning buzz in Las Vegas.
• On Sept. 27, "Exhibitionism: The Rolling Stones" celebrated its grand opening on the Strip, bringing more than 500 items of memorabilia from the band's archive to the Palazzo.
More than 500 pieces of Rolling Stones memorabilia, including costumes and instruments, are on display at the Palazzo.
Produced by Australian iEC Exhibitions, the show covers the group's 55-year history through beloved instruments, wild costumes, personal diaries and unseen photos and film clips of the British rockers.
"It's not going to be like walking into a museum," Stones vocalist Mick Jagger said of the exhibit, which opened in London last year and made stops in New York and Chicago before landing in Las Vegas. "It's going to be an event, an experience. It's about a sense of the Rolling Stones it's something we want people to go away talking about it."
The display is a fan's dream, featuring a replica of the band's recording studio, a gallery of the Stones' favorite guitars, Jagger's lyric book with the words for "Miss You" and creations by the band's collaborators, including Andy Warhol, Alexander McQueen, Shepard Fairey and Martin Scorsese.
The exhibit will run through Jan. 31. Tickets start at $32.50.
• An impressive ensemble of talent is also visible in downtown Las Vegas, where the latest edition of Life Is Beautiful Festival in September has left the walls of the Fremont East neighborhood with a vibrant coat of fresh paint.
Since its inception in 2013, a core component of the three-day music and arts event has been its street art program, which welcomes muralists from around the world to add their flavor to the urban landscape. Curated by global art organization JustKids, this year's roster included Brooklyn-based Faile, who painted a massive piece on the Plaza Hotel; Brazilian collective Bicicleta Sem Freio, who offered literal cool cats rocking out on a variety of instruments; and Kevin Lyons, who depicted a tribe of friendly pastel monsters.
Their works and others join murals from previous years that have turned the neighborhood into an open-air art gallery, free to wander, browse and, of course, Instagram.
The street art collection works especially well in downtown Las Vegas, where attractions are confined to a relatively tight footprint and visitors often bounce between restaurants, bars, hotels and other destinations. Indeed, they've come to define the area, and give it an extra infusion of 'hood cred.
• At the Bellagio, Tiberti said that the samurai collection is also a good fit for Las Vegas.
"We get visitors from all over the world -- middle America to Europe, South America and Asia -- and people are here for every interest, entertainment, gambling, eating, going to the pool. You do have to think about all of that, so I really like to make art exhibits as well-rounded as they can be, so they're accessible to all kinds of people and all levels of interest in art." Tickets start at $16.
Spanning from the 14th to 19th centuries, the exhibition will include full suits of ornate armor, lacquered helmets, horse masks, expertly crafted weapons and more. "It's for everyone," Tiberti said. "It's really the evolution of the omote dogu the external appearance and equipment of the samurai warrior."
Together, the pieces offer the most in-depth exploration of Japanese culture that the Bellagio gallery has hosted to date, but individually through family crests, materials used, special markings or the way it was made each item also tells a story about who once used it.
"There's personal history within each piece," Tiberti said.