Come this fall, downtown Phoenix might lose another contemporary art space — Modified Arts Director Kim Larkin says she’ll be leaving the gallery on Roosevelt Row at the end of June. Larkin’s been coordinating and curating contemporary art exhibitions at Modified since community activist Kimber Lanning (who still owns the…
Downtown artist, gallery owner, and contemporary arts advocate Greg Esser is back with another project — this time, in Tempe. ASU Art Museum announced that Esser will be associate director of the Desert Initiative, which will support artistic and scientific research into desert cultures and environments. Esser’s a natural fit…
Hugo Medina’s not afraid of climbing the rickety scaffold in downtown’s Icehouse to hang the lighting for tomorrow’s show; he’s done it before … and hopes he’ll have the chance to do it again. Medina’s on a mission to raise money for the historic-building-turned-arts-venue in hopes of “saving” it from…
Lauren Bailey and Craig DeMarco are serious about their over-sized sticks of chalk — they’re what marked the walkways, outlined the bar, and mapped out the tables on the empty, concrete floor where Windsor and Churn now stand in downtown Phoenix. The two are no strangers to restaurant concept and…
Since we checked in with Phoenix designer Eric Torres in January, he’s been busy mapping Rynaga. Rynaga is Torres’s world — a narrated, illustrated environment he’s created for fantastic creatures with real life stories (think Tolkien, Homer, and Lewis Carol with a more comic feel). The World of Rynaga Explorer’s…
Civic Space Park, home to Janet Echelman’s “Her Secret is Patience” (aka, the giant glowing net) in the heart of downtown Phoenix, is the silver medal recipient of the 2011 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence. The biennial prize was established in 1986 to honor exceptional urban places that transform…
Spiderman, The Joker, Juggernaut, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Is this a checklist of our favorite characters ever, or the lineup of the latest blockbuster crossover between Marvel and DC? Nope. It’s a sample of the sort of colorful comic book characters who will be adorning the beautiful badge…
Kellie Wallace and Olivia Perry are looking for a solution. The two seniors at Arizona School for the Arts are in a classed called Challenge-Based Learning, in which students are encouraged to find a social issue, or challenge, and find the means for a solution. They know illegal immigration and…
It’s Third Friday, and if you’re ready to fall in love with a piece of local artwork, take a Red Dress Tour down Grand Avenue, or peruse a few galleries in Phoenix, we have you covered. Here are a few shows you don’t want to miss. 1. Not a cloud…
Perhaps you can fall in love with a piece of art, after all. Research by Semir Zeki, Professor of Neuroesthetics at University College London shows that the viewing of a great piece of art creates the same chemical response in the brain (namely, a release of dopamine) as being in love. That said, Third Friday…
When Armando Rascon, Pablo Luna, Lalo Cota, El Mac, Brent Atwood, Harry Baldwin, Matt Minjares, Matt Dickson, Keith Knight, and Luiki are together in one room, it’s bound to be a good time — with some seriously good artwork. The group of artists were part of The Nitty Gritty — a series of bi-annual exhibitions from 1998 to 2003 that…
Bless the British men, who — not to be outdone by their snaggle-tooth female counterparts — are busy popularizing the pubic art of the pejazzle. This week, Mark Wright, star of Britain’s trainwreck television show The Only Way is Essex, became the head, er, face of the pejazzling trend, which much…
Artist Heather Green spent many childhood days and nights in La Cholla, a headland along the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. Her family had a one-room cabin built there by her grandfather in the early 1960s. The cabin was built up against a hill overlooking the rocky reef and featured…
Phoenix Comicon, the annual comic book, anime, media, and gaming convention kicks off May 26 in Mesa. Stay tuned to Jackalope Ranch for interviews, must-sees, and must-avoids. And in the meantime, go ahead and geek out over the Con’s latest commercial…
Last night, Phoenix Art Museum’s Contemporary Forum awarded eight local artists who’ve made a mark in the contemporary scene. The annual event recognizes up to seven emerging Arizona artists with $1,500 grants to purchase materials and one mid-career artist with $5,000 plus a special exhibition of his or her work…
Local visual artists JB Snyder and Jeremy Arviso know a thing or two about slaving over the canvas. And lately, they’ve been sharing back aches and sleep deprivation over the same one. Tomorrow night, the two will showcase their first collaborative piece at Yucca Tap Room in Tempe. A total…
Rachel Bess’s latest collection “the ghost show,” explores her view of the supernatural world through dark and beautifully detailed paintings.The show, currently at Perihelion Arts in downtown Phoenix, features human and animal ghosts, a seance, and a campier Ghost Busters scene, Bess says this show is just the beginning of…
Michael Kemper Goodwin’s historical and architectural roots ran deep; his grandparents were Tempe pioneers, and he and his father, Kemper Goodwin, designed local schools and Tempe’s City Hall. Michael Goodwin died on May 4 at the age of 72.The architect and beloved local artist studied at the University of Southern…
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Since downtown’s First Friday is in full swing, we figured you should have some Arizona artists to follow today. There’s a lot to do this First Friday; from the to the Opening Reception at ASU’s Vault Gallery, so you should probably go ahead and hit follow on these local artists…
