In 1994, during a routine excavation at the site of Temple XIII in Palenque, Mexico, workers unearthed a pre-Columbian burial chamber containing the remains of a woman, cloaked in a heavy layer of powdered red pigment. They called her “The Red Queen.” Mexican-born artist Ricardo Mazal took more than 300…
“Annual Summer Juried Exhibition” at ASU Harry Wood Gallery: This year’s crop of MFA hopefuls shows a surprising awareness of domestic issues including water conservation, racial profiling and changing family values. Look for tongue-in-cheek political lampoons, like Exhibitions Class Award winner Corie J. Cole’s ceramic caricatures of cowboy Bush and…
This guy knows how to take a photo. That was my first thought when I entered the gallery space at Mesa Arts Center. Fine-art photographer Michael Eastman’s interiors of crumbling Cuban mansions are breathtaking — and they’re enormous, about 5×4 feet on average. Each work, with its large scale and…
“Annual Summer Juried Exhibition” at ASU Harry Wood Gallery: This year’s crop of MFA hopefuls shows a surprising awareness of domestic issues including water conservation, racial profiling and changing family values. Look for tongue-in-cheek political lampoons, like Exhibitions Class Award winner Corie J. Cole’s ceramic caricatures of cowboy Bush and…
Sean O’Donnell waves at visitors from the window of his paint-peeling brick home; his fingertips splayed in greeting, his face mashed against the glass. “The first time I saw that, I forgot he was dead,” says artist Janet de Berge Lange, pointing to the color photocopy of O’Donnell that he…
Reviews by Wynter Holden “Holy Land: Diaspora and the Desert” at the Heard Museum: Something is definitely missing here. Only one Israeli artist is represented, and the closest thing to Jewish art is a photographic series exploring the Dead Sea. Still, this exhibition is worth checking out, even if just…
What does it mean to be an American? I have a hunch it’s a question many U.S. citizens rarely consider. Sometimes, it is not until others define us that we gain clarity about ourselves — and our nation. Heidi Hesse — born in Germany and raised in South Africa –…
“Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like?” at Burton Barr Central Library: From start to finish, this inspirational exhibition defies convention. The collection of 182 color and black-and-white photographs depicts sportswomen of all ages, races and walks of life — from corseted, Victorian-era tennis players, to household names…
James Angel at Modified Arts: Artist James Angel is living proof that you can go home again. Faded, dusty road signs against a tea-stained neutral background evoke memories of family vacations in his Cosmopolitan, and the magically delicious breakfast cereal becomes a surface for “tagging” in Lucky G. But it’s…
There’s no question that Americans have a disturbing fascination with death. Why do we die? Is there an afterlife? These are some of the great mysteries of life. The quandary is that we cannot fully understand death until we experience it firsthand. For artist Petah Coyne, that isn’t a barrier…
It was Christmas in March last Friday at Retail Laboratory, the hipster boutique on Roosevelt Row in downtown Phoenix’s art district. Shoppers were in and out of the “micro department store” all day, browsing the Penguin shirts and Jonathan Adler housewares, making some purchases. There certainly hadn’t been this much…
“Father and Son Exhibition” at Figarelli Fine Art: The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree when it comes to sculptor Allan Houser Haozous and his son, Phillip. Father’s influence can be seen in the familial depictions dominating Phillip’s work — brothers embracing, mothers clinging to infants. But the younger…
Go to a city like New York, Denver or Chicago, and a glimmering Oz awaits you. The city core is thriving, the mass transit is running, the scene is a done deal and you just have to hop on board. In Phoenix the downtown is still more down than town,…
“Sensual Pleasures” at the Herberger Gallery: Phoenix artist Jeanne Collins’ installation Biopsy Banquet is the standout in this group show of predictable erotic-themed pieces. Her gleefully grotesque feast fit for Hannibal Lecter consists of ceramic entrees made from human organs. There’s Stomach l’orange with Sliced Beets and Green Beans, Lungs…
“Sensual Pleasures” at the Herberger Gallery: Phoenix artist Jeanne Collins’ installation Biopsy Banquet is the standout in this group show of predictable erotic-themed pieces. Her gleefully grotesque feast fit for Hannibal Lecter consists of ceramic entrees made from human organs. There’s Stomach l’orange with Sliced Beets and Green Beans, Lungs…
You would think a show full of candy-colored Andy Warhol pictures of Mick Jagger, Marilyn Monroe and designer shoes would be all froth and fun. Think again. The 97 Warhol prints in “Andy Warhol’s Dream America,” a traveling exhibition at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, carry a larger, darker…
“Sensual Pleasures” at the Herberger Gallery: Phoenix artist Jeanne Collins’ installation Biopsy Banquet is the standout in this group show of predictable erotic-themed pieces. Her gleefully grotesque feast fit for Hannibal Lecter consists of ceramic entrees made from human organs. There’s Stomach l’orange with Sliced Beets and Green Beans, Lungs…
If you’re not the sort of person who understands very deeply how your iPod downloads and manages all those songs, the work in “southwestNET: techno,” a show of technological devices as art at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, will leave you baffled. To use a techno term, this exhibition…
The theme of the group show at Herberger Theater Center Gallery is “Sensual Pleasures,” so there’s lots of red in the pottery, paintings and sculptures on exhibit. Because as we all know, red equals sexy. There are also the requisite nude female forms cropped tightly so the curve of a…
“Lingerie: Secrets of Elegance” at Phoenix Art Museum: Yep, you read that right. Bras, baby doll nighties, and a sunburst display of girdles are just a gallery over from the paintings of dead white guys in powdered wigs. This fascinating fashion exhibition traces lingerie’s evolution (or maybe devolution) from corsets…
One of the hottest trends going in the art world is for artists or groups of artists to work under a pseudonym. The phony name is a protest against commercialism in art, and it’s also a heck of a good gimmick. Enter COAX, the nom de brush of a Phoenix…
Susan Copeland at Burton Barr Central Library: Hey, America, wake up and smell the discrimination. That’s the theme of Susan Copeland’s exhibition “Refuse,” a name that refers to the materials Copeland uses in her mixed-media creations and to treatment she believes African-Americans get in this country. The strongest pieces in…
