Beginning on Thursday of last week, my social media accounts started exploding with pictures of Daniel Funkhouser’s hypnotizing installation piece “Familiar Glass with Theatrical Spectacle with Transparent Illusion and Artselfie.” (With a title like that, who could resist?) The work was one of many included in this year’s ARTELPHX, a…
Roy Wasson Valle and Koryn Woodward Wasson have been busying creating an alternate universe inside the Scottsdale Public Library this month. Thursday, May 15, marks the official opening of “Camp Dreamtree,” an interactive art piece, which the duo describes as “an art installation in the shape of a camp.”…
Allow us some creative liberty here. How well do you know your neighbors? Beyond a slight nod or subtle wave? We’re guessing a “not well” or resounding “who?” about covers the gamut. Because, hey, we’re right there with you. One photography project has set out to change that expectation –…
Phoenix Art Museum director Jim Ballinger announced the 2014 Contemporary Forum grant winners at the museum on Wednesday, May 14, with French Thompson, Contemporary Forum’s president…
Downtown living opportunities are definitely on the rise — what with last year’s opening of Roosevelt Point, the newly available CityScape Residences, and, beginning this fall, the construction of Portland Place’s adjacent sister property, Portland on the Park…
The Twin Palms Hotel in Tempe will close its doors on Friday, May 16. The hotel is located across the street from ASU on Apache Boulevard, and has been a staple in Tempe since the 1970s, when it opened as a Howard Johnson’s…
Tucked away on the second floor of ASU’s Tower Center Building is a small room with AstroTurf floors and a shiny new glass door. If you peek in, you will see a quote on the wall. It comes from Rebecca Solnit’s Wanderlust: A History of Walking and reads: “Walking allows…
Roosevelt Row staple gallery Eye Lounge turns 15 this year. And to celebrate, owners Cindy Dach and Greg Esser are changing things up. Soon the collective art space, which currently can house three art exhibitions at a time, will welcome photographer, educator, and ASU alum Stephen Gittins’ business, Capture 12,…
After more than two decades and with nearly a dozen participating countries, it may be one of the most large-scale photography projects in the world. Or, at the very least, the Valley. Through Each Others Eyes, an artistic offshoot of the Phoenix Sister Cities Commission, celebrates its 25th exchange this…
First Friday heats up tonight with creative works going up all over Phoenix. Here are our picks for shows not to miss this evening. “Tom Sawyer Wears A Business Suit” The new Step Gallery in downtown Phoenix is the ideal venue for Bobby Zokaites’s MFA these exhibition “Tom Sawyer Wears…
From Bird City to the Windy City, native son and celebrated artist Joseph “Sentrock” Perez is still making waves. The former Valley resident, who now lives in Chicago, returns to the desert for a gallery showing this weekend — paying homage to the journey he’s been on and how far…
My grandmother makes wedding cakes for a living. The cakes are always delicious, but it’s their decorative aspects I’ve alway found fascinating. The tiers are pilled high, seemingly in defiance of gravity, and the sugary coating looks impossibly smooth, like untouched snow. When I first walked into “Domesticated,” Carrie Marill’s…
What goes up must come down, or so the saying goes. In the case of a recent wheatpaste piece by El Peezo, the comedown was quick. The anonymous Phoenix artist put up a wheatpaste rendition of a Jeeves-ian butler on an exterior wall at Bentley Projects on the evening of…
After my first visit to see “Rhythm and History” at the ASU Art Museum, I returned home and immediately began Googling. As its name explicitly states, the exhibition is entrenched in history. Yet I left feeling the gaps in my own historical knowledge exposed rather than filled, as I might…
Contrary to popular belief, you have to be neither an artist nor a child to take an art class. You might not be the next Monet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun honing your painting technique. From sand casting to alternative printing, the art classes in metro Phoenix…
Look past the sad stucco homes and the nondescript strip malls and you’ll see that Phoenix is actually home to some top-notch architecture. From Midcentury Modern to downtown Art Deco and early 20th century Queen Anne cottages, here are our 10 favorite structures in metro Phoenix…
Third Friday’s here, Phoenix. Here are three shows not to miss tonight. “Sugar Cookies” When one artistic medium overlaps another, the result can be pretty sweet. Such is the case for the spring exhibition “Sugar Cookies.” This mixed-media collaboration combines words with images from Florida-based artist Jenny Odom, who used…
Longtime Phoenix Art Museum director James Ballinger has announced plans to retire, according to a museum press release issued Thursday, April 17. He has requested that the museum’s board of trustees begin searching for his replacement. Once that replacement has been selected, Ballinger will retire…
There are few people in popular music today as prolific as Robert Pollard. Pollard is best known as the leader of the influential indie rock band Guided by Voices, lo-fi legends whose albums are densely packed with pocket-sized exercises in hooky rock magic, and he’s also released a steady stream…
Nestled nestled between its best neighborhoods and its up-and-coming ones, Phoenix has its fair share of renovated retro residences. Thanks to Phoenix preservationists and community events like the Modern Phoenix Home Tour, Arizona’s Atomic Age architecture is getting the recognition it deserves. Case in point: California-based HÔM Sotheby’s The Haverkate…
Three Southwest artists collaborated on a mural for Por Vida Gallery’s new wall, built to showcase artists’ works by rotating new murals through every few months. Phoenix-based artist Thomas “Breeze” Marcus collaborated with Tucson’s Dwayne Manuel and Jaime “Vyal” Reyes from Los Angeles during the Paint PHX weekend in March…
After working for years as the director of secondary market, John A. Reyes has been named director of Bentley Gallery, taking over many of the duties previously held by gallery owner Bentley Calverley. “I was delighted to be a pioneer in moving gallery operations to Phoenix 10 years ago and…
