EPIK Wants to Elevate the Dance Scene in the Valley

Beautiful bodies fueled by Wild Cherry Pepsi and tall cans of Arizona Iced Tea crowd into a tiny North Central studio on a hot Sunday afternoon. The myth that dancers are celery-nibbling ethereal beings is just that. Adrian Mendle, sporting bright orange high-tops, cargo pants, and a stocking cap, leads…

Bong Otter Comics Is “A Dope Idea”

Local cartoonists Brandon Huigens and Jeff Owens want you to think that their Bong Otter comics series is funny, even when you’re stone freaking sober. You may know the two from around town, especially on the comedy and comics beat. Since 2007, Owens has been sculpting a daily autobiographical comic…

Sue Chenoweth Quiz Answers Revealed

Earlier this month we presented a fun quiz in conjuntion with the review of Sue Chenoweth’s Spyhopping show at Scottsdale Museum of Contempory Art. Below are the correct answers to the quiz. If you participated, please email us directly and we’ll get you the details about how to claim your mini-prize: wynter.holden@villagevoicemedia.com. …

UAC: Urban Artists Collective Makes Debut

Since February, a group of artists in central Phoenix has hosted workshops, presentations, and art-making functions. They’re called the urban artists collective and their debut exhibition is up at Willo North Gallery until the end of July…

Art on Wheels: Beamer Gone Wild

The BMW is a status car — a symbol of wealth, success and class. That is, unless you go wild with a can of paint and cheapen it up like a twenty dollar Walmart rug. This zebra-striped beauty is painted from bumper to bumper and even sports matching fuzzy zebra seat covers. Yee-haw!…

Field Guide: Downtown’s First Friday

Art walks are more often about people watching and shenanigans and less about the actual art. We’re here to guide you through both. Presenting our very own Field Guide — an evolving guide to art walks around town. From time to time, we’ll introduce some of our favorite spots and…

Field Guide: Scottsdale’s First Thursday

Art walks are more often about people watching and shenanigans and less about the actual art. We’re here to guide you through both. Presenting our very own Field Guide — an evolving guide to art walks around town (we’ll have another one for Downtown’s First Friday tomorrow). From time to…

The Photo-Luminescent Sound Garden at Scottsdale Civic Center

No need to be alarmed by the echoing drones coming from the bell tower at the Scottsdale Civic Center — they’re just part of the latest installation.The Photo-Luminescent Sound Garden is a creation of Todd Ingalls and Mary Neubauer. Together, they designed and installed six translucent forms that each have…

Allison Karow’s Hidden Talents on Display at Hair Pollution

This is going to be damn good. In December 2009 at Trunk Space, Tempe-based artist Allison Karow, aka Sunny Sealeopard, had one of her first exhibitions in the Valley. In it, Karow, a founding member of Bike Saviours Co-op, exhibited drawings, paintings, and mixed-media works on the cheap, including a…

Vanishing Phoenix, a Brown Bag Lunch with Robert Melikian

Hope you’re hungry — history’s for lunch. The City of Phoenix Historic Preservation Office will host Robert Melikian, author of Vanishing Phoenix tomorrow, June 2, at Phoenix City Hall. Melikian’s book laments stories and photos of buildings no longer standing in Phoenix including the Dorris Opera House, Baker & Bayless…

Art on Wheels: This Baby’s An Individual

​We’re on the prowl for art cars around Phoenix, like this vintage Cadillac which was spotted on McKellips Rd. in North Tempe. This Caddy has it all. Pin-striping. Airbrushed swirls. And an eye-searing electric blue paint job that sparkles like a vampire in the sun (thanks, Stephenie Meyer, for that paradoxical analogy). Basically, it’s a Lisa…

Sandra Day O’Connor Courthouse Slapped as a Space Waster

​When it opened in 2000, the Sandra Day O’Connor federal courthouse in downtown Phoenix was both heralded as a sign that the courthouse was regaining ground as a center of urban life, and hated as a “dirty glass greenhouse” — literally too airy to cool in the hot Arizona summer…

“Art Quilts XV: Needleplay” Chandler’s Call To Artists

Okay, quilters, we know you’re out there. And Chandler wants to hear from you.The Chandler Arts Commission has put out the call to art quilters for their upcoming “Art Quilts XV: Needleplay” exhibition slated for November 5, 2010 through January 15, 2011 at the Chandler Center for the Arts and…

Recycle Art at The North Gateway Transfer Station

Not all public art is as massively noticeable as Janet Echelman’s Her Secret is Patience (the large “butterfly net” in downtown Phoenix. Some collection are a bit hidden, like the Municipal Art Collection at the North Gateway Transfer Station and Materials Recovering Facility. It juts out of the desert horizon…

Hipstamatic: iPhone Does Vintage

It’s not difficult to see the “hipster” in hipstamatic — but we love it nonetheless. Hipstamatic’s a new iPhone application that can turn any old iphone into a hipstamat-style camera. This may all sound Greek, so we brought in Jason Hill, who set up an Etsy store a few days ago to showcase his own prints, to explain. Hill originally wanted…

Gallery 2345: “Attitude and Gratitude”

​Just south of Sky Harbor Airport rests a small building that just months ago knew only the looks of files, wastebaskets and government workers. On May 14, its walls began to look a little different.More than 15 local artists are currently on display in Sheila Martin-Castillo’s Gallery 2345. While each artist has…

The Parlor Pizzeria: Behind the Design with Aric Mei

Aric Mei was tired of building trash. As a set designer and builder in Los Angeles, Mei’s projects were put together, torn down and thrown away in a matter of days. His current piece of work, The Parlor Pizzeria is a bit more permanent. While his personal backgrounds are in art…

Donate Your Old Keys to Art at SMoCA

Take a look at your key ring. Do you even know what half of those keys are for?Probably not. But you hang on to them anyway.Keys are oddly intimate items. The unique tools allow access to secured areas — places that we value enough to protect. Maybe that’s why it…

Pimp My Yard, Central Phoenix

It’s tough to beat the last yard we pimped but we came across this little gem along 7th Street, close to the I10 and couldn’t resist the urge to snap a few photos.No, the guy sitting in the chair is not real. And, yes, we initially thought he was real…