First Friday heats up tonight with creative works going up all over the city. Here are our picks for shows not to miss this evening.
"Librería Donceles"
This exhibition comes to Arizona via the ASU Art Museum International Artist Residency Program. Artist Pablo Helguera, who is also the director of adult and academic programs at the Museum of Modern Art, has exhibited "Librería Donceles" once before at Kent Fine Art in New York City. The show is an itinerant, functional Spanish language bookstore with approximately 12,000 books, spanning a variety of subjects. Combine Studios has truly undergone a transformation for "Librería Donceles," making the space nearly unrecognizable.
See also: 7 Must-See Art Exhibitions in Metro Phoenix This Spring
But the show is more than just a bookstore; it speaks to some deeper issues at the intersection of language and culture. In a press release, ASU Art Museum curator Julio César Morales says that "by rendering visibility to the Spanish language in Phoenix, the installation recreates the unique, intellectually and culturally rich environment of a secondhand bookstore and questions how Spanish is integrated into the broader cultural life of Arizona."
"Lost Vegas"
Steve Weiss is usually busy programming indie film screenings around the Valley with No Festival Required, but this weekend, we get to take a peek at some of Weiss's own artwork. "Lost Vegas" is an exhibition of photographs that depict Las Vegas through the years. "As the city's scenery has changed and many of these buildings have disappeared since Weiss began shooting the Strip and the city's downtown in 1985, their legacies remain in photographs," according to the event description. Coe House Gallery will be open from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday. The show will also be on view for Third Friday, April 18. For more info, check out the Facebook event page.
"CROSSCURRENT"
There has been a serious amount of hype leading up to this exhibition, which features the work of Kristin Bauer, Bill Dambrova, Jel Martinez, and Kiki Valdes. "CROSSCURRENT" unites South Beach and the Southwest, while exploring what the press release calls "the consonance and dissonance that emerges in this bi-coastal group exhibition." This pop-up exhibition runs from 7 to 10 p.m. at 246 S. 1st St.with an post-reception celebration at The Clarendon Hotel from 10 p.m. to midnight. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.
"Asking for It: The Consent Project"
Sometimes the best art isn't the kind that hangs on a wall. "Asking for It: The Consent Project" is performance piece put on by ASU School of Film, Dance and Theatre MFA candidate Chelsea Pace. Pace calls her piece an "immersive media and performance installation exposing the assumption that behaving a certain way denotes a woman 'asking for it' -- 'it' being rape and sexual assault." The installation runs for three hours, but visitors are free to come and go throughout the evening. Due to the sensitive nature of the subject, this piece is not recommended for young children. The performance on First Friday runs from 6 to 9 p.m. For more information, visit www.modifiedarts.org.
Jeff Slim Art Show at WILLO NORTH GALLERY in Phoenix Arizona. Spot 2 from Dustinn Craig on Vimeo.
"Lose Yourself In Me"Jeff Slim is on fire this month. The talented local artist, who unveiled a collaborative mural just last week, is showing a selection of his work at Willo North Gallery from now until April 24. "Lose Yourself In Me" features a variety of new pieces, but we are most excited for the work Slim has been doing with cut-outs. Keep an eye on the artist's webpage; this guy is going places.
