The best July art turned up primarily in metro Phoenix's traditional gallery and museum settings, although one of our favorite finds is actually on view at Phoenix City Hall. Several works, created in media ranging from wood-burning to wax, are by artists well-known to the Valley arts scene, including Farraday Newsome. And several featured nature-related elements from feathers to botanicals. Here'a a look back at our faves from last month.
Saguaro Harvest
This acrylic on canvas piece painted by Michael Chiago (Tohono O’odham) in 1996 is part of the portable work collection of the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture. It’s displayed inside an office suite inside Phoenix City Hall.
Crown Blender White
This piece by Jeremy Thomas, one of many artists represented by Bentley Gallery, was created using cold-rolled steel, urethane, and powder coat. It’s one of several Thomas sculptures featured in the “Gallery Artists” exhibition at Bentley Gallery, which continues through Thursday, August 31.
NOITSOPPOSITION
For their RE:SISTERS exhibition at ASU Art Museum, Las Hermanas Iglesias transformed a trio of the museum’s temporary walls into a work of art, using additional materials that included plaster casts of artists Lisa and Janelle Iglesias’ own hands, privacy screen, a two-way mirror, rope, cast smart phones, mirror, and string. The exhibition continues through Saturday, October 21.
Heat, Wax, Melt
This ephemeral piece was the sole element in Christina Kemp Sullivan’s recent exhibition for Rhetorical Galleries in Roosevelt Row. Created with 30 pounds of wax, it deteriorated during the course of two weeks, reflecting the futility of the modern era’s focus on efficiency.
Found on May 5, 2017, Scottsdale, Arizona
For her “Found Feathers” exhibition at Practical Art, Alexandra Bowers showed 45 small-scale wood-burning works bearing images of feathers found during her everyday travels, designed to highlight the value of pausing to consider the “in between spaces” that infuse ordinary lives that move busily between one planned moment and the next.
#2
This acrylic and ink piece by Nicholas Gutierrez reflects the gritty intersection of humanity with technology. It's part of the “Intensity (Not) Purity” exhibition at Modified Arts, which also includes work by Samantha Rodriguez. It continues through Saturday, August 12.
Ineffable
This is one of several portraits featured in the recent “Void” exhibition at Abe Zucca gallery, where Zucca exhibits both his own paintings and work by other artists. Like many of Zucca's works, it's grounded in autobiographical experience.
Emerald Sunset
For her latest exhibition at Eye Lounge, which is titled "Symbiosis," Danielle Wood presented not only her characteristic ocean-inspired ceramic forms, but also photographs of assorted ceramic pieces taken in urban and outdoor environments. This piece is a collaboration with artist Won Suk Chang. The exhibit continues through Sunday, August 13.
Agave Left, Agave Center, Agave Right
Keith Robinson’s triptych of photographs printed onto aluminum reveal the inner beauty of the desert environment, bringing an object most desert dwellers take for granted into clearer focus. It’s on view at Art One gallery.
Unseen Drift
Farraday Newsome’s glazed terra cotta sculpture, which features her characteristic glazing and botanical imagery, is part of the "Five15 to the Fifth" exhibition that continues at Phoenix Center for the Arts through Saturday, August 26.
Editor's note: This post has been updated from its original version.