In an urban landscape dominated by billboards, fast food signs, and other uninspiring fare, it’s nice to stumble on a nice work of public art now and then. Public art reminds us that there’s more to life than logos and taglines. And the Valley just happens to be one of…
New Times picks the best events and things to do in metro Phoenix from April 1 through 3. “Alley Art” The First Friday art scene has a habit of overflowing from galleries to doorsteps and stoops, and eventually into streets and vacant lots. Now a new monthly show, “Alley Art,” has…
You’re well ahead of the curve if you made the gallery rounds during Art Detour, which featured several exhibitions that will still be up for April’s First Friday – including the Fortoul Brothers show at their 40Owls Pop-Up Gallery. Several additional shows continue this week – including exhibitions of works by…
Turns out, you don’t have to be an architect or urban planner to have a say in how your city looks or functions. During Phoenix Urban Design Week from March 31 to April 7, you can be part of brainstorming a temporary art installation in Roosevelt Row. And that’s just one of…
If you still haven’t recovered from the end of Mad Men, you’re in luck. Starting April 1, Modern Phoenix Week returns to the Valley for its 10th consecutive year. This 10-day festival of all things Midcentury Modern features films, lectures, previews of renovated properties, architectural wonders, a marketplace replete with mod…
Thirty-three large tear-shaped drops made from off-white paper file folders hang suspended at eye level inside a pop-up gallery space in central Phoenix. They’re part of the latest local exhibition by Isaac and Gabriel Fortoul, ages 36 and 39 respectively, who operate a nomadic gallery called 40Owls. Using the name Fortoul…
After three years of fundraising and community input, construction is scheduled to begin on the former Phoenix Indian School music building at Steele Indian School Park in central Phoenix. The building, which has fallen into disuse, will become the site of a new Indian Center. The improvements and future center…
Congrats are in order, Arizona. On the evening of March 23, the 2016 Arizona Governor’s Arts Award winners were announced in a ceremony at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel. Since 1981, the awards have recognized creatives and organizations who have made a positive impact on the state’s arts and culture…
Walk into Jarrod’s Coffee, Tea & Gallery in downtown Mesa on any given day, and you’re likely to find an eclectic crew of patrons sipping lattes and perusing the art. Tattooed bikers sprawl on couches near mothers minding fussy toddlers. A woman wearing a hijab pops in for a coffee…
Capes. Powers. Brawls. Everyone has a favorite superhero, maybe even more than one. And while it’s fun when they take down the latest Big Bad, there’s something both hair-raising and sometimes heartbreaking about seeing iconic good guys face off against each other. Movie studios are making the fans pick a…
The Phoenix arts scene is humming along. Creative types are opening new venues, artists are collaborating across disciplines, and First Friday art walks are bustling. Art is popping up in all sorts of unconventional places – including bars, churches, and hair salons. And public art, from murals to light rail…
Curious types, take note. More than three dozen students with ASU’s School of Art are opening the doors of their studios in the Phoenix warehouse district this weekend for all to explore. Which means you can check out work spaces of some serious creatives and talk with them about their…
The ASU School of Art now ranks 20th in the country among fine arts graduate schools, according to the 2016 U.S. News & World Report rating of best colleges and universities in the U.S. Last year, it ranked 22nd. Based on the 2016 report, ASU School of Art now ranks…
New Times picks the best arts and culture events in metro Phoenix from March 18 through 20. Nikki Glaser Nikki Glaser is NSFW. And we mean that outside the standard “not safe for work” acronym. The comedian, a veteran of Last Comic Standing as well as numerous late night shows and…
Mesa is making a strong showing in the local mural scene, thanks to a newly commissioned piece by Miles MacGregor, or El Mac, one of the world’s most noted street artists. The Los Angeles-based artist with Phoenix roots just finished a towering mural depicting a woman holding a rose at…
It’s abundantly clear each time First Friday rolls around that spending one evening each month exploring Phoenix arts and culture just doesn’t cut it. There’s too much art out there, and it takes more than a few hours to see even a fraction of it. But once a year, there’s Art…
Just inside the front door of my house is a small library table that’s home to a short stack of books I have no intention of ever reading. I am not interested in Hendrik Willem Van Loon’s handsomely bound memoirs, published in Bombay in 1942. I don’t care to read…
New Times picks the best things to do in metro Phoenix from Monday, March 14, to Friday, March 18. Downtempo’s Date with Tempe Phoenix Downtempo Ride takes to the streets on two wheels in search of bike-friendly destinations and perfect Phoenix patios. Downtempo’s Date with Tempe, the latest ride in the…
On Friday, March 11, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed HB 2440, which killed the Roosevelt business improvement district created by the Phoenix City Council on January 20. The district would have taxed property owners in a specified area to fund services beyond those already provided by the City. Ducey had…
El Peezo’s newest public piece — his first in more than a year — depicts GOP front-runner Donald Trump as Jabba the Hutt, and makes an aside to the Trump family’s ancestral name. Peezo, a wheatpaste artist and former New Times Big Brain finalist, hasn’t produced any public work in…
There’s a long wall running along the south side of Bentley Projects in the Phoenix warehouse district. Topped by barbed wire, it once looked like a stark separation point between the neighborhood it borders and the arts and event venues operated by Bentley Calverley. But now, Calverley says, it feels…
Visitors who take a left after walking into a new gallery space in Mesa will encounter iconic images created by William Wegman, an artist renowned for using his own Weimaraners in his compositions. They’re displayed across from Red Vapor for Ripe Strawberries, a 2013 oil-on-panel piece by Phoenix artist Rachel Bess. Nearby,…
