Arizona Commission for the Arts announced on January 11 that 10 Arizona artists had been awarded a total of $50,480 in research and development grants, as well as the Bill Desmond Writing Award. Valley-based artists who received up to $5,000 in funding include Juan Freitez of Phoenix, Carla Keaton of Tempe, Cristóbal Martínez…
The hair salon and art space Palabra is moving to a new location on Friday, January 15, according to owner Jorge Ignacio Torres, who was a visual arts finalist for the New Times’ Big Brain Awards in 2015. Torres revealed the new address, which is 909 North First Street, via Instagram…
Roosevelt Row underwent some serious changes in 2015. The small section of downtown Phoenix renowned for its thriving arts scene saw several buildings, including those that were home to GreenHaus and Bodega 420, demolished to make way for new multi-level residential developments. Lauren Lee’s iconic Three Birds mural was torn down in…
“Free beer” is coming, Phoenix. That’s thanks to Danish art collective SUPERFLEX, Welcome Chicken + Donuts, Flowers Bottleshop, and Mother Bunch Brewing. Now, before you get too excited (and as you might know if you are familiar with the ways of SUPERFLEX), “free beer” does not mean no-cost sudsy beverages…
Phoenix artist Eric Kasper caused quite the stir in Bisbee last fall, when Windows Gallery at the Copper Queen Plaza displayed his work alongside that of Ty McNeeley in an exhibition called “Spirits of the West.” The show’s aim was to blend Kasper’s eerie, sometimes ghostly figures with McNeeley’s photographs…
Murals abound in metro Phoenix – where local and international artists regularly add to the city’s vibrant street art scene. You can’t turn a corner without seeing some sort of street art, whether it’s a large-scale mural or a tiny wheat paste work. It’s part of what makes Phoenix look…
The Winnie Ruth Judd “murder house” is safe. Locals assumed the notorious house, where Winnie Ruth Judd murdered her two best friends in October of 1931, was about to be demolished after it was recently surrounded by chain link fencing. Purchased last year by Phoenix attorney Robert Warnicke, the duplex…
Famed muralist El Mac, who grew up in Phoenix but now lives in Los Angeles, has been commissioned by Mesa Arts Center to paint a mural at its venue. “We’re still in the design phase,” says Tiffany Fairall, associate curator for Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, which is located on the…
We expected to see all sorts of cats and guitars at Chartreuse, where they’re the subject of an exhibition that opened on First Friday, January 1. We hadn’t quite anticipated the fact that once you get cats and guitars on the brain, it’s hard not to find them lurking around…
With our Personal Space and Studio Visit series, New Times gets an inside look at the homes and studios of some of metro Phoenix creatives, including up-and-coming visual artists, uber-famous musicians, and the design-obsessed. Here’s a look back at everyone we visited in 2015. Paul and Keri Mosier’s Creative Haven…
Artist Irma Sanchez left her Phoenix studio space early Wednesday afternoon on a mission. She was headed to a spot near Central Avenue and Buckeye Road, close to the neighborhood where she grew up, to install a set of three white tiles painted with black symbols and letters referencing a…
Odds are, you’ll be spending part of New Year’s Day recovering from celebrating into the wee hours the night before. But there’s some serious incentive to bounce back by nightfall, when many downtown Phoenix galleries will be open for the first First Friday of 2016. Here are five new art…
The historic Beth Hebrew Synagogue in downtown Phoenix will hold Shabbat services for the first time in nearly 40 years on Friday, January 8. Phoenix developer Michael Levine, who has been rehabbing the synagogue for the past year, and Crescent Ballroom owner Charlie Levy teamed up to organize the community…
Google “cats and guitars.” Go ahead, we’ll wait. A glamour shot of a mixed breed praising an electric. A Siamese strumming a six-string. A kitten peeking out from inside a guitar. These are but a handful of an ever-ascending number (at last look, we’re talking more than 4 million) of…
The metro Phoenix gallery scene saw some significant changes in 2015. Several galleries closed, some new ones opened, and a few moved to new locations. Here’s a look back at the most noteworthy changes. Openings Art|Object Jeff Zischke – an artist familiar to most locals for his public art created…
It was a banner year in metro Phoenix for exhibitions featuring works created or collected by some of the world’s most famous artists. Phoenix Art Museum presented exhibitions featuring works by Leonardo da Vinci, Andy Warhol, and Ai Weiwei. And the Heard Museum presented photographs from Frida Kahlo’s personal collection…
There’s a new reason to head to Grand Avenue’s arts district. Unexpected Art Gallery, located at 734 West Polk Street, opened during the Grand Avenue Festival on November 14. Since then, it’s hosted the annual exhibition of the ASU Sculpture Club, a one-night show held during First Friday on December…
In a couple of weeks, it’ll be time for everyone to wallow in shame over all the things they should have done in 2015 but never did. For those already starting to fervently wish they’d spent more time supporting local arts and culture, December’s Third Friday is a chance to…
There is a revolution happening in Phoenix, and it started in the unlikeliest of places. For the past decade, analog film photography — the method that involves physically loading a roll of film into a camera and waiting to see the shots until the film is developed — has been…
Casandra Hernandez has been named ASU Art Museum’s curator of Celebración Artística de las Américas, or CALA, Initiatives, according to a Monday, December 13, announcement from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Hernandez had worked at the Commission as artists program coordinator since September 2014. One of her most notable…
Perhaps 2015 blew by. Or is it that the year flew by? To say that it sprinted, rushed, or flashed past feels more accurate. That’s because we’ve reached a point where, thanks to great and near constant programming at venues and institutions across the Valley, there’s almost too much to…
Bea Velazquez stands in the center of a small gallery on the second floor of Phoenix Center for the Arts. Friends mill about, directed from photograph to photograph, as Velazquez offers insight into each individual, each portrait, each intimate experience. The 27-piece, black-and-white exhibition is getting a lot of eyeballs…
