Make a Saturday morning stop at the neighborhood garage sale, and you might find a stack of watercolors depicting flowers, butterflies and landscapes, at 25 cents apiece. They look like public-access how-to works, and they really aren’t that great. Mom painted these back in the ’80s when she needed an…
His pseudonym reads like that of a second-rate sci-fi author. The name of his solo exhibition is derived from the language of the apes spoken in Tarzan novels. His work is a gold mine of Freudian obsessions, from big-breasted babes with Barbie waistlines to superhero men with bulging biceps and…
Drawing is often considered a “practice” art. Granted, Michelangelo’s sketch The Risen Christ sold at auction for a record $12.3 million a few years ago. Even Picasso’s rough sketches of his mistress, Genevieve Laporte, fetched a hefty sum. The catch is that only after their deaths and their recognition as…
After Dark: 100 Years of the Evening Dress at Phoenix Art Museum: Your old prom dress probably isn’t a masterpiece, but formal wear by Oscar De La Renta and Gianni Versace can be as desirable as a Rembrandt. Phoenix Art Museum’s exhibit of 30 gowns, selected from their cache of…
Blame it on the History Channel’s Hiroshima documentaries or the section in theology class on the Rapture. Apocalyptic visions are undeniably enthralling. I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but contemplate how mass hysteria would look, feel and smell. So when I come across a show like “Gardening…
Alison Dunn at eye lounge: Viewers, on average, spend less than five seconds looking at any one painting in a museum or gallery. This statistic doesn’t bode well for Alison Dunn, whose murky mixed-media paintings at first appear to be simple abstractions. A closer look reveals an underlying depth and…
During a recent visit to the newly expanded Phoenix Art Museum, I overheard a fellow patron say, “The art at this museum never ceases to disappoint me on a regular basis.” Funny, that’s just how I felt about “Modern by Nature: Ansel Adams in the 1930s,” a retrospective meant to…
Everybody has bad days. You know, the kind of day when you oversleep, realize you have no breakfast food in the house, painfully injure your foot on a broken office chair and get stood up by a client — all before noon. Sigh. I’m convinced there must be some order…
I’m not a “girly” girl. I don’t like pink, and I’ll take my dingy brown Doc Martens over high heels, hands down. So admittedly I wanted to cut and run when I first spied Kathleen Holmes’ collection of metal, glass and ceramic sculptures at Scottsdale’s Cervini Haas gallery. Six dresses…
Remember when your first-grade teacher said that without the abundant rays of the sun, the Earth would die? Humans can’t get enough of the stuff, and nothing proves our sentimentality for shine like the work on display at “Molten: Glass and Neon Art” at Mesa Contemporary Arts. The four featured…
“Big Works” at Herberger Theater Center: Critics of Chicago’s newly installed Agora, a public art sculpture featuring 106 headless bronze figures, can attest to the fact that bigger doesn’t necessarily equal better when it comes to art. Thankfully, physical size wasn’t the sole requirement for inclusion in this eclectic exhibition…
If you’ve lived in the Southwest for any amount of time, chances are you’ve already seen your fair share of howling coyotes, dream catchers and geometric pottery patterns. I grew up here — enough said. Popular Native American art is the backdrop for much of life in the Valley, blended…
“Big Works” at Herberger Theater Center: Critics of Chicago’s newly installed Agora, a public art sculpture featuring 106 headless bronze figures, can attest to the fact that bigger doesn’t necessarily equal better when it comes to art. Thankfully, physical size wasn’t the sole requirement for inclusion in this eclectic exhibition…
Mother Nature is no pushover. Nudge gently and she’ll deliver food, fresh drinking water and fossil fuels. Take too much and she fights back with hurricanes, earthquakes and tidal waves, as the world has recently relearned. The impact of humanity on nature is the focus of “DeNatured,” a collaborative effort…
I admit it. I hate change. I balked when our local co-op, Gentle Strength, moved to accommodate the light rail, and I was furious when expensive lofts began to dominate my once-affordable neighborhood. But I know that it isn’t all bad. My beloved Gentle Strength ended up in a more…
Jessica Joslin and Nissa Kubly at Lisa Sette Gallery: The Dadaists may have pioneered found-object assemblage, but artist Jessica Joslin’s zoomorphic sculptures constructed from animal bones and metal hardware venture beyond their grasp of the craft. Joslin is particularly adept at capturing the natural kinesthetics of mammals. Though merely a…
In early October, the Paper Heart announced its impending demise, and the country’s third-longest-running poetry slam folded after its longtime home, an independent coffee house in Mesa, went under. That same week, Phoenix City Council members approved a $900 million deal to build a mega-shopping district with condos, hotels and…
“Artists of the Black Community” at West Valley Art Museum: Arizona’s African-American community offers a collection of paintings and sculptures as colorful as its members, eschewing muted Southwest pastels in favor of unconventional shades like amethyst and chartreuse. Every piece radiates with uninhibited energy, from Belinda Wilson’s stained-glass woman to…
It all started 2.6 million years ago, when some smart monkey used a sharp rock to slice up his prehistoric supper. Today, our supply of tools has evolved, along with our upright spines and opposable thumbs. One visit to Home Depot and you can see how far the species has…
Do you think you’re a good person? When’s the last time you took stock? It might be time to do just that — and make sure you give yourself more than five minutes, because it may take a while. Nathan Feller’s art is not the typical imagery one would associate…
“Artists of the Black Community” at West Valley Art Museum: Arizona’s African-American community offers a collection of paintings and sculptures as colorful as its members, eschewing muted Southwest pastels in favor of unconventional shades like amethyst and chartreuse. Every piece radiates with uninhibited energy, from Belinda Wilson’s stained-glass woman to…
Steve Davis and Chris Caufield at Modified Arts: “Found object” art has come a long way since Duchamp’s urinal fountain. Steve Davis and Chris Caufield incorporate found objects into assemblage that stirs faded memories of antiquated technologies. Davis is the free spirit of the two, haphazardly decoupaging his old boarding…
