Contemporary Art
The Contemporary Collection - art created since the 1950s - is one of the most active and growing areas in the museum. Displayed in a newly opened 30,000 sq. ft. world-class gallery space created by architects Tod Williams/Billie Tsien and Associates, the collection includes large-scale photography, outdoor sculpture, and art created in a variety of surprising and unexpected materials, plus more "traditional" paintings on canvas. In several instances, daring works push the technical limitations of several media, including computer-controlled LED lighting and video, ceramics, mirrored glass, and even charred wood struck by lightning. In these works, human experiences are explored in the examinations of abstracted forms, the power of nature, plays of light, shadow and reflective surfaces, and the unknowing possibilities of infinity.
Memorable visual experiences are presented in the works of some of the leading artists of our time including Anish Kapoor, Sol LeWitt, Josiah McElheny, Julian Opie, Donald Judd, Michal Rovner, Yayoi Kusama, Cornelia Parker, among many others.
Check out a couple of recent mentions in this year's Phoenix New Times, Best Of.
People Watching: Julian and Suzanne Walking, Julian Opie
Make Your Move: You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies, Yayoi Kusama
Recent Exhibition History
Steele Gallery
April 9, 2006 - September 24, 2006
Dale Chihuly: Installations
Steele Gallery
March 30 - June 23, 2002
Left: Upside Down, Inside Out, Anish Kapoor, 2003. Resin and paint. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Museum purchase with funds generously provided by Men's Arts Council Sculpture Endowment, Susan and Eliot Black, Jacquie and Bennett Dorrance, Ellen and Howard Katz, Sally and Richard Lehmann, Robynn and Robert Sussman, Wilde Family Trust, Heather and Michael Greenbaum, Faith Sussman and Richard Corton, Mary Beth and Joseph Cherskov, Jerry Appell, Denise and Robert Delgado, and Patricia and Richard Nolan. Center: Extended Landscape Model for Total Reflective Abstraction, Josiah McElheny, 2004. Mirrored glass table with hand blown mirrored glass objects. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Museum purchase with funds donated by Joseph and Mary Beth Cherskov. Right: Mass (Colder Darker Matter), Cornelia Parker, 1997. Burnt wood, wire and string. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Museum purchase with funds provided by Jan and Howard Hendler.