Events & Activities

Phoenix Art Museum offers a rich and diverse schedule of monthly activities that enrich and entertain. Scroll below for the latest. Or check out some of the photos from previous events!

Locals Only

July 12, 2009 —October 25, 2009
Rineberg Lobby, Lyons Gallery, Behrens Promenade, Great Hall, all levels of the Katz Wing

Locals Only showcases 12 Valley artists whose work in different media (paint, print, and sculpture) deal with issues of identity, the tension between high and low culture, and the shifts between representational and conceptual art practices.

This exhibition was organized against the backdrop of Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement, which will be on view at the Museum this Summer and deliberately explores how Metro-Phoenix artists work with the analogous themes and issues.

Artists:

Claudio Dicochea, Fausto Fernandez, Luis Gutierrez, Annie Lopez, Melissa Martinez, Monica Aissa Martinez, Martin Moreno, Hector Ruiz, Roy Wasson Valle and Dose, Lalo Cota and Mykil ZEPata.

Highlights:

Two new monumental sculptures by Hector Ruiz.

A new series of paintings by Claudio Diocochea that examine that 18th century tradition of “casta” paintings from colonial Mexico.

Three conceptual text and photo pieces by Annie Lopez.

Collaborative paintings by Hector Ruiz, Dose, Lalo Cota and Mykil ZEPata.

Phantom Sightings Fiesta
featuring Low & Slow: The Art of The Lowrider

August 22, 2009, Noon to Midnight
Throughout Museum Grounds

In conjunction with Phantom Sightings: Art After The Chicano Movement, this very unique special event will feature the works of Lowrider artists from the Southwest. It also includes a special dedication of the Official Lowrider Hall Of Fame pictorial and some of the hottest
Lowrider cars and bikes to hit the show floor.

The fiesta style atmosphere will be family-friendly featuring live music from local Latino bands and DJs, breakdancing and other live performance, access to the galleries, live artist demonstrations, workshops, sumptuous food, drinks and more.

Check back regularly for updates.

A Natural Perspective:
An International Juried Exhibition of the American Society of Botanical Artists.

October 3, 2009 – January 3, 2010

The American Society of Botanical Artists a non-profit organization dedicated to recognizing and encouraging the highest standards of botanical art created by its members; to create awareness of botanical art as a living form with exhibitions in major museums around the globe; to acknowledge the power of botanical art to communicate the importance of plants to our world whether through conservation, science, horticulture or agriculture; to pass this art form and its techniques on to the next generation of botanical artists; and to expand the vision of botanical art while honoring its rich tradition and history.

This is your opportunity to view a special of 40 botanical paintings by 35 artists from around the world. Including works by four Arizona artists, A Natural Perspective showcases a wide variety of subjects and mediums including watercolor, oil painting, ink and graphite. One of the highlights of the exhibition is a work by Molly Coxson Gill illustrating Mentzelia hualapaiensis, a new-to-science plant discover by Wendy Hodgson, Desert Botanical Garden botanist, in the Grand Canyon.

The exhibition is being held in conjunction with the 15th Annual ASBA Meeting and Conference, October 15-18, 2009 at the Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix.

Hemingway in the Latin World

October 9, 2009, 7pm
Dorrance Sculpture Garden

Gregorio Luke, renowned expert on Mexican and Latin American art and culture, and former director of the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California, has mounted his newest production on a wide angle screen, which vividly brings to life the dramatic adventures of American author, Ernest Hemingway, in Cuba, the Spanish Civil War and Europe.

The rambunctious writer, Ernest Hemingway, began his love affair with Cuba in the 1920’s when he lived in Key West, Florida. Later in 1940 he returned to Cuba and lived there until 1960. Cuba formed the backdrop for a lot of his writing, particularly “The Old Man and the Sea”

After WWI and his first bestseller “Farewell to Arms” Hemingway traveled to Spain, which captured his heart and imagination, and resulted in the novel “Death in the Afternoon” in which he elevated bullfighting to an art form. In 1936 he returned to Spain as a journalist to cover the Spanish Civil War, which he commemorated in his novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls”

Full circle round Hemingway returned to Cuba in 1940 and purchased a house which looked over the sea outside Havana. It was here that he wrote “The Old Man and the Sea” – a story of a Cuban fisherman who refuses to be defeated by nature. In 1953 Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize for this novel. In 1954 he was awarded the Nobel PRIZE for literature.

The program will be followed by a fiesta of Latin and Cuban music, food and drink.

Tickets for the evening include the lecture and fiesta with prices beginning at $55.00 per person and will go on sale in September.

Net proceeds go to the Latin American Art Alliance acquisition fund to purchase work by a Latin American artist to be donated to the Phoenix Art Museum.