Aug, 23, 2023
Media Alerts
Phoenix Art Museum hosts grand re-opening celebration for Yayoi Kusama infinity mirror room in September; Cuban art exhibitions closing soon with special programming
PHOENIX (August 23, 2023) – This September, Phoenix Art Museum will open for free on Friday, September 1 for PhxArt AfterHours, with complimentary admission to every gallery and exhibition, live music, art-making workshops, and specialty food and drink experiences commemorating the last chance to see special-engagement exhibition Juan Francisco Elso: Por América. PhxArt will also host a grand re-opening celebration for beloved infinity mirror room You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies by Yayoi Kusama on Saturday, September 9 during Creative Saturday, featuring specially themed programming. Additional September programming includes Cine Cubano: Chico & Rita, a National Theatre Live simulcast screening, FashFilmFete Festival, and much more.
For a full list of exhibitions on view now at Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org/art/exhibitions/.
FREE-ACCESS EVENT
PhxArt AfterHours
September 1 | 5 – 9 pmComplimentary admission | Free-access event
PhxArt AfterHours returns on September 1 from 5 – 9 pm, activated by free admission to every gallery and exhibition, live music, art-making workshops, specialty food and drink experiences inspired by special-engagement exhibition Juan Francisco Elso: Por América, including:
- Create your own tote bag printmaking workshop with artist Estrella Esquilin(@estudiolistophx)
- Bachata dance lessons with In Lak’ech Dance Academy (@inlakechdance)
- Pop-up dance performances by Que Candela Dance Co (@quecandeladanceco)
- Poetry with Mujeres Del Sol
- Live in-gallery sketching with artist Aileen Martinez (@look.see.draw)
Music by Kapsol Music (@kapsol_music_) and DJ Big Rube
- Special exhibition tours + Spanish-language exhibition tour
- Specialty food and beverage experiences with ARTenders, El Fogon de Joy (@elfogondejoy), El New Yorican, and Churros Don Lencho (@churrosdonlencho)
- + much more!
This PhxArt AfterHours event is made possible through the generosity of Partner Sponsor APS.
CLOSING SOON
Juan Francisco Elso: Por América
Closing September 17, 2023, Juan Francisco Elso: Por América explores the significant career of the late Cuban artist, whose sculptures and installations examine the complexities of contemporary Cuban, Caribbean, and Latin American identities. Fashioned from natural, organic materials, featured works draw influence from Indigenous traditions, Afro-Caribbean religious beliefs, and the traumas of colonial oppression and are placed in conversation with paintings, sculptures and more by a group of 30 multigenerational artists active in the Caribbean and throughout North, South, and Central America. Through this contextual approach, the traveling survey illuminates Elso’s legacy and articulates a more expansive idea of the Americas, free of geopolitical borders and boundaries.
Juan Francisco Elso: Por América is organized by El Museo del Barrio and guest curated by Olga Viso, curator-at-large at Phoenix Art Museum and senior advisor at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, in collaboration with Susanna V. Temkin, curator at El Museo del Barrio. The exhibition is made possible thanks to major support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Commissions are made possible by VIA Art Fund and the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation. Its presentation at Phoenix Art Museum is made possible through the generosity of Partner Sponsors Sue and Bud Selig and Supporting Sponsors Men’s Arts Council, The Opatrny Family Foundation, the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Exhibition Endowment Fund, and the Joan Cremin Exhibition Endowment, with additional support from Kimpton Hotel Palomar.
Lo que es, es lo que ha sido/What It Is, Is What Has Been: Selections from the ASU Art Museum’s Cuban Art Collection
Closing September 17, 2023, Lo que es, es lo que ha sido/What It Is, Is What Has Been: Selections from the ASU Art Museum’s Cuban Art Collection features artworks created during Cuba’s “Special Period” to explore artistic expression during times of humanitarian crises and social upheaval. The exhibition is the first collaboration between PhxArt and ASU Art Museum in more than a decade.
Lo que es, es lo que ha sido/ What It Is, Is What Has Been: Selections from the ASU Art Museum’s Cuban Art Collection is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and ASU Art Museum and curated by Olga Viso, curator-at-large at PhxArt and senior advisor at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, and Julio César Morales, executive director and co-chief curator of MoCA Tucson. The exhibition is made possible through the generosity of the Museum’s Circles of Support and Museum Members.
Reynier Leyva Novo: Methuselah
Closing September 17, 2023, Methuselah (2021–2022) by Cuban artist Reynier Leyva Novo is a mixed-reality artwork that follows a butterfly avatar along its journey from Mexico, across the United States, and into southern Canada as part of the species’ annual reproductive cycle. On-site visitors will experience the Monarch’s movements and behaviors in a shared environment using a holographic device. Additionally, Methuselah is hosted and reproduced in real-time on a dedicated website so that users across the world with internet access can experience the work at any time.
Methuselah is commissioned by El Museo del Barrio through the generous support of VIA Art Fund. The project is presented in relation to the exhibition Juan Francisco Elso: Por América, which is organized by El Museo del Barrio and made possible thanks to major support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
OPENING SOON
You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies by Yayoi Kusama
Grand Re-Opening September 9, 2023
Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Room explores the psychedelic sensations of the ‘self’ and the artist’s ongoing hallucinations that started when she was a child. In this work, Kusama’s repetitive and extensive use of polka dots, mirrors, and LED lights investigates infinite repetition and encourages you to ‘obliterate’ your personality and become one with eternity.
A pioneer of perceptual experiences, Kusama expresses a complex balance between her psychological obsessions and her aesthetic control over them. In the late 1950s, she left Japan for New York City. Her work spans paintings, performances, installations, sculptures, films, fashion, and literary works. They transcended the Pop and Minimalist movements of the twentieth century and reflect the mind-altering spirituality of hippie culture.
Yayoi Kusama, You Who are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies, 2005. Mixed media installation with LED lights. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Museum purchase with funds provided by Jan and Howard Hendler. All exhibitions at Phoenix Art Museum are underwritten by the Phoenix Art Museum Exhibition Excellence Fund, founded by The Opatrny Family Foundation with additional major support provided by Joan Cremin.
FEATURED SEPTEMBER EVENTS
Art Talk: Constellations
September 6 | 6 – 7:30 pm
Free for Members | $5 for the general public
Presented in Whiteman Hall. Limited capacity. Join artists Carlos Martiel and Luis Rivera Jiménez, and director and professor of the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University, Irasema Coronado, in a conversation about artistic and aesthetic responses to migration, immigration, and displacement, moderated by Alana Hernandez, executive director at CALA Alliance and curator of LatinX art at the ASU Art Museum. Tickets are available for reservation here.
Art Talk is made possible in part by the generosity of the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs.
Creative Saturday
September 9 | 10 am – 5 pm
Free for Members | Included with general admission for the general public Visitors of all ages and abilities are invited to grand re-opening of PhxArt’s infinity mirror room You Who are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies (2005) by Yayoi Kusama. The special themed Creative Saturday features dynamic art programming and workshops, specialty food and beverages, including:
- Dance performances by Movement Source
- Fireflies-inspired scavenger hunt
- Polka-dot pumpkin art-making activity
- Mini infinity mirror room make-it station
- Mix & Match selfie booth with the Garment League
- Lemon Art Research Library pop-up, highlighting PhxArt Library’s collection of Yayoi Kusama and contemporary Japanese art related books and resources
- Art Talk with Midori Yamamura, Ph.D, discussing how Yayoi Kusama’s infinity mirror room developed within the 1960s psychedelic culture and dissent politics and explore how it fits in her oeuvre
Creative Saturday is made possible in part by Carolyn Dunkin Schulte Educational Endowment Fund, The Discount Tire Endowment for Children’s Art Programs, William Randolph Hearst Endowment Fund for Educational Programs, and Angela and Leonard Singer Endowment for Performing Arts.
Art Talk // Psychedelic Art: Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Room
September 9 | 1 – 2:30 pm
Free for Members | Included with general admission for the general public
Presented in Whiteman Hall. Limited capacity.
Based on archival research and object-based analysis, this talk will delve into how Yayoi Kusama’s infinity mirror room developed within the 1960s psychedelic culture and dissent politics, and explore how it fits in her oeuvre.
Midori Yamamura, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Art History at the City University of New York Kingsborough Community College, is the author of Yayoi Kusama: Inventing the Singular (MIT Press: 2015) and a contributor to Kusama’s 2012 Tate Modern exhibition ca talog. A 2022-2023 Alcaly/Bodian Distinguished Scholar, the CUNY Graduate Center, Yamamura specializes in global contemporary art history focusing on Asia and its diaspora. She is currently completing a book manuscript on Japanese contemporary art after 1989. For more information, click here.
National Theatre Live: Best of Enemies
September 17 | 1 – 4 pm
$10 for Members | $15 for the general public
Presented in Whiteman Hall. Limited capacity.
In 1968 America, as two men fight to become the next president, all eyes are on the battle between two others: the cunningly conservative William F. Buckley Jr., and the unruly liberal Gore Vidal. During a new nightly television format, they debate the moral landscape of a shattered nation and television news is about to be transformed forever. David Harewood and Zachary Quinto play feuding political rivals in James Graham’s multiple award-winning drama Best of Enemies, captured live in London’s West End. Rated R. Estimated runtime: 3 h. Tickets are available here.
National Theatre Live screenings are made possible in part by the Angela and Leonard Singer Endowment for Performing Arts.
FashFilmFete Festival
September 23 | 11 am – 5 pm
Single Film Ticket: $10 for Students | $15 for Members | $20 for the general public
Festival Pass*: $50 for Students | $75 for Members | $100 for the general public
FashFilmFete™ is a premiere film festival exploring the history and future of fashion storytelling through the curation of Hollywood, indie, experimental and documentary films that showcase the significance of fashion in filmmaking. FashFilmFete™ aims to bring together a global community of fashion and film aficionados to explore style in cinema and its influence on pop culture, fashion design, contemporary art and beauty standards, providing a platform for historically underrepresented voices in film and fashion. For the full film festival schedule, click here. Tickets are available here.
*Festival Pass sale runs August 3, 2023 – September 23, 2023
Cine Cubano – Chico & Rita
Summer Film Series Sponsored by Lisa Sette Gallery
September 27 | 6 pm
Free for Members | $8 for the general public
Presented in Whiteman Hall
PhxArt presents Cine Cubano, a four-film series sponsored by Lisa Sette Gallery that complements special-engagement exhibition Juan Francisco Elso: Por América and celebrates Cuba’s rich history and culture through the medium of cinema. All films are presented in Spanish with English subtitles.
Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and desire unite them both as they chase their dreams, and each other, from Havana, to New York, to Paris, to Hollywood, and to Las Vegas. With an original soundtrack by legendary Cuban pianist and five-time Grammy®-winning composer Bebo Valdés, Chico & Rita captures a defining moment in the evolution of history and jazz. Tickets are available for reservation here.
This film series is made possible by the Lisa Sette Gallery.
OTHER EVENTS
Storytime in the Galleries
September 6 | 10:30 am
Free for Members | Included in general admission for the general public
Advance registration recommended.
Designed for our youngest PhxArt visitors (ages 0-5) and their parents or caregivers, Storytime in the Galleries is a wonderful opportunity to share the joy of early literacy, art-inspired play, and hands-on learning with family and friends. The Storytime in the Galleries series is offered on the first Wednesday of each month inside the Museum. Tickets are available for reservation here.
Storytime in the Galleries is made possible in part by the Angela and Leonard Singer Endowment for Performing Arts, The Discount Tire Endowment for Children’s Art Programs, and the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs.
Object of the Month: Sin Bandana by Narsiso Martinez
September 2, 7, 21, 28 | 11:30 am
Free for Members | Included with general admission for the general public
A mixed media artwork featuring produce boxes, gold leaf, and charcoal and ink drawings of agricultural workers, Sin Bandana (2022) by Narsiso Martinez draws attention to the lives and labors of those whom we depend on for our produce. “I want to pay homage to them,” asserts artist Narsiso Martinez. Join Museum Docent Nancy Feiring to explore the stories behind the artist, his medium, and his subjects in installation New on View. For more information, click here.
Weekly Virtual Mindfulness Sessions
September 7, 14, 21, 28 | Noon
Free for Members | $5 suggested donation for the general public
Scientific studies show the art of mindfulness can relieve anxiety, depression, pain, and stress and actually change the way we feel, think, work, and play by opening new pathways in the brain. Presented in collaboration with Hospice of the Valley, this free, 30-minute, at-home mindfulness session promotes living in the present. This session is hosted live on Zoom, a video-conference platform. For more information, click here.
PhxArt Educator Workshop
Discovering the Art in S.T.E.A.M.
September 13 | 5 – 7:30 PM
Free for Members | $10 for the general public
Presented in the Education Building. Limited capacity. Advanced registration required.
Join us as we learn from Megan Epley, founder of stARTem, and discover new ways to promote student creativity, engagement, self-expression, connections to academic evaluations, and the advancement of STEAM learning. This workshop will give educators the opportunity to discover these strategies by participating in our research-based, interactive STEAM lessons and by brainstorming with other teachers and current STEAM resources. Tickets are available for reservation here.
Lemon Art Research Library Book Club: Kusama: The Graphic Novel by Elisa Macellari
September 16 | 1:30 pm
Free for Members and the general public
Presented in the Lemon Art Research Library
Join librarian Jesse Lopez for the next installment of the Lemon Art Research Library Book Club, Kusama: The Graphic Novel by Elisa Macellari. The selection of this book is in celebration of the recently reinvigorated infinity mirror room You Who are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies by Yayoi Kusama. For more information, click here.
FREE-ACCESS PROGRAMS
Pay-What-You-Wish Wednesdays
Every Wednesday | 3 – 9 pm
Voluntary-donation general admission
SPECIAL-EXHIBITION TICKETS: $6 for adults | FREE for Museum Members, Maricopa County Community College students*, ASU students**, and active-duty military personnel***
From 3 – 9 pm every Wednesday, the Museum offers voluntary-donation general admission and reduced rates to view special-engagement exhibitions.
Pay-What-You-Wish Wednesdays are made possible by SRP and City of Phoenix.
*The Maricopa County Community College District program at Phoenix Art Museum (MC3@PAM) is made possible through the generosity of Presenting Sponsor Men’s Arts Council.
**Arizona State University Students will enjoy free general admission to PhxArt from May 6 through September 17, 2023, including admission into special-engagement exhibitions. Visitors must present an active student ID at the time of admission.
***Active-duty military personnel, including the National Guard and Reserves, and their families will enjoy free admission to PhxArt from May 20 through September 3, 2023, including admission into special-engagement exhibitions. Visitors must present an active ID at the time of admission.
Blue Star Museums Program
From U.S. Armed Forces Day (May 20, 2023) through Labor Day (September 3, 2023), active-duty military personnel, including the National Guard and Reserves, and their families can enjoy free admission to Phoenix Art Museum through the Blue Star Museums program. Complimentary admission extends to special-engagement exhibitions. An active ID is required.
The Blue Star Museums program at Phoenix Art Museum is made possible through the generosity of Supporting Sponsor Shamrock Foods Foundation.
PhxArt AfterHours
September 1 /// December 1, 2023
5 – 9 pmComplimentary admission | Free-access eventAt select times throughout the year, Phoenix Art Museum opens for free after dark for PhxArt AfterHours, activated by live music, art-making workshops, specialty food and drink experiences, and other performances and entertainment. Visit the Museum during an AfterHours event to expand the way you interact with art.
PhxArt AfterHours are made possible through the generosity of Partner Sponsor APS.
PhxArt Family Fundays
October 29
10 am – 5 pmComplimentary admission | Free-access dayAt select times throughout the year, Phoenix Art Museum hosts PhxArt Family Fundays, an all-ages, free-access day with complimentary admission to every gallery and exhibition and arts-engagement programming suitable for visitors of all ages, interests, and abilities.
PhxArt Family Fundays are made possible through the generosity of Presenting Sponsor Men’s Arts Council.
Free Admission for Maricopa County Community Colleges Students
Through the MC3@PAM program at PhxArt, all Maricopa County Community Colleges students who attend any of the 10 colleges or affiliated skill centers will enjoy free general admission to PhxArt, including admission into special-engagement exhibitions. Visitors must present an active student ID at the time of admission.
The Maricopa County Community College District program at Phoenix Art Museum (MC3@PAM) is made possible through the generosity of Presenting Sponsor Men’s Arts Council.
SCHOOL AND ADULT TOURS
On-site school and adult tours have returned to Phoenix Art Museum. To learn more about school-tour offerings and planning a school visit, click here. For adult and college group tour requests, click here.
In addition, Phoenix Art Museum offers live virtual presentations for school classrooms and community organizations. For more information on Virtual Classroom Visits, click here. For more information on Virtual Presentations for Adults, click here.
School Tours and Virtual Classroom Visits are made possible in part by Carolyn Dunkin Schulte Educational Endowment Fund, The Discount Tire Endowment for Children’s Art Programs the and William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs.
PHXARTIST SPOTLIGHTS
Presented by Phoenix Art Museum, PhxArtist Spotlight is a monthly series that explores what inspires and motivates Valley creatives, while leveraging the Museum’s reach in its community to support and expand awareness of working artists. Each month, the Museum highlights a different artist working in Arizona, posting a Q&A with the artist and images of their work on the Museum’s Instagram and Facebook channels and on the Museum’s bilingual blog. The artist is also highlighted in a monthly email sent to Museum Members, Circles of Support donors, and a subscriber list of more than 65,000 followers.For more information on the series, click here. For recent spotlights on Armida Kielty and Blaise Danio, click here.
About Phoenix Art Museum
Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum has provided millions of guests with access to world-class art and experiences in an effort to ignite imaginations, create meaningful connections, and serve as a brave space for all people who wish to experience the transformative power of art. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, the Museum is a vibrant destination for the visual arts and the largest art museum in the southwestern United States. Each year, more than 300,000 guests engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions and the Museum’s collection of more than 20,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion design. The Museum also presents a comprehensive film program, live performances, and educational programs designed for visitors of all ages, along with vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.