PHOENIX (March 9, 2026) –Phoenix Art Museum announces the acquisition of Reflection Between Flashes (2023) by Vietnam-based artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen. The work is the latest purchased by the Museum with funds from Men’s Arts Council and the first by Nguyen acquired into the Museum’s collection of more than 21,000 objects. Nguyen, whose work was recently presented in a solo exhibition at James Cohan in New York City, is internationally renowned for his video and sculpture that examine colonial histories and supernaturalism by tapping into inherited stories and counter-memory. His work Reflection Between Flashes is inspired by the kinetic works of Alexander Calder but is cast from salvaged, unexploded munitions recovered in Central Vietnam. The mobile, which expands representation of contemporary Southeast Asian artists in the Museum’s collection, will be on view at the Museum beginning April 25.

“The kinetic work of Tuan Andrew Nguyen is an extraordinary addition to the PhxArt Collection,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “Nguyen’s work regularly unearths stories of resilience, community, and regeneration, reminding us all of memories that objects and materials can hold and how artists transform them to be seen and experienced in new ways. We are deeply grateful to Men’s Arts Council for supporting the acquisition of this work, and we look forward to sharing it with our visitors.”

Born in Saigon and now based in Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen and his family emigrated in 1979 as refugees to the United States. In 1999, he graduated from the fine-arts program at University of California, Irvine, and in 2004 earned his Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts. Nguyen is a co-founder and former board member of Sàn Art and was a founding member of The Propeller Group whose work was exhibited at PhxArt in 2017.

Nguyen’s most recent sculptures are made from unexploded ordnance (UXO) recovered in the Quang Trị region of central Vietnam, the site of the largest aerial bombardment in history. Reflection Between Flashes features 12 plate bells, seven of which are cast from salvaged artillery shell brass, while the remaining five are stainless steel incorporating salvaged bomb metal. The elegant form of the monumental hanging mobile stands in stark contrast to the brutal origins of the materials used to create it. This work moves with the flow of air and vibrations of sound in the gallery space, creating a naturally shifting play of abstract spatial relationships that suggest a state of perpetual change. Nguyen worked with a sound healer to tune the work to a series of pitches centered around 432 Hz, a frequency associated with healing energies and the vibration of the cosmos.

“Much of Nguyen’s recent work focuses on creating harmony where there has been destruction and loss.” said Colin Pearson, the Museum’s curator of Asian art. “Reflections Between Flashes continues this thread and embodies his concept of ‘material reincarnation’ in a mobile that produces visual and musical harmony from the detritus of the war in Vietnam. Guests will witness the sculpture slowly shift and rotate, activated by the invisible movement of air, while contemplating the delicate balance that suspends each piece. Nguyen’s use of melted bomb and artillery shells draws our attention to the frightening origin of the metal, and to the salvage workers in northern Vietnam who still perform the dangerous work of harvesting unexploded ordnance five decades after the end of the war. My hope is that people will both appreciate the beauty of Reflections Between Flashes and reflect on the long aftereffects that warfare has on the people and places involved.”

Nguyen was recently announced as a 2025 recipient of the MacArthur Foundation’s “Genius Grant”, and he was chosen for a prestigious High Line Plinth commission for a monumental sculpture in New York City’s High Line park. Nguyen has had major solo presentations at the New Museum, New York; Fondació Joan Miró, Barcelona; Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC. His work is in the permanent collections of several distinguished national and international museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Brooklyn Museum; Carré d’Art – Musée d’art contemporain de Nîmes, France; Dallas Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Taguchi Art Collection, Japan; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and now, Phoenix Art Museum.

“We are incredibly proud to support the acquisition of Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s powerful sculpture for the Phoenix Art Museum collection,” said Sentari Minor, president, Men’s Arts Council. “This work speaks to transformation, resilience, and the enduring human capacity to create beauty from the remnants of conflict. By bringing Nguyen’s voice into the Museum’s Asian art holdings, we are expanding not only representation but also the depth and complexity of the stories told within the galleries. It’s important for our community to encounter contemporary works that challenge, reflect, and inspire—and this sculpture does exactly that.”

For more information about this latest acquisition, contact the Communications Office of Phoenix Art Museum at kaylee.weyrauch@phxart.org or press@phxart.org

About Phoenix Art Museum

Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) has engaged millions of visitors with the art and fashion of our region and world. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, PhxArt creates spaces of exchange and belonging for all audiences through dynamic exhibitions, collections, and art experiences. Each year, more than 250,000 guests engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions, as well as the Museum’s collection of more than 21,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern, and contemporary art and fashion. The Museum also presents vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson and is home to The Gene and Cathy Lemon Art Research Library, The Thorne Miniature Rooms, The Ullman Center for the Art of Philip C. Curtis, and Arizona Costume Institute (ACI). For the community, PhxArt hosts lectures, live performances, outstanding examples of global cinema, arts-education workshops, family-focused programs, and more. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880. 

About Tuan Andrew Nguyen

Tuan Andrew Nguyen (b. 1976, Saigon, Vietnam) creates work that explores the power of storytelling through video and sculpture. His projects are based on extensive research and community engagement, tapping into inherited histories and counter-memory. Nguyen extracts and re-works dominant, oftentimes colonial histories and supernaturalisms into imaginative vignettes. Fact and fiction are interwoven in his poetic narratives that span time and place.

Now based in Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen has had major solo presentations at the New Museum, New York, NY (2023); Fondació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain (2024); Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa (2024) and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC (2024). His videos and films have been included in major international festivals, biennials, and exhibitions including Prospect.6, New Orleans, LA (2024); the 12th Berlin Biennale, Berlin, Germany (2022); Manifesta 14, Prishtina, Kosovo (2022); Aichi Triennale, Aichi Prefecture, Japan (2022); Biennale de Dakar, Dakar, Senegal (2022); Asian Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Tapei, Taiwan (2021); Manifesta 13, Marseille, France (2020); Sharjah Architecture Triennial, Sharjah, UAE (2019); SOFT POWER, SFMoMA, San Francisco, CA (2019); the 2019 Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, UAE (2019); 2017 Whitney Biennial, New York, NY (2017); the 55th International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, Germany (2009); 8th NHK Asian Film Festival, Tokyo, Japan (2007); 18th Singapore International Film Festival (2005) and 4th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival, Bangkok, Thailand (2005). Nguyen has received numerous awards, including the 2023 Joan Miró Prize.

His work is included in the permanent collections of institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Carré d’Art – Musée d’art contemporain de Nîmes, France; Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP), Paris, France; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, HI; Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, CA; Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museum MACAN, Jakarta, Indonesia; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ; Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane, Australia; Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Taguchi Art Collection, Japan; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, and the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA.

About Men’s Arts Council

The Men’s Arts Council (MAC) of Phoenix Art Museum, founded in 1967, is a 501(c)3, non-profit organization that supports the Museum’s programs and activities through its unique events such as the Copperstate 1000 and the Copperstate Overland, a vintage off-road rally. The Men’s Arts Council’s efforts enable the organization to make annual contributions to Phoenix Art Museum’s operating budget and financially sponsor exhibitions. For more information, visit https://mensartscouncil.com/.

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PHOENIX (May 8, 2023) –Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) announces the acquisition of Cannupa Hanska Luger’s Incendiary (2023), a vibrantly colored, large-scale tipi work from a recent series that explores the adaptability and versatility of the nomadic structure as a metaphor for the resilience of Indigenous peoples in the face of settler-colonial violence. The painted and shaped canvas is a significant addition to the Museum’s contemporary art collection and furthers the Museum’s efforts to collect and display art that reflects a diversity of voices from the Southwest region and Arizona. Incendiary by Luger was acquired by the Museum with funds from the Men’s Arts Council, a Museum support group dedicated to supporting acquisitions, exhibitions, and education and engagement programming. It is on view now in the Katz Wing for Modern Art.

“Adding Incendiary by Cannupa Hanska Luger into the collection of Phoenix Art Museum represents a significant step forward in growing contemporary Indigenous perspectives within the PhxArt Collection,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “The work is a wonderful example of how Luger uses Indigenous knowledge to challenge histories and stereotypes and, in dialogue with other works, assertively demonstrates a reframing and repositioning of historical narratives of Native peoples. Incendiary joins other paintings and multimedia works in our contemporary art holdings by contemporary Indigenous artists such as Fritz Scholder and Steven Yazzie.”

Cannupa Hanska Luger was born in 1979 on Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. Now based in New Mexico, he is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation and is of Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota, and European heritage. By incorporating wide-ranging media, from ceramics, steel, and fiber to video and repurposed materials, Luger creates monumental installations and sculptures, performances, and wall works that attempt to reframe and reclaim 21^st-century narratives about Indigenous cultures and identities. His work unites historical references and tradition with contemporary concerns, all to imagine and dream of Indigenous futures.

Luger is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow and a recipient of a 2021 United States Artists Fellowship Award for Craft. In 2021, he was named a GRIST Fixer, and in 2020, he was named a Creative Capital Fellow and a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow, among other previous awards and accolades. Luger has exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gardiner Museum, Kunsthal KAdE, ASU Art Museum, Berkeley Art Museum, New Orleans Museum of Art, Mesa Arts Center, and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.

His work is featured in collections of various museums around the world, including the North American Native Museum (Zürich, Switzerland); the Denver Art Museum; the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (Santa Fe); the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven); and the Conley Gallery, California State University (Fresno). Luger holds a BFA in studio arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Incendiary (2023) is one of 10 canvases from Luger’s tipi series, a recent investigation of painting. For the Plains people, tipis represent a nomadic lifestyle, defined by patterns of migration that mirror the movements of buffalo herds. The structures were often made from the skins of hunted buffalo, making them part of the land and the humans who constructed them simultaneously. Tipis also adapt to the land on which they exist, similar to how Indigenous peoples have adapted over centuries of struggle and ongoing conflict with colonizers.

As part of his tipi series, Luger transformed the word “tipi” into an acronym—Transportable Intergenerational Protection Infrastructure. The acronym suggests that the structure can cross time and space, even into future realms of existence, thus solidifying its status as a testament to Indigenous resilience and innovation. Incendiary, like other canvases from the body of work, features recognizable graphic forms of stars and oversized cartoon eyes with curled eyelashes, which are drawn from specific historical references. The eyes reference stereotypical cartoon characterizations of Indigenous peoples in early animations, while the overall pop aesthetic refers to historical air force nose art. This type of nose art first appeared on British Royal Air Force Tomahawks during World War II and was later adopted by U.S. forces to adorn US P-40s, or Warhawks. By appropriating this imagery and placing it onto a Native nomadic structure, Luger reflects on the ability of Indigenous peoples, their knowledge, and their technologies to withstand the colonial violence and aggression these designs represent. It is also a reflection on how Native American cultural motifs have been appropriated by Western popular culture for centuries.

For more information on this recent acquisition and a high-resolution image, please contact the Museum’s press office at samantha.santos@phxart.org or press@phxart.org. For more information on the artist, visit garthgreenan.com.

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.

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PHOENIX (February 21, 2023) – This spring, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) will present renowned artist Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe in conversation with curator and cultural critic Larry Ossei-Mensah during the Museum’s spring Lenhardt Lecture, a key component of the Dawn and David Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative. Quaicoe is known for his lush portraits of friends and family members that utilize bold colors to communicate personal narratives and distinct identities. His figurative forms, including a recent series of Black American cowboys, exude empowerment, redemption, sophistication, humility, curiosity, and quietude and often reflect U.S. gender and race dynamics. Coinciding with the program at PhxArt, the Museum has acquired Quaicoe’s portrait Profile of Larry Ossei (2022), which will be on view this spring in the Museum’s Katz Wing for Modern Art and is the fifth work acquired by the Museum through the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative. This spring’s Lenhardt Lecture will place Quaicoe in dialogue with the subject of this recent acquisition—Larry Ossei-Mensah—representing an exciting opportunity to learn about the process of portraiture and the give and take between artist and subject. The event will be presented on March 22, 2023 at 7 pm in the Museum’s Whiteman Hall. Tickets are free for Museum Members and $5 for the public and can be reserved here.

“We are thrilled to bring Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe and Larry Ossei-Mensah to Phoenix Art Museum as part of our ongoing Lenhardt Lecture series, made possible through the vision and generosity of Dawn and David Lenhardt,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Sybil Harrington Director and CEO of Phoenix Art Museum. “Quaicoe’s ability to capture the essence of his subjects is masterful, and his portrait of Ossei-Mensah—a rising force in the field of contemporary art—is no different. This work, with Ossei-Mensah dressed as a cowboy, provides an opportunity for our visitors to consider stories and identities historically excluded from narratives about the American West as well as the art world at large, and we are grateful to the Lenhardt family for enabling the Museum to add this important painting to our permanent collection.”

Born in Accra, Ghana, and now based in Oregon, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe (b. 1988) is one of the leading West African artists of his generation. Quaicoe approaches painting as an exploratory medium that presents an opportunity to engage with topics of personal identity, pervading social dynamics, and the history of painting itself. Rendered in an approachable scale, his richly textured portraits are intimate and powerful, utilizing bold, concentrated fields of color to capture the emotions and defining characteristics of his sitters. His recent series of portraits featuring Black cowboys modernize the genre, discontinuing a widespread inaccurate and exclusionary account of U.S. history. Quaicoe, who studied painting at the Ghanatta College of Art and Design for Fine Art, has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including ONE BUT TWO (Haadzii) (2021) and Black Like Me (2020) at Roberts Projects gallery in Los Angeles, Calif., as well as BLACK RODEO: Cowboys of the 21st Century (2022) at Almine Rech Gallery in Brussels, Belgium.

For the spring Lenhardt Lecture at PhxArt, Quaicoe will appear in conversation with Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic Larry Ossei-Mensah. A native of the Bronx, Ossei-Mensah uses art as a forum to redefine how we see ourselves and the world around us. Currently, he serves as curator-at-large at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and formerly served as the Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit. Ossei-Mensah has worked with artists such as Steve McQueen, Catherine Opie, Nick Cave, Guadalupe Maravilla, Ebony G. Patterson, Judy Chicago, and Amoako Boafo, to name a few, and his exhibitions and projects have appeared in various national and international venues, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver; Ben Brown Fine Arts in Hong Kong and London; the Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco; MASS MoCA; and the 7th Athens Biennale in Athens, Greece, which he co-curated with OSMK Social Club.

“Dawn and I are very pleased to welcome Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe and Larry Ossei-Mensah to Phoenix Art Museum for this spring’s Lenhardt Lecture,” said David Lenhardt, vice chair of the Museum’s Board of Trustees. “Quaicoe’s empowering works use portraiture as a form of diasporic cultural investigation, allowing us to probe into social topics of our past and present. We are excited to help bring him and Ossei-Mensah to Phoenix so our community can learn more about their collaboration, their processes, and the histories they are focused on uncovering and uplifting.”

Quaicoe’s Profile of Larry Ossei (2022) is the fifth work acquired into the Museum’s collection with funds from the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative, which was expanded in 2021 to support the diversification of the contemporary art collection of Phoenix Art Museum through the acquisition of works by artists contributing to discourses on race, gender, and other socially relevant concerns, including those by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and women artists, among others. The painting fashions Ossei-Mensah, considered a rising curatorial star, as a Black cowboy, interrogating the erasure of Black identity within an art-historical context and within western American histories. The work will be on view in the Museum’s Katz Wing for Modern Art beginning this spring and in conjunction with the March Lenhardt Lecture.

“Quaicoe’s portrait of Ossei-Mensah not only diversifies the Museum’s holdings of contemporary art but broadens our understanding of the American West and what we consider American art,” said Christian Ramírez, assistant curator of contemporary and community art initiatives. “We are grateful to the Lenhardt family for their continued dedication to expanding representation across our programs and acquisitions.”

For more information about the Spring 2023 Lenhardt Lecture, contact the Communications Office of Phoenix Art Museum at 602.257.2117 or samantha.santos@phxart.org.

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.

About the Dawn and David Lenhardt Lecture and the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative
The Dawn and David Lenhardt Lecture engages Valley audiences with some of the most acclaimed contemporary artists in the world. In 2018, the inaugural lecture presented New-York based artist Jim Hodges, and subsequent lectures have featured artists Shara Hughes, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Arcmanoro Niles, Teresita Fernández, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Derek Fordjour, and Rashid Johnson.

The Lenhardt Lecture is a key component of the Dawn and David Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative. Made possible through the generosity of the Arizona-based Lenhardt family, the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative was established in 2017 to deepen the Museum’s commitment to contemporary art through various programs, namely the Lenhardt Lectures, which engage Valley audiences with some of the most acclaimed contemporary artists in the world; the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund, which enables Phoenix Art Museum to collect works by contemporary artists; and the Dawn and David Lenhardt Gallery, designated for the presentation of contemporary art, including works acquired with funds from the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative, loans from national and local collectors, and a rotating series of artworks from the Lenhardts’ own collection. In 2021, the initiative was expanded to support the diversification of the contemporary art collection of Phoenix Art Museum through the acquisition of works by artists contributing to discourses on race, gender, and other socially relevant concerns, including those by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and women artists, among others. Since 2017, the Museum has acquired artworks by Shara Hughes, Arcmanoro Niles, Derek Fordjour, Rashid Johnson, and, now, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe with funds from the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative.

About Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe
Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe (b. 1988, Accra, Ghana) is one of the leading West African artists of his generation. Quaicoe attended Ghanatta College of Art and Design for Fine Art in Accra, Ghana, with a focus on painting. His images explore themes of empowerment and redemption, sophistication and humility, curiosity and quietude, and in his work, color becomes its own language of transformation, whether social, political, or personal. Each of Quaicoe’s figures represent the reclamation of cultural dignity, embracing the idea of origin and personal narrative within the framework of gender and race dynamics. Quaicoe has been the subject of solo exhibitions including ONE BUT TWO (Haadzii) (2021) and Black Like Me (2020) at Roberts Projects gallery in Los Angeles, Calif.

About Larry Ossei-Mensah
Larry Ossei-Mensah (b. 1980) uses art as a forum to redefine how we see ourselves and the world around us. The Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic has organized exhibitions and programs featuring artists such as Firelei Baez, Steve McQueen, Catherine Opie, Nick Cave, and Guadalupe Maravilla, among others. He has also collaborated with creatives such as Derrick Adams x Jay-Z, Marco Brambilla, and Mikael Owunna, along with global venues such as The MCA Denver, Ben Brown Fine Arts in Hong Kong and London, and the 7th Athens Biennale in Athens, Greece, which he co-curated with OSMK Social Club.

A native of The Bronx, Ossei-Mensah co-founded ARTNOIR, a nonprofit dedicated to driving racial equity in the art world. Currently, he serves as curator-at-large at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, with upcoming exhibitions scheduled at the Seattle Art Museum and Denver Art Museum.

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PHOENIX (December 14, 2022) –Phoenix Art Museum has recently added more than 170 works to its collection of more than 20,000 objects of Asian, American, Latin American, European, modern, and contemporary art and fashion design. Notable acquisitions include A River Landscape with a Waterfall (c. 1660) by renowned Dutch painter Jacob van Ruisdael and The Flight of Sor Juana (1982) by Eduardo Carrillo. In addition, the Museum acquired Dress (1996) by James Sterling Paper Fashions and “Daisy Mae” Shift (1960s) by Misty Modes, both of which strengthen the Museum’s holdings of fashion designs made from paper and disposable materials.

Acquisition Highlights

• A River Landscape with a Waterfall (c. 1660) by Jacob van Ruisdael, gifted by Dr. Meryl H. and Mrs. Jeanne Haber, depicts a turbulent waterfall cascading into a pond surrounded by magnificent trees, with churning water and large broken tree limbs in the foreground that suggest the ever-changing nature of life. The work’s most recent provenance is of great interest. In the 1930s, the painting was housed in the home-gallery of Jewish Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstikker. The saga of his family is a tragedy of the Second World War. As the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, the Goudstikker family fled. Hermann Göring, Nazi Reichsmarschall, looted this painting (pictured on the previous page), along with many others, from the Goudstikker Gallery in Amsterdam. During World War II, the paintings were hidden by the Nazis. In 1945, as the war ended, this work, and others by Old Masters, were recovered by the Allies and the Dutch government. It took nearly 60 years for the Goudstikker family to obtain possession of the paintings once again. This painting was bought at auction in London in 2007. Affixed to the back of the painting are Goudstikker Gallery labels indicating this work’s possession by the Nazis during World War II. On view now in Art of the Americas + Europe galleries.

• Dress (1966) by James Sterling Paper Fashions and “Daisy Mae” Shift (1960s) by Misty Modes were gifted by longtime Museum supporter Kelly Ellman. These colorful and whimsical garments highlight a special moment in fashion history, when garments made of paper and disposable materials took the world by storm. Now part of the Museum’s fashion-design collection, these works spark important conversations about creativity and sustainability.

• Zero Weave (2019) by Julianne Swartz, purchased with funds provided by Jane and Mal Jozoff, is crafted from enameled copper filament that is approximately the diameter of a strand of hair. Repetitive winding builds the frail strands into a soft vessel. This work was previously on view in Stories of Abstraction: Contemporary Latin American Art in the Global Context, which presented rarely seen artworks by some of Latin America’s most innovative contemporary artists. On view now in the Katz Wing for Modern Art.

• Gifted by Ruben and Juliette Carrillo, The Flight of Sor Juana (1982) by Eduardo Carrillo depicts Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, the 17^th-century Mexican nun, poet, and self-taught scholar. Thought by historians to be one of the first published feminist writers of her time, Sor Juana is portrayed with pen and rosary in hand and her body bent to God’s will. The painting showcases Carillo’s ability to move from realism to realms of fantasy in his work. On view now in the Art of the Americas + Europe galleries.

• Old House at Cienega (20^th century) by Fremont F. Ellis, gifted by JPMorgan Chase, is one of Ellis’ outstanding landscape works. Settling in Santa Fe in 1919, the primarily self-taught painter captured his environment and founded one of Santa Fe’s earliest art groups, Los Cinco Pintores. This work was formerly in the collection of Walter Reed Bimson (1892-1980), a pioneering Arizona art collector who headed Valley National Bank. On view now in Orme Lewis Gallery.

• Japanese Landscape with Figures and Boats (c. 1869-1908) by Charles Dater Weldon, gifted by Janet and Peter Mattingly, was created during the Ohio painter’s time spent in Japan. An illustrator, Weldon established a reputation for accurately depicting “the real life of the people.” Portraying a Japanese landscape, this work is an unusual addition to the Museum’s American art collection.  On view now in Orme Lewis Gallery.

• For its collection of Asian art, the Museum acquired approximately 50 Indonesian textiles. Made entirely by hand for both ceremonial and daily wear, the textiles were previously on view in the Museum’s 2010 exhibition Sumatra: Textiles from the Collection of Dr. Thomas J. Hudak. The gift represents the first acquisition of works from Indonesia, expanding the total nations represented in the Art of Asia collection to 14.

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.

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PHOENIX (February 25, 2021) –Phoenix Art Museum announces the expansion of the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative to support the diversification of its contemporary art collection through the acquisition of works by artists contributing to discourses on race, gender, and other social concerns that are relevant to the Phoenix community and society at large. These efforts will entail collecting works by a range of artists working today, including Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and women artists, among others. This reimagining of the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative supports the Museum’s previously stated goals of examining and diversifying its permanent collection. The Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative was originally established in 2017 through the support of Valley philanthropists Dawn and David Lenhardt to deepen the Museum’s commitment to contemporary art through various programs, including the Lenhardt Lectures, the Lenhardt Emerging Artist Acquisition Fund, and the Dawn and David Lenhardt Gallery. Going forward, funds from the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative will also be allocated so that the Museum may specifically focus on acquiring works of art that contribute to the diversification of its contemporary art collection.

“We are deeply grateful to Dawn and David Lenhardt for spearheading and generously funding an initiative that is so crucial to the mission of Phoenix Art Museum,” said Tim Rodgers, PhD, the Museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “The Lenhardt family has made it possible for the Museum to focus our efforts on addressing the historic underrepresentation of various communities in the institution’s collection by acquiring works that better reflect the diverse community we serve today. It is our hope that others who support Phoenix Art Museum and have the means to do so will join the Museum and the Lenhardts in fulfilling this vision of a more inclusive collection.”

The Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative was established in 2017 with the goal of providing continuous funding for contemporary art acquisitions by emerging artists and public programs that would raise the Museum’s profile on a national scale. Without an annual budget for new acquisitions, the Museum has, historically, relied upon such gifts from its donor community and its support groups to procure funding for acquisitions of new artworks. Through this initial gift, the Museum was able to acquire a number of significant works by artists emerging on the national scene, including Shara Hughes and Arcmanoro Niles. Annual Lenhardt Lectures further strengthened the Museum’s contemporary art program by presenting and exposing the Phoenix community to internationally renowned artists such as Jim Hodges, Daniel Joseph Martinez, and, most recently, Teresita Fernández and Amalia Mesa-Bains. Now, the expansion of the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative will also highlight artists whose diverse narratives are meaningful to the Phoenix community and beyond.  

“We saw an opportunity to expand our initiative in a way that could support the Museum’s efforts to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” said David Lenhardt, who also serves as the Vice Chair of the Museum’s Board of Trustees. “Not only will this initiative grow the contemporary art collection—it will also enrich the collection and related programming with diverse perspectives and experiences that reflect our current moment. Through these acquisitions as well as annual lectures that bring these artists to the Valley of the Sun, Phoenix Art Museum will contribute to an urgent dialogue that better reflects the multicultural reality of our nation.”

In commitment to this broadened focus, the Museum has acquired The Futility of Achievement (2020) by New York-based artist Derek Fordjour with funds provided by the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative. The large-scale painting was recently featured in the exhibition SELF MUST DIE at Petzel Gallery in New York City, which contrasted the inevitability of actual death with the aspirational death of the artist’s ego. Fordjour, who was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to parents of Ghanaian heritage, earned his BA at Morehouse College, his MA in Art Education at Harvard University, and an MFA in Painting at Hunter College. He has exhibited at notable institutions around the world and received commissions for various public projects, including a permanent installation for the Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York City at 145th Street Subway Station and The Whitney Museum’s Billboard Project. Fordjour’s work appears in several national collections, including The Studio Museum of Harlem, Brooklyn Museum, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Dallas Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, LACMA, and now, Phoenix Art Museum. The Futility of Achievement (2020) will be on view at Phoenix Art Museum beginning spring 2021, and Fordjour will be the featured speaker in the Lenhardt Lecture this fall. 

“The Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative is critical for the development and evolution of contemporary art at Phoenix Art Museum,” said Gilbert Vicario, the institution’s Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and the Selig Family Chief Curator, who oversees the Museum’s contemporary art programs. “While it allows the Museum to continue refining our national reputation through the development of a collection program that features some of the most compelling artists working today, the initiative also assists with the Museum’s commitment to greater representation and diversity within our collection. This opportunity truly would not have been possible without the vision and passion of the Lenhardt family, who see it not only as their privilege to support these efforts but their responsibility.”

For more information about the Dawn and David Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative and Phoenix Art Museum, contact the Museum’s Communications Office at 602.307.2003 or samantha.andreacchi@phxart.org.

About the Dawn and David Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative

Made possible through the generosity of the Arizona-based Lenhardt family, the Dawn and David Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative was established in 2017 to deepen the Museum’s commitment to contemporary art through various programs, namely the Lenhardt Lectures, which engage Valley audiences with some of the most acclaimed contemporary artists in the world; the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund, which enables Phoenix Art Museum to collect works by contemporary artists; and the Dawn and David Lenhardt Gallery, designated for the presentation of contemporary art, including works acquired with funds from the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative, loans from national and local collectors, and a rotating series of artworks from the Lenhardts’ own collection. In 2021, the initiative was expanded to support the diversification of the contemporary art collection at Phoenix Art Museum through the acquisition of works by artists contributing to discourses on race, gender, and other social concerns that are relevant to the Phoenix community and society at large, including Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and women artists, among others.

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 350,000 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.

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PHOENIX (January 27, 2021) – In 2020, Phoenix Art Museum added 71 works to its collection of more than 20,000 objects of Asian, American, Latin American, European, modern, and contemporary art and fashion design. Notable acquisitions include The Futility of Achievement (2020) by critically acclaimed New York-based artist Derek Fordjour and Untitled (1972), a gouache painting, by Alexander Calder. In addition, the Museum has acquired Chaco Canyon (c. 1927-1930s) by Warren Eliphalet Rollins and Lowrider Builder and Child (2012) by Liz Cohen, an Arizona-based artist and an associate professor at the School of Art at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. These four new acquisitions elevate the Museum’s collections of American, modern, and contemporary art and are joined by 67 additional works of fashion design and Asian, Latin American, Western American, and contemporary art.

“We are thrilled to add these exceptional works to the collection of Phoenix Art Museum,” said Gilbert Vicario, the Museum’s Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and the Selig Family Chief Curator. “Not only does the acquisition of The Futility of Achievement by Derek Fordjour and Liz Cohen’s photographic work Lowrider Builder and Child contribute to the Museum’s ongoing efforts to diversify its collection and better represent our community by acquiring works by artists of color and Arizona-based artists, but these works also advance the Museum’s contemporary art collection on a national and international level while providing the opportunity for our community to access some of the most important works by contemporary artists today. These works, along with a rare example of a late-career painting by Alexander Calder and many others, are important and meaningful additions to the collection.”

Acquisition Highlights

• The Futility of Achievement (2020) by Derek Fordjour is the third artwork purchased with funds from the Dawn and David Lenhardt Emerging Artist Acquisition Fund, a key component of the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative. The large-scale painting was recently featured in the exhibition SELF MUST DIE at Petzel Gallery in New York City, which contrasted the inevitability of actual death with the aspirational death of the artist’s ego. Fordjour, who was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to parents of Ghanaian heritage, earned his BA at Morehouse College, his MA in Art Education at Harvard University, and an MFA in Painting at Hunter College. He has exhibited at notable institutions around the world and received commissions for various public projects, including a permanent installation for Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York City at 145th Street Subway Station and The Whitney Museum’s Billboard Project. Fordjour’s work appears in several national collections, including The Studio Museum of Harlem, Brooklyn Museum, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Dallas Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, LACMA, and now, Phoenix Art Museum. The Futility of Achievement (2020) will be on view at Phoenix Art Museum beginning Spring 2021.

• Untitled (1972) by Alexander Calder was a gift to the Museum by the Estate of Billie Javancie, who was an Arizona-based artist working primarily in metal sculpture. Although Calder is best known for his innovative, kinetic mobiles powered by motors or air currents, he preferred gouache painting as his primary medium for two-dimensional works. Untitled (1972) reveals Calder’s concern with primary colors, abstraction, motion, and playfulness.

• Gifted by Norine Heinrich, Chaco Canyon (c. 1927-1930s) by Warren Eliphalet Rollins depicts one of New Mexico’s most famous ruins. Rollins, who was born in Carson City, Nevada, studied art at the San Francisco School of Design before settling in Santa Fe in 1919. In 1921, Rollins served as a founding member and president of the Santa Fe Arts Club. He is known for his traditional depictions of Indigenous peoples in Arizona and New Mexico, with whom he lived for months at a time, and he was especially fascinated by ancient ruins and sites such as Chaco Canyon, as well as Zuni, Hopi, and Navajo sites.

• Lowrider Builder and Child (2012) by Phoenix-based photographer and performance artist Liz Cohen was purchased with funds provided by the Zuber Award and the Opatrny Family Foundation. The photographic work features Cohen reclining in a tranquil, idyllic setting and breastfeeding her newborn child in front of an East German Trabant that she restored and transformed into an American El Camino-style lowrider as part of her project BODYWORK. Lowrider Builder and Child examines the role women have traditionally played in lowrider car culture by focusing on the artist as both a car customizer and model.

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.

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PHOENIX (February 14, 2020) – A new exhibition at Phoenix Art Museum will present for the first time more than 40 recently acquired works of contemporary Latin American art to explore how the visual language of abstraction has generated profound insights into Latin American culture and politics and how Latin American artists have drawn on abstraction’s history within the region as well as the United States and Europe. Stories of Abstraction: Contemporary Latin American Art celebrates the contemporary artworks gifted to the Museum in 2018 by Nicholas Pardon, co-founder of the former SPACE collection—the largest collection of post-1990s abstract Latin American art in the United States. Featuring work by 25 artists from eight countries, the exhibition opens a window onto this important genre of contemporary art and explores how abstraction is used to visualize the social philosophies of the present. Stories of Abstraction will be on view at Phoenix Art Museum from May 2 through September 20, 2020. 

“Stories of Abstraction seeks to uncover the ways in which Latin American artists have used abstraction as both a vehicle to explore key issues relating to society and a tool to recast sometimes radical civic discourse,” said Gilbert Vicario, the Museum’s Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and the Selig Family Chief Curator who curated the exhibition. “The title of the exhibition intends to make clear that there are complex narratives within these abstract works. The exhibition also furthers the Museum’s dedication to preserving and presenting significant works by Latin American artists, as well as its commitment to developing original scholarship that examines the meaning and underpinnings of abstract Latin American art. As our Phoenix community is more than 40% Latinx, Stories of Abstraction offers a timely examination of the visual language of Latin American abstraction, one that we believe our visitors can relate to and find inspiring and exciting.”

The recent acquisition of 112 works of art from Pardon, including paintings, sculptures, installations, and works on paper, represents a nearly 300% increase in the Museum’s holdings of contemporary Latin American art. Featuring artwork from the most innovative artists working in Latin America in recent years and today, including seven women artists, Stories of Abstraction makes accessible a wide range of compelling artwork from Venezuela, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Honduras, and Guatemala. Stories of Abstraction will historically contextualize the exhibition’s contemporary works by placing them alongside key artworks from earlier decades to clarify Latin American abstraction’s relationship to other abstract movements. Historical works by Alexander Calder, Pedro Friedeberg, Carlos Mérida, Frank Stella, Bridget Riley, and Jesús Rafael Soto, among others, will complement more contemporary works from the Museum’s collection.

Key highlights from the exhibition include:

• Honduran artist Adán Vallecillo’s Pantones (2013), in which six hanging banners made of moto-taxi covers are placed in dialogue with each other. The work highlights the use of nontraditional materials in Latin American abstraction and encourages viewers to engage with and walk along its stratified banners to examine the visual continuities and obscurities between each layer.

• Venezuelan artist Emilia Azcárate’s La mar de letras (2013), a five-paneled work exploring language and written communication, features illegible strings of letters from an old typewriter in a radiant green ink. By visualizing mechanical, repetitive, and obsessive forms of mark-making on paper, Azcárate creates an indecipherable sea of letters to prompt reflection on the complications and fallibility of language and to turn a coherent system of writing into a complex abstraction.

• Colombian artist Gabriel Sierra’s Sin título (siete conejos) (2001-2013), a sculptural installation consisting of glue and straw bricks arranged in descending scale, continues the artist’s exploration of the languages of design and architecture. Sierra uses straw as a vernacular material for construction to signify humans’ modification of nature and adaptation to the environment. Engaging ideas of community, habitat, and urbanism, Sierra manipulates architectural dynamics to examine the forces governing human interaction with built environments.

• Argentinian artist Sergio Vega’s Shanty Nucleus After Derrida 2 (2011-2013), which presents yellow monochrome planes suspended in space, creates an array of configurations and walkways that enable an interactive viewing experience. These various planes constitute the color ground on which photographs of “shanty” homes have been mounted to create fragmented sculptural formations inspired by Derrida’s theory of deconstruction.

As an exploration of how abstraction is employed in contemporary Latin American art to convey specific emotions, stories, and ideas stemming from the cultural and political zeitgeist, Stories of Abstraction introduces new narratives within the work of Latin American artists. Providing an overview of post-1990s abstraction from various geographies in Latin America, the exhibition seeks to address the multitude of ways in which artwork lacking figuration or recognizable characters can generate insightful commentary and even political change.

“Stories of Abstraction places the Museum at the forefront of conversations surrounding scholarship, exhibition practices, and the global significance of contemporary Latin American art,” said Vicario. “The exhibition will foster new dialogues in the Phoenix community and beyond and provide the opportunity to learn about the significant achievements of Latin America’s foremost abstract artists.”

About the Exhibition

Stories of Abstraction: Contemporary Latin American Art will be on view from May 2 through September 20, 2020 in Steele Gallery. It is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and made possible through the generosity of the Museum’s Circles of Support and Museum Members. The exhibition features objects donated to the Phoenix Art Museum collection by Nicholas Pardon.

This special-engagement exhibition is free for Museum Members; veterans and active-duty military and their families; and youth aged 5 and younger.

General admission:

$23 — Adults

$20 — Senior citizens (Ages 65+)

$18 — Students (with ID)

$14 — Children (Ages 6–17)

All special-engagement exhibitions are included with general admission. During voluntary-donation times when general admission is pay what you wish, admission to Stories of Abstraction is $5. Voluntary-donation times include Wednesdays from
3 – 9 pm and the first Friday of each month from 6 – 10 pm, with free admission for youth 17 and younger on the last Saturday of each month. For a full breakdown of general-admission prices and hours, please see bit.ly/VisitPhxArt.

To request interviews and high-resolution photography, contact the Communications Office of Phoenix Art Museum at 602.307.2003 or samantha.andreacchi@phxart.org.

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.

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PHOENIX (December 2018) –Phoenix Art Museum is the recipient of a significant gift from Nicholas Pardon, co-founder of the SPACE Collection, the largest collection of post-1990s abstract art from Latin America in the United States featuring major works by artists recognized as the pioneers of their generation. The gift includes 112 artworks by 49 artists from 14 Latin American countries and represents a 280% increase in the Museum’s holdings of contemporary Latin American art. Previously, the Museum’s Latin American art collection included approximately 40 contemporary artworks.

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PHOENIX (January 25, 2018) – Phoenix Art Museum has purchased its first acquisition from the James K. Ballinger American Art and Education Fund, established in honor of director emeritus Jim Ballinger to strengthen the Museum’s collection of American art made before 1950. Deer in the Forest is a painting from 1914 by Marguerite Zorach, who was an early exponent of modernism in the United States. This acquisition represents a significant addition to the Museum’s holdings of American art, which has historically lacked equitable representation of women artists.

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