/// SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2025 • 10 AM – 7 PM
El Movimiento Artístico del Río Salado (MARS) was a Phoenix-based arts collective and gallery that was established in 1978 by and for local Chicano artists. The group’s work was largely excluded from Southwest gallery and museum exhibitions throughout the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s.
MARS: Revisited is a one-day symposium at Phoenix Art Museum that explores the cultural history, artistic development, and community impact of MARS. Artists, scholars, and community members are invited to attend this day of dynamic conversation and exchange, featuring four distinct panels that will examine the groups origins as a distinctly Chicano arts movement, consider the MARS Artspace gallery as an alternative space, explore MARS’ dedication as a non-profit to educating the Greater Phoenix community about art and culture, and illuminate the collective’s legacy and impact on the city’s contemporary arts ecosystem and the broader Chicano Arts movement.
SYMPOSIUM TIMELINE + PANEL INFORMATION
UP NEXT AFTER THE SYMPOSIUM
Image Credit: Members of Phoenix-based artist collective MARS. Courtesy Joseph Sanchez.
The symposium also serves as a precursor to a forthcoming retrospective at Phoenix Art Museum. Scheduled for 2028, the exhibition will feature works by MARS artists and other contemporary creators who have been impacted by the collective’s legacy. Content and research from the symposium will additionally be used to generate an original monograph.
MARS members in 1983. Courtesy Joseph Sanchez.
The publication will feature essays written by the symposium’s scholars and artists, images from the event in conversation with archival photos and printed materials from the MARS archive, a brief chronology of the MARS organization, oral histories with key MARS members, and a small selection of images of MARS artwork.
MARS: Revisited is organized by Christian Ramírez, the Cohn Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art and Director of Engagement at Phoenix Art Museum, and Dr. Mathew Sandoval, Associate Professor and Dean’s Fellow for Access and Inclusive Excellence at ASU Barrett the Honors College, with assistance from artist and former MARS artist Annie Lopez and Dr. Anita Huizar-Hernández, Associate Professor of Border Studies at ASU and Associate Director of the Hispanic Research Center. Project partners include ASU’s Hispanic Research Center, Cultural Coalition, and Xico Inc.
MARS: Revisited is made possible through the generosity of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Terra Foundation for American Art.
