Phoenix Art Museum to present artist Lily Stockman at 2024 Lenhardt Lecture

Mar, 01, 2024

Special Events and Programs

Phoenix Art Museum to present artist Lily Stockman at 2024 Lenhardt Lecture

The event on March 13 sheds light on the biomorphic works of the California-based artist, including painting recently acquired by PhxArt

PHOENIX (March 1, 2024) –This spring, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) will present renowned contemporary artist Lily Stockman as the speaker for the Museum’s spring Lenhardt Lecture, a key component of the Dawn and David Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative. Based in Los Angeles and Yucca Valley, California, Stockman draws from nature and its grammar of symmetry, camouflage, and repetition to create abstract paintings. Coinciding with the program at PhxArt, the Museum has acquired Stockman’s painting Methuselah (2022), which is on view now in the Museum’s Katz Wing for Modern Art and is the sixth work acquired by the Museum through the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative. The event will be presented on March 13, 2024 at 6:30 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 Lily Stockman 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. “Stockman has created a unique visual language referencing modern abstractions of predecessors like Agnes Pelton and Josef Albers while standing firmly in her personal experiences—drawing inspiration from her childhood, landscapes she’s grown to know intimately, and even novels and poetry. We are grateful to the Lenhardt family for their continued support of this important series highlighting rising voices in the contemporary art world and for helping the Museum acquire a pivotal work from Stockman’s incredible oeuvre.”

Stockman’s work is informed by the generative and mysterious forces of nature, along with her experiences living in and frequenting Los Angeles, the Mojave Desert, and a remote island in Maine. Her distinctive palette features glowing, tertiary colors, and her compositions are at once ethereal and undulating yet contained within geometric, boundaried forms.

For the spring Lenhardt Lecture, Stockman will discuss how her paintings emerge from a wide range of references, from natural phenomena like vernal pools, mineral licks, birdsong, and black ice to the esoteric, including Shaker gift drawings, medieval hocketing, portable Renaissance altarpieces, and poetry meter. Her work is in the permanent collections of Phoenix Art Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles; Institute of Contemporary Art Miami; Palm Springs Art Museum; Farnsworth Art Museum; and Orange County Museum of Art, where she was included in the California Biennial 2022: Pacific Gold.

“Dawn and I are thrilled that Phoenix Art Museum will feature Lily Stockman for the next Lenhardt Lecture,” said David Lenhardt, vice chair of the Board of Trustees. “Stockman’s impressive use of color, form, and shape yields works that emanate a sense of calm and spirituality. We look forward to hearing her share more about how her practice and her personal experiences as a working artist balancing a flourishing career with motherhood.”

For more information about the spring 2024 Lenhardt Lecture, contact the Communications Office of Phoenix Art Museum at 602.257.2117 or samantha.santos@phxart.org. For high-resolution images, 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.

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, Rashid Johnson, Otis Kawme Kye Quaicoe, and Leonardo Drew.

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, Otis Kwame Kye, and, now, Lily Stockman with funds from the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative.

About Lily Stockman
Lily Stockman (b. 1982, Providence, RI) is a Los Angeles-based painter. Drawing from nature and its grammar of symmetry, camouflage, and repetition, Stockman plumbs the American landscape for her distinctive palette of glowing, tertiary colors. Stockman’s paintings emerge from a wide range of references, from natural phenomena— vernal pools, mineral licks, birdsong, black ice — to historical devotional endeavors— Shaker gift drawings, medieval hocketing, portable Renaissance altarpieces, poetry meter. Her essays have appeared in Vogue, the Iceland Review, Monocle, and books on artists, and her work is in the permanent collections of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, and the Orange County Museum of Art, where she was included in the California Biennial 2022: Pacific Gold, among others. Her most recent project explored Emily Wilson’s English translation of Homer’s Odyssey, at Gagosian Athens. For more information, visit charlesmoffett.com.