PHOENIX (March 4, 2026) – This spring, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) hosts the 2026 Eric Fischl Series in partnership with Phoenix College (PC) celebrating 21 years of the Eric Fischl Lecture Series. The 2026 lecture features Eric Fischl—the event’s namesake—in conversation with contemporary artist Marilyn Minter. Known for her distinguished hyper-realistic style, Minter explores themes of beauty and desire through compositions that offer a close-up, visceral view of the body. Join us for a dynamic conversation between the two artists as they discuss Minter’s studio practice, her evolution as an artist, and the boundaries of contemporary art. The 2026 Eric Fischl series will be hosted on Wednesday, April 8, 2025 from 5 – 7:30 pm. Tickets are $5 for the public and free for Museum Members and are available here. Tickets are free for Phoenix College students with an active ID.

“As we mark the program’s 21st anniversary, Phoenix Art Museum, in partnership with Phoenix College, is proud to spotlight this year’s featured artist, Marilyn Minter, in conversation with Eric Fischl,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “Minter has transformed the language of contemporary art through work that is fearless, visually electric and deeply attuned to how images shape power, desire and identity. We’re honored to welcome her for an evening that places her ideas at the center of the conversation and offer a rare opportunity for visitors to engage directly with an artist whose work continues to shape how we see and talk about images.”

Each year, the Eric Fischl series hosted by Phoenix College and held at Phoenix Art Museum draws students, artists, and community members for engaging conversations about art. The 2026 Eric Fischl guest artist is New-York based American visual artist Marilyn Minter. Known as one of the most provocative and influential contemporary artists of our time, Minter is recognized for her raw, hyperreal explorations of beauty, power, and desire across a variety of mediums.

Working across painting, photography and video, she challenges conventional aesthetics by fusing glamour with grit and seduction with subversion. Drawing from fashion, advertising, pornography and art history, Minter’s work examines how pleasure, femininity and consumer culture collide. Her signature style—lush, high-gloss surfaces layered with sweat, glitter and condensation—blurs the boundaries between attraction and repulsion, reality and fantasy. Since the 1970s, Minter has been a fearless disruptor, using her art to critique the idealized images promoted by mass media and the ways women’s bodies are consumed. From her early “bush paintings” to billboard interventions and video works, she continually pushes against cultural taboos surrounding sexuality, feminism and representation. Her work has been exhibited nationally, including at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Brooklyn Museum. Her 2016 retrospective, Pretty/Dirty, cemented her legacy as a pioneering artist who amplifies what others shy away from.

The event on April 8 will begin with an exhibition of artwork by Phoenix College students on view in the Museum’s Cummings Great Hall South. As part of the 2026 Eric Fischl Series, Fischl will also present the prestigious Vanguard Awards to students whose works are selected as “Best in Show” from pieces submitted to the annual exhibition. Fischl created the Vanguard Award in 2005 to recognize emerging student talent in the fine arts, establish Phoenix College as a center for the arts in downtown Phoenix, and create life-changing opportunities for students. Recipients of the award receive $2,500. To date, the Vanguard Award has been presented to 69 students, including some who have received the award more than once. The evening will close with an engaging conversation between Fischl and Minter in Whiteman Hall.

In addition to the annual Eric Fischl Series, PhxArt will be showing an exclusive film screening of PRETTY DIRTY: The Life and Times of Marilyn Minter on April 7. Directed by Jennifer Ash Rudick and Amanda Benchley, this unfiltered exposé strips away the glittering facade of one of the art world’s most provocative icons. PRETTY DIRTY traces Minter’s improbable journey from a Southern childhood and New York’s raw underground to today’s billion-dollar art market. Known for transforming forbidden subjects—sex, shame, and aging—into hypnotic, larger-than-life masterpieces, Minter blurs the lines between glamour and grit. As she nears 80, she remains an “unapologetic provocateuse,” creating massive paintings of cultural icons like Lizzo, Jane Fonda, Pamela Anderson, and Monica Lewinsky. Featuring rare archival footage and powerful testimonies from art world luminaries and pop culture figures including Glenn Ligon and Padma Lakshmi, the film asks a lingering question: Will the art establishment finally embrace an artist who dares to think differently? The film will be followed by a special 20-minute Q&A with the artist herself, Marilyn Minter, moderated by one of the film’s producers, Debi Wisch, (The Art of Making It, The Price of Everything) as they discuss the making of the documentary and Minter’s lifelong pursuit of an authentic, fearless aesthetic. The screening of Pretty Dirty: The Life and Times of Marilyn Minter will be hosted on Tuesday, April 7, 2025 at 6 pm with the Q&A at 7:30pm. Tickets are $8 for the public and free for Museum Members and are available here.

For more information contact the Communications Office at press@phxart.org or kaylee.weyrauch@phxart.org.

About Phoenix Art Museum

Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) has engaged millions of visitors with the art 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 experiences with art. Each year, 300,000 guests on average engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions and 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 design, along with vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson. PhxArt also presents live performances, outstanding examples of global cinema, arts-education programs and workshops, an art+music festival, and more for the community. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.

About Eric Fischl

Born in New York City in 1948, Eric Fischl grew up in the suburbs of Long Island. He began his art education in Phoenix and attended Phoenix College, later earning his B.F.A. from the California Institute for the Arts in 1972. After spending time in Chicago, where he worked as a guard at the Museum of Contemporary Art, he moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to teach painting at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Fischl had his first solo exhibition there before relocating to New York City in 1978. Fischl’s suburban upbringing provided him with a backdrop of alcoholism and a country club culture obsessed with image over content. His early work thus became focused on the rift between what was experienced and what could not be said. His first New York City solo exhibition was at Edward Thorp Gallery in 1979, during a time when suburbia was not considered a legitimate genre for art. He received critical attention for depicting the dark, disturbing undercurrents of mainstream American life. An internationally acclaimed American painter and sculptor, Fischl’s artwork is represented in many distinguished museums throughout the world and has been featured in over 1,000 publications. His extraordinary achievements throughout his career have made him one of the most influential figurative painters of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He is a Fellow at both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Science. He lives and works in Sag Harbor, NY, with his wife, the painter April Gornik.

About Marilyn Minter

Marilyn Minter (b. 1948, U.S.) is one of the most influential contemporary artists of her generation, known for her unflinching, hyperreal examinations of beauty, power and desire. Working across painting, photography and video, she challenges conventional aesthetics by fusing glamour with grit and seduction with subversion. Drawing from fashion, advertising, pornography and art history, Minter’s work explores the intersections of pleasure, femininity and consumer culture. Her signature style—lush, high-gloss surfaces layered with sweat, glitter and condensation—collapses the boundaries between attraction and repulsion, reality and fantasy. Since the 1970s, Minter has consistently used her practice to interrogate the idealized images produced by mass media. From her early “bush paintings” to large-scale billboard projects and video works, she confronts cultural taboos surrounding sexuality, gender and feminism. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Brooklyn Museum. Her 2016 retrospective, Pretty/Dirty, further established her as a pioneering artist whose work brings visibility to subjects often pushed to the margins.

About Phoenix College

Founded in 1920, Phoenix College is the flagship institution of the Maricopa County Community College District, one of the largest community college systems in the nation. Serving more than 17,000 students each year, the college offers over 200 degree and certificate programs, including associate degrees, university transfer pathways, workforce training, and select bachelor’s degrees aligned with Arizona’s evolving workforce needs. Committed to access, academic excellence, and student success, Phoenix College helps students build skills, advance their careers, and create better futures for themselves and their families.

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Pollice Verso, a Latin phrase meaning “with a turned thumb,” is the title of Jean-Léon Gérôme’s masterful work, depicting a gladiator duel in the heart of the Roman Coliseum. Gérôme, a renowned artist known for his historical narrative paintings, started this painting before 1869 but temporarily stopped working on it during the Franco-Prussian War. He would go on to finish the work in 1872.

Gérôme’s Pollice Verso is all about the power of gesture and high drama. In Ancient Rome, gladiatorial games were both a form of entertainment for the masses and a form of capital punishment. Gladiators were typically enslaved people, convicted criminals, or prisoners of war who were forced to train and become skilled fighters. In the foreground of Gérôme’s painting, we witness the ending of a gladiator duel, where the victorious gladiator has slayed two fellow fighters and has his foot on the throat of the last person alive. He looks up toward the crowd or perhaps the Roman emperor himself for permission to finish the fight and execute the fellow gladiator.

Perhaps to signal for mercy from the crowd and the emperor, the man on the ground gestures upward with two fingers, reminiscent of the same gesture that is often featured in Catholic iconography during the Byzantine and Renaissance periods. The crowd appears to be booing and putting their thumbs down.

While a modern read on this gesture suggests that a “thumbs down” was a signal that a defeated gladiator should be condemned to death (likely influenced by Ridley Scott’s feature film Gladiator), there are no historical records that confirm this. Because pollice verso simply means with “a turned thumb” (specifying neither up nor down), we do not have a clear answer.

What we do know, however, is that in Gérôme’s painting, we enter the scene during a moment of high suspense, when the emperor has not given a definitive signal either way. Will the defeated gladiator live or die? It is left to the viewer to complete the story for themself.

Gérôme showed a Pollice Verso at a private Salon in 1873, after which the painting was turned into a series of prints and would be used as a reference for his full-scale sculptural work The Gladiators (1873). The work was acquired by PhxArt in 1968 and has been a jewel of the collection and a favorite of visitors ever since.

Come see this masterwork of the PhxArt collection, on view now in our European + American galleries. Learn more at: https://phxart.org/exhibition/european-and-latin-american-art/

Image credit: Jean-Léon Gérôme, Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down)1872. Oil on canvas, Museum purchase.

Works cited: Spier, Christine (2010, August 6). Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down? Looking at Gérôme’s “Pollice Verso.” Getty. https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down-looking-at-geromes-pollice-verso/

Hoakley, (2018, July 26). Too Real: the narrative paintings of Jean-Léon Gérôme, 4. THE ECLECTIC LIGHT COMPANY. https://eclecticlight.co/2018/07/26/too-real-the-narrative-paintings-of-jean-leon-gerome-4/

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PHOENIX (September 15, 2023) – Phoenix Art Museum has announced it will host the second annual FashFilmFete™, a premier film festival exploring the history and future of fashion storytelling through a curated selection of Hollywood, indie, experimental, and documentary films that showcase the significance of fashion in filmmaking. FashFilmFete will take place at the Museum on Saturday, September 23 from 11 am – 5 pm and virtually from September 24 through October 8 (virtual tickets sold separately).

For more information about FashFilmFete and a full festival schedule click here.

TICKET INFORMATION
Single Film Ticket to Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field
$20 for members, students, and the general public
Includes access to Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field and Museum admission.

All Access Pass (available now through September 23, 2023)
$35 for Members | $25 for students | $45 for the general public | $75 for VIP pass
Includes admittance to all films, Museum admission, and access to behind-the-scenes activities.
Member ticket discount applied at checkout; active membership required.

FEATURED FILMS
Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field
Carrie Bradshaw’s tutu. Miranda Priestly’s hair. Betty Suarez’s red-framed glasses. Even if you haven’t heard of Patricia Field, there is no doubt you’re deeply familiar with her legendary designs. Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field takes a deep dive into the storied life of this iconic costume designer. Take a walk down memory lane with Field and her endless list of friends, team members, and collaborators to see how some of the most memorable film and television costumes came to life. Tickets are available for reservation here.

A Q&A with director Michael Selditch will follow the screening.

Diamond Minds
The Mōs goes behind the scenes of New York Fashion Week fall 2021 to uncover all the work it takes to put on a fashion show from the perspective of architect-turned fashion designer Winston B. Holder III. This series is a follow-up to the provocative documentary Bartholomew’s Gold, which won 2nd Place Best Documentary at the 2022 FashFilmFete.

A panel discussion with co-producers Maurice Porcher, Karim Staine, and more following the screening.

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

These film screenings are made possible by FashFilmFete.

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 FashFilmFete™
FashFilmFete™ is a premiere film festival exploring the history, and future, of fashion storytelling through the curation of Hollywood, indie, experimental and documentary films to showcase the significance of fashion in filmmaking. Our goal is 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; with a mission to provide a platform for historically underrepresented voices in film and fashion, specifically women and people of color. To learn more, visit fashfilmfete.com.

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TICKETS: Free for Members /// $8 for the general public Films presented in Whiteman Hall

Una Noche (One Night) Wednesday, July 12 /// 6 pmRaul dreams of escaping to Miami, and after he is accused of assault, he convinces his friend Elio to help him finally complete the 90-mile passage across the Gulf of Mexico.

Soy Cuba (I am Cuba) Wednesday, August 2 /// 6 pmVisually absorbing and formally audacious, Soy Cuba (I Am Cuba) opens a long-buried time capsule that explores Cuba’s 1959 revolution. A young woman’s fascination with the excess of an American-owned casino leads to her downfall. A tenant farmer revolts the only way he knows how. University students gain first-hand knowledge of political upheaval. And members of a poor family are patriotically swept up into a burgeoning revolt.

Chico & Rita Wednesday, September 27 /// 6 pmChico 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.

My Two Moms – A Story of Separation Wednesday, October 11 /// 6 pmOlga Merediz, a well-known New York-based actress, decides to return to her birthplace, Guantanamo, Cuba, to reunite with the nanny her family was forced to leave behind after the Cuban revolution.

This film series is made possible by Lisa Sette Gallery. Join PhxArt for the summer film series during Pay-What-You-Wish Wednesdays from 3 – 9 pm, when general admission is free, but the special-engagement exhibition Juan Francisco Elso: Por América requires a ticket. Film tickets sold separately.

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Portrait of the Queen
January 22, 2023 | 1 pm
Portrait of the Queen offers an original portrayal of the story of Queen Elizabeth II from a totally new perspective—featuring the most intense, amazing, revealing photographic portraits of the Queen herself, as shared by the extraordinary photographers who accompanied and often created the image of the British monarchy. Not Rated. Estimated runtime: 1.6 h. Tickets are available here.

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE: Much Ado About Nothing
February 19, 2023 | 1 pm
Simulcast
Run by a legendary family, Hotel Messina on the Italian Riviera is often visited by artists, celebrities, and royalty. Discover a string of scandalous deceptions that surround the owner’s daughter in this Shakespearean romcom of sun, sea, and mistaken identity. Rated: PG-13. Estimated runtime: 3 h.Tickets are available here.

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE: The Crucible
March 19, 2023 | 1 pm
Simulcast
Raised to be seen but not heard, a group of young women in Salem suddenly find their words have an almighty power. As a climate of fear, vendetta, and accusation spreads through the community, no one is safe from trial. Captured live from the Olivier stage at the National Theatre, Lyndsey Turner directs this contemporary new staging. Rated: PG-13. Estimated runtime: 3 h. Tickets are available here.

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE: Othello
April 23, 2023 | 1 pm
Simulcast
Wed in secret, Desdemona and Othello crave a new life together, but their future is not theirs to decide. Captured live on the Lyttleton stage of the National Theatre, Clint Dyer directs an extraordinary new production of Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedy. Rated: PG-13. Estimated runtime: 3 h. Tickets are available here.

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE: The Seagull
May 21, 2023
Simulcast
A young woman is desperate for fame and a way out. A young man is pining after the woman of his dreams. A successful writer longs for a sense of achievement. An actress wants to fight the changing of the times. In an isolated home in the countryside, dreams lie in tatters, hopes are dashed, and hearts broken. With nowhere left to turn, the only option is to turn on each other. Filmed live in London’s West End, Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) makes her West End debut in this 21^st-century retelling of Anton Chekhov’s tale of love and loneliness. Rated: PG-13. Estimated runtime: 3 h. Tickets are available here.

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

All film and National Theatre Live screenings are made possible in part by the Angela and Leonard Singer Endowment for Performing Arts.

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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