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UMFA’s Copper-Infused Riverbed Installation Surfaces Shimmering Visuals from Poisoned Depths
Yasuaki Onishi's site-specific installation Stone on Boundary poetically links Japan and Utah's mountains, rivers—and entanglements in the mining industry.
February 18, 2025
A Work in Progress… or in Decline?: James Gould’s Sprickle
The Santa Fe Railyard Art Project's latest installation is a playful structure by artist James Gould that evokes agricultural heritage and places of shelter.
February 18, 2025
Hopi Artist Mavasta Honyouti Carved a Chronicle of His Grandfather’s Abduction—and Return
Mavasta Honyouti debuts sixteen remarkable panels bearing ancestral memories of the Native American boarding school system at Wheelwright Museum.
February 13, 2025
UNM College of Fine Arts Announces Frederick Hammersley Visiting Artist: Larry Madrigal
Larry Madrigal, the UNM College of Fine Arts Frederick Hammersley Visiting Artist, presents an artist talk and open studio in Albuquerque this spring.
February 13, 2025
In an Artery of New York Commerce, Diné Artist Eric-Paul Riege Plays with “the Real and Fake”
New Mexico–based artist Eric-Paul Riege chose Canal Street, a commercial thoroughfare and counterfeit market, to question notions of material value in his first New York solo exhibition.
February 11, 2025
Southwest Artist and Writer Residencies with Spring 2025 Deadlines
Apply for artist residencies with spring 2025 deadlines in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Oklahoma, California, and beyond.
February 10, 2025
This Utah Curator Launched Her Career with a Treatise on Artistic Rebellion
Nancy Stoaks of Park City's Kimball Art Center wrote her thesis on artistic rabble-rouser Niki de Saint Phalle, sparking a career-long fight for the underdogs.
February 06, 2025
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This Utah Curator Launched Her Career with a Treatise on Artistic Rebellion
Nancy Stoaks of Park City's Kimball Art Center wrote her thesis on artistic rabble-rouser Niki de Saint Phalle, sparking a career-long fight for the underdogs.
February 06, 2025
Southwest Art News: January–February 2025
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith dies, Texas officials seize Sally Mann photos, and more top Southwest art news headlines for January and February 2025.
February 04, 2025
Keith Haring’s City-Spanning Phoenix Takeover Almost Didn’t Happen
Keith Haring was a Phoenix teacher's second choice for a 1986 art workshop, but the invite made a major mark on the city.
January 14, 2025
Books + LiteraryInside Southwest Contemporary
Our Favorite Books (and One Epic Article) of 2024
The Artist's Way for werewolves, a guide to forgetting the Alamo, and other compelling reads from the Southwest Contemporary editorial team.
January 06, 2025
Inside Southwest ContemporarySouthwest
The Top 10 Southwest Contemporary Stories of 2024
Southwest Contemporary's most widely read stories of 2024 reflect some of the most urgent issues within the arts.
January 02, 2025
Karima Walker’s “Grief Rituals” Seek the Non-Linear Wisdom of Walking in Circles
The Arizona-born artist’s MOCA Tucson exhibition draws inspiration (and soil) from the Santa Cruz River, melding body and land.
December 23, 2024
“The Doors Were Breaking, Things Were Moving”: Inside the Roswell Museum After Disastrous 500-Year Flood
Museum insiders offer firsthand accounts of the flash flood that breached Roswell Museum in October—and an update on the uphill battle for remediation.
December 19, 2024
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A Work in Progress… or in Decline?: James Gould’s Sprickle
The Santa Fe Railyard Art Project's latest installation is a playful structure by artist James Gould that evokes agricultural heritage and places of shelter.
February 18, 2025
UNM College of Fine Arts Announces Frederick Hammersley Visiting Artist: Larry Madrigal
Larry Madrigal, the UNM College of Fine Arts Frederick Hammersley Visiting Artist, presents an artist talk and open studio in Albuquerque this spring.
February 13, 2025
Permanence of Earth: Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture
The Shaw Gallery at Weber State University hosts ten ceramic artists during the 59th annual conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts.
January 08, 2025
In Print
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FeatureNew MexicoVol. 10 Radical Futures
Virgil Ortiz: Historical Memory, Indigenous Futurisms, and the Art of Storytelling in 2180
Drawing from his community’s roots in social commentary, Virgil Ortiz crafts a future without limitations, and his epic series Revolt 1680/2180 reaches a climax this fall.
September 06, 2024
Studio VisitNew MexicoVol. 10 Radical Futures
Mallery Quetawki: Circulatory Systems + Translational Aesthetics
Mallery Quetawki paints cross-cultural translations that help bridge futures between Indigenous communities and science and medical professionals.
September 06, 2024
Studio VisitNew MexicoVol. 10 Radical Futures
Jason Garcia: The Futurism of Narrative Change
In bold pop culture style, Santa Clara Pueblo artist Jason Garcia envisions Native futures by challenging narratives that have always kept us in the past.
September 06, 2024
Studio VisitColoradoVol. 10 Radical Futures
Lydia Andrew Farrell: Reimagining the Suburbs
It's Halloween everyday and outsiders rule the streets in hypersaturated paintings by Denver suburbanite Lydia Andrew Farrell.
September 06, 2024
FeatureUtahVol. 10 Radical Futures
Red Planet Role-Play at the Mars Desert Research Station
At the Mars Desert Research Station near Hanksville, Utah, scientists conduct experiments as if they are on the Red Planet, the only caveat being that they aren’t.
September 06, 2024
FeatureSouthwestVol. 10 Radical Futures
Radical Architecture, Radical Imagination: How Will We Live in a Hotter, More Arid Future?
Science fiction authors have provided many visions of dystopian futures in the Southwest. Can architects help avert such disastrous outcomes?
September 06, 2024
FeatureArizonaVol. 10 Radical Futures
The Ants of Biosphere 2
Seeking fresh hope in the 20th-century futurisms of Arizona architectural marvels Biosphere 2, Taliesin West, and Arcosanti.
September 06, 2024
Exhibitions
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Hopi Artist Mavasta Honyouti Carved a Chronicle of His Grandfather’s Abduction—and Return
Mavasta Honyouti debuts sixteen remarkable panels bearing ancestral memories of the Native American boarding school system at Wheelwright Museum.
February 13, 2025
Time Travel is the Easy Part: Erika Wanenmacher’s Solo Show at SITE Santa Fe
In what Time Travel feels like, sometimes, New Mexico–based artist Erika Wanenmacher's major solo exhibition at SITE Santa Fe, the artist collapses the distance between the mystical and the everyday.
January 21, 2025
Relax and Stay Alert: The Playful Incoherence of Tristram Lansdowne and Ryan Crowley
Wicked Wells and Window Wipeouts traps the viewer between a hard place and a sunken one—but its ambiguity offers a different kind of freedom.
January 09, 2025
Denver Collective’s Four-Hour Karaoke Marathons Have a Message For the Art World: Get Over Yourself
Bucking the solemn tone of much performance art, Right on Time collective's sweaty, cyclical extravaganzas herald a roaring late-2020s vibe.
January 07, 2025
Karima Walker’s “Grief Rituals” Seek the Non-Linear Wisdom of Walking in Circles
The Arizona-born artist’s MOCA Tucson exhibition draws inspiration (and soil) from the Santa Cruz River, melding body and land.
December 23, 2024
Darkest Days: 11 Urgent (and Uplifting) Art Shows to See This Winter
Catch these must-see art exhibitions across the Southwest for winter 2024–25, featuring Richard Avedon, Nancy Hemenway Barton, Charles Ross, and more.
December 17, 2024
Scripted Spaces Dissects the Mind Maze of the Las Vegas Casino, Down to Those Crazy Carpets
Las Vegas–raised painter eri king co-opts the persuasive powers of gambling hall interior design at Available Space Art Projects.
December 10, 2024
Artists
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Hopi Artist Mavasta Honyouti Carved a Chronicle of His Grandfather’s Abduction—and Return
Mavasta Honyouti debuts sixteen remarkable panels bearing ancestral memories of the Native American boarding school system at Wheelwright Museum.
February 13, 2025
In an Artery of New York Commerce, Diné Artist Eric-Paul Riege Plays with “the Real and Fake”
New Mexico–based artist Eric-Paul Riege chose Canal Street, a commercial thoroughfare and counterfeit market, to question notions of material value in his first New York solo exhibition.
February 11, 2025
Work in Progress with Beedallo
Albuquerque-based artist Beedallo on staying elusive, spilling guts on canvas, and eavesdropping at art openings.
October 22, 2024
Work in Progress with Shawn Skabelund
Flagstaff-based artist Shawn Skabelund returns to the storm-swept ravine that birthed his latest show—and explains what a squirrel stick is—in an intrepid studio visit.
September 26, 2024
Longtime New Yorker Paulina Ho Suddenly Started Painting—and Pining for—the Southwest
Santa Fe-based designer and artist Paulina Ho’s work tilts reality to find pleasure in the everyday absurdities of her new Southwestern environs.
September 12, 2024
FeatureNew MexicoVol. 10 Radical Futures
Virgil Ortiz: Historical Memory, Indigenous Futurisms, and the Art of Storytelling in 2180
Drawing from his community’s roots in social commentary, Virgil Ortiz crafts a future without limitations, and his epic series Revolt 1680/2180 reaches a climax this fall.
September 06, 2024
Studio VisitNew MexicoVol. 10 Radical Futures
Mallery Quetawki: Circulatory Systems + Translational Aesthetics
Mallery Quetawki paints cross-cultural translations that help bridge futures between Indigenous communities and science and medical professionals.
September 06, 2024
Radical Futures
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“This is our power”: Afrofuturists Imagine Radical Futures in Reclaiming Hope: Afrofuturist Visions
Black artists imagine radical futures through hope, healing, and history in Reclaiming Hope: Afrofuturist Visions.
October 29, 2024
Reclaiming Space through Technology: Santa Fe Uncovers Hidden Histories Through Augmented Reality
The City of Santa Fe’s ArcGIS Storymaps, and its AR component, Ojos Diferentes, peel back the layers of Santa Fe history to tell underrepresented stories with new technologies.
October 15, 2024
In ALHAMDU, Muslim Artists Envision a Bright Future
The collection of work featured in ALHAMDU | MUSLIM FUTURISM asks what a bright future might look like for Muslim communities and engages visitors in new ways.
October 04, 2024
The Youth are Our Future: the Hamrah Arts Club Brings Refugee Youth Together on a Journey of Self-Expression
The Hamrah Arts Club, founded by artist Nazafarin Lotfi, uses art and creative expression to foster solidarity between refugee and asylum-seeking communities for youth in Tucson.
September 13, 2024
FeatureNew MexicoVol. 10 Radical Futures
Virgil Ortiz: Historical Memory, Indigenous Futurisms, and the Art of Storytelling in 2180
Drawing from his community’s roots in social commentary, Virgil Ortiz crafts a future without limitations, and his epic series Revolt 1680/2180 reaches a climax this fall.
September 06, 2024
Studio VisitNew MexicoVol. 10 Radical Futures
Mallery Quetawki: Circulatory Systems + Translational Aesthetics
Mallery Quetawki paints cross-cultural translations that help bridge futures between Indigenous communities and science and medical professionals.
September 06, 2024
Studio VisitNew MexicoVol. 10 Radical Futures
Jason Garcia: The Futurism of Narrative Change
In bold pop culture style, Santa Clara Pueblo artist Jason Garcia envisions Native futures by challenging narratives that have always kept us in the past.
September 06, 2024
