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Manic ExxonMobil Impersonators Pitch a Rising Protest Aesthetic: Razor-Sharp Silliness
The Yes Men used slick branding to spoof ExxonMobil in New Mexico. Inside the cloak and dagger intervention by a wave of "laugh-tivists" with a serious cause.
October 30, 2025
Places Planted in the Mind: Jorge Ruiz Brings Together Cross-Border Towns, in Miniature
Jorge Ruiz intertwines Tucson and Nogales in his exhibition at Arizona's Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures. His "imperfect" process is grueling.
October 28, 2025
In Tewa Nangeh/Tewa Country, Twelve Tewa Artists Come into Dialogue with Works Created by Georgia O’Keeffe
With works by twelve artists, scholars, and culture bearers from the six Tewa Pueblos in New Mexico, Tewa Nangeh/Tewa Country opens a critical dialogue around sacred landscapes, Indigenous belonging, and cultural ownership at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.
October 28, 2025
In Seven Days by Chuck Ramirez, Foodscapes Become Community Portraits
A series of still life photographs by late San Antonio artist Chuck Ramirez capture the essence of a Texas community and subculture.
October 23, 2025
Southwest Labyrinth: Your Underground Guide to the Region’s Mural Scene
Quest through this five-state guide to the most mercurial art field, featuring insider tips on essential Southwest murals, from alleyways to art districts.
October 21, 2025
ASU’s Top-Ranked MFA Includes a 3-Year Teaching Assistantship and Downtown Phoenix Studio
The School of Art at ASU advances generative art practices driven by research, ideas, and effective public engagement. Attend an info session on December 5, 2025, and apply by January 15, 2026.
October 20, 2025
Late Artist’s Creative Ferocity Fills Her Utah Enclave, and Those Who Still Gather There
Painter Pilar Pobil's largest artwork was her maximalist Salt Lake City home, a communal hub that still hums nearly a year after her death.
October 16, 2025
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Ghostly Images of Plants, Landscapes—and a Baseball Stadium—Reveal a Desert in Flux
Through LiDAR scans, UK-based studio ScanLAB Projects captured the Sonoran Desert in haunting detail, revealing a landscape on the brink.
October 09, 2025
Southwest Art News: October 2025
Artists pressure Judy Chicago to cancel exhibition in Tel Aviv, Gallup Arts rejects grant funding in protest of escalating censorship, and more top Southwest art news headlines for October 2025.
October 02, 2025
Could Rejecting State Art Grants Be the New Anti-Trump Resistance?
As Trump “reviews” the Smithsonian and NEA rules shift, New Mexico arts groups are weighing whether to reject state grants tied to federal funding.
September 18, 2025
Obsession at the Museum: Unpacking Alexander Girard’s Gargantuan Santa Fe Exhibition
In a single 1978 acquisition, the Museum of International Folk Art grew by 100,000 objects—and effectively adopted their fervent and eccentric collector.
September 16, 2025
What’s Up With Phoenix’s Latest Gallery Scene Shuffle?
Change is afoot in the metro Phoenix gallery scene due to closures, mergers, and redevelopment plans.
September 11, 2025
Southwest Art News: September 2025
Vail settles lawsuit with Danielle SeeWalker over her painting G is for Genocide, hundreds of culture organizations sign open letter denouncing censorship, and more top Southwest art news headlines for September 2025.
September 02, 2025
“You’re Being Zeroed Out”: How IAIA Battled Its Biggest Funding Threat in Decades
Institute of American Indian Arts leaders on turning the tides in their federal funding fight—and why it’s not over yet.
August 26, 2025
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In Tewa Nangeh/Tewa Country, Twelve Tewa Artists Come into Dialogue with Works Created by Georgia O’Keeffe
With works by twelve artists, scholars, and culture bearers from the six Tewa Pueblos in New Mexico, Tewa Nangeh/Tewa Country opens a critical dialogue around sacred landscapes, Indigenous belonging, and cultural ownership at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.
October 28, 2025
ASU’s Top-Ranked MFA Includes a 3-Year Teaching Assistantship and Downtown Phoenix Studio
The School of Art at ASU advances generative art practices driven by research, ideas, and effective public engagement. Attend an info session on December 5, 2025, and apply by January 15, 2026.
October 20, 2025
Landmark Exhibition Reimagines FAC’s Permanent Collection
Gathering Place marks the first major reinstallation of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College in nearly a decade.
September 24, 2025
Artists
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An Artist Who Paints the Landscape of the Brain
After five brain surgeries, Dallas-based Alicia Parham paints neurologically informed, otherworldly compositions in resilience.
September 25, 2025
FeatureNew MexicoVol. 12 Obsession
Material Monogamy: Three Creators Find Their Prima Materia
Three New Mexico–based artists—c marquez, Susan York, and Judy Tuwaletstiwa—reflect on their relationship with the material that has defined their practice.
September 05, 2025
The Medium is their Message: Compulsion and Identity in Zion
Artists Stephanie Leitch, Angela Ellsworth, and Nancy Rivera use materially obsessive processes to reflect on the mythos of Utah.
September 05, 2025
Studio VisitArizonaVol. 12 Obsession
Gloria Martinez-Granados: Borderless Creative
Working in her Phoenix studio, artist Gloria Martinez-Granados creates works countering the nation’s anti-immigrant obsession.
September 05, 2025
Studio VisitTexasVol. 12 Obsession
Eli Ruhala: Post Obsession
After years of building maze-like monuments to queer love, Texas-based painter Eli Ruhala is at a crossroads his practice.
September 05, 2025
InterviewTexasVol. 12 Obsession
“We’re Inside a Body!”: An Interview with Artist and Caver Erika Jaeggli
Texas-based artist Erika Jaeggli on her first descent into a cave—and the all-consuming passion it unearthed.
September 05, 2025
PhotographyTexasVol. 12 Obsession
Phoebe Shuman-Goodier Transfigures Trash into Tender Monuments of Care and Possibility
Phoebe Shuman-Goodier’s photography marks her sculptural collaborations with her father, and a shared obsession with transforming a junkyard into art.
September 05, 2025
Exhibitions
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In Tewa Nangeh/Tewa Country, Twelve Tewa Artists Come into Dialogue with Works Created by Georgia O’Keeffe
With works by twelve artists, scholars, and culture bearers from the six Tewa Pueblos in New Mexico, Tewa Nangeh/Tewa Country opens a critical dialogue around sacred landscapes, Indigenous belonging, and cultural ownership at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.
October 28, 2025
In Seven Days by Chuck Ramirez, Foodscapes Become Community Portraits
A series of still life photographs by late San Antonio artist Chuck Ramirez capture the essence of a Texas community and subculture.
October 23, 2025
The Publisher’s Picks: Southwest Contemporary’s Fall 2025 Art Guide
Just in time for cooler temps, SWC publisher and editor Lauren Tresp picks twenty-two must-see exhibitions across the Southwest.
October 14, 2025
Remain in Light: James Perkins Buries Paintings to Reveal the Sublime
In his first museum exhibition, Burying Painting, James Perkins shows evanescent process- and land-based artworks "harvested" from the Atlantic Ocean and the Sonoran Desert.
October 07, 2025
Landmark Exhibition Reimagines FAC’s Permanent Collection
Gathering Place marks the first major reinstallation of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College in nearly a decade.
September 24, 2025
ReviewNew MexicoVol. 12 Obsession
In Abstracting Nature, New Mexico Artists Collaborate with Wild Entropic Powers
Natural entropy is a tool—and a sustainable ethos—for ten artists in Abstracting Nature at the Albuquerque Museum.
September 05, 2025
In the Shadows, Our Ghosts Lurk Creepily Resonates at a Time of Mass Surveillance and Obscuration
Curator Fabiola Iza brings together eleven artists for an exhibition that investigates the shadowy corners of perception.
September 05, 2025
In Print
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FeatureNevadaVol. 12 Obsession
Empires of Dirt: Michael Heizer’s City
Michael Heizer’s City prompts considerations of obsession, scale, and legacy through the lens of land, labor, and the weight of inherited ambition.
September 05, 2025
FeatureNew MexicoVol. 12 Obsession
Queen Agnes
Abstract painter Agnes Martin sought isolation in New Mexico to stoke her obsessive practice. She found vibrant community.
September 05, 2025
FeatureNew MexicoVol. 12 Obsession
Material Monogamy: Three Creators Find Their Prima Materia
Three New Mexico–based artists—c marquez, Susan York, and Judy Tuwaletstiwa—reflect on their relationship with the material that has defined their practice.
September 05, 2025
The Medium is their Message: Compulsion and Identity in Zion
Artists Stephanie Leitch, Angela Ellsworth, and Nancy Rivera use materially obsessive processes to reflect on the mythos of Utah.
September 05, 2025
Studio VisitArizonaVol. 12 Obsession
Gloria Martinez-Granados: Borderless Creative
Working in her Phoenix studio, artist Gloria Martinez-Granados creates works countering the nation’s anti-immigrant obsession.
September 05, 2025
Studio VisitTexasVol. 12 Obsession
Eli Ruhala: Post Obsession
After years of building maze-like monuments to queer love, Texas-based painter Eli Ruhala is at a crossroads his practice.
September 05, 2025
From the EditorVol. 12 Obsession
From the Editor: Southwest Contemporary Vol. 12 — OBSESSION
Southwest Contemporary: OBSESSION foregrounds artistic fixations, revealing the loops, patterns, and intensities that define the Southwest’s cultural landscape.
September 08, 2025
The Hyperlocal
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FeatureSouthwestThe Hyperlocal
Exiled Artist Named “War and Peace” Never Gave Up Faraway Fight for Democracy
Two fires marked Burmese artist Sitt Nyein Aye’s life. After his tragic death in Colorado, a tribute to his "Little Myanmar" of the Southwest.
August 21, 2025
The Birth, Death, and Resurrection of a Ghost Town Artist Residency
After years of harassment, Home of the Brave artist residency founder Eileen Muza sold the ghost town property. The new owner will restart the program in Cisco, Utah, this fall.
July 29, 2025
Studio VisitTexasThe Hyperlocal
Dallas AIR Quality Report: The Cedars Union Offers “Life-Changing” Support for Artists
By prioritizing locality and the rich diversity of its community, the Cedars Union has become a cornerstone for Dallas artists and creatives.
July 15, 2025
An Architecture of Care: Passive House Designer Andrew Michler Embraces a Hyperlocal Approach
Andrew Michler redefines sustainable design through hyperlocal, compassionate architecture shaped by climate, culture, and the evolving lives of its occupants.
June 05, 2025
Studio VisitColoradoThe Hyperlocal
An Artist Who Paints the West as Strange as It Is
Colorado artist Grace Kennison paints her way into the reality of the West, a place layered thick with fictional narratives, mythical characters, suppressed histories, and surreal storylines.
June 02, 2025
“What’s Your Side Hustle?”: Hard-Earned Lessons on Artistic Survival from a Southwest Highway Town
The artists of Helper, Utah, have spent the last three decades honing strategies to strengthen their rural community—and make the regional market work for them.
May 13, 2025
Meet the “Sad Little Houses” of Dallas, and the Artists on the Front Lines of the Housing Crisis
Three artists confront the Texas housing crisis with street-level projects using piñatas, murals, gentrification walking tours, and more.
May 06, 2025
