Tempe Artists Seek Answers Amid Alternative Art Space Redevelopment
The City of Tempe says there are no plans to demolish DIY arts hub Danelle Plaza, but the mayor is sending different signals. Local artists are demanding clarity.
February 04, 2025
Articles
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
Beautiful Corners: A Road Trip to Witness Larry Bell’s First Cube, and His Last
Artist Jon Revett makes a pilgrimage to see his mentor Larry Bell's career retrospective in Phoenix, and view what the Light and Space master calls his last cube in Taos.
January 30, 2025
Flowers as Hammers: A Project to Build Up Black Men Started With One Man’s Crisis
Robert Washington-Vaughns dumped the "capitalistic dream" to start Black Men Flower Project, a fanciful gifting initiative with the muscle of a mutual aid organization.
January 28, 2025
Las Vegas Curator Fawn Douglas On What It Takes to Build a Native Arts Center
From fundraising to ceiling patches, here's how artist and curator Fawn Douglas cofounded Nuwu Art in downtown Las Vegas.
January 23, 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
María Elena Ortiz’s Sweeping Curatorial Worlds Start with Hyperlocal Specificity
Amid a triumphant New York triennial, Fort Worth–based curator María Elena Ortiz looks back at her diasporic storytelling efforts—and calls for a bigger Latinx curatorial web.
January 16, 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
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
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
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
Seascapes in the Desert: RioBravoFineArt Opens 27th Year with Paintings by Leo Neufeld
RioBravoFineArt's twenty-seventh year opens with an exhibition of plein-air seascapes of the Pacific Coast by painter Leo Neufeld.
January 07, 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
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
New Mexico is in the Midst of an Under-the-Radar Indie Book Publishing Renaissance
Despite economic flux, new independent book publishers are blooming—and veteran presses are thriving—across New Mexico.
December 12, 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
Death of Santa Fe Publishing Icon Guy Cross Stirs Tales of a Supercharged Southwest Art Moment
Guy Cross, who cofounded SWC precursor The Magazine, stoked Santa Fe’s turn-of-the-21st-century push to join a globalized contemporary art conversation.
December 06, 2024
Southwest Art News: December 2024
MCA Denver director to lead ICA Boston, Utah artist who formed 21st-century art salon dies, and more top Southwest art news headlines for December 2024.
December 03, 2024
Help us Raise $7,500 During our Year-End Fundraiser
Become a member or make a donation during the month of December and double your impact for arts journalism. Plus, two new resources for SWC Members!
December 01, 2024
Ditch Amazon and Support Local Artists with Our Southwest Holiday Gift Guide
E-commerce has nothing on these holiday shopping experiences at galleries, museums, and community art spaces in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah.
November 26, 2024
Arizona State University’s Top-Ranked MFA Includes a Three-Year Teaching Assistantship
The School of Art at ASU advances generative art practices driven by research, ideas, and effective public engagement. Attend an info session on December 6, 2024, and apply by January 15, 2025.
November 22, 2024
Political Will Meets the Rio Grande’s Natural Power in Zoe Leonard’s Dual Project Al río / To the River
Capturing scenes of quotidian life and military infrastructure, Zoe Leonard's photo book and Chinati show underscore a borderlands reality: an unstoppable river runs through it.
November 21, 2024
Reexamine the West with an Interactive Reading by Poet Paisley Rekdal
Paisley Rekdal will read selections from West: A Translation with live guidance from the audience in a powerful, informative, and cathartic experience at 516 Words on Thursday, December 5, in Albuquerque.
November 20, 2024
A Hundred Years On, Surrealism’s Desert Dreamworlds Continue to Inspire
The desert—in all of its arid, minimalist, color-block permutations—permeates this selection of Surrealist artworks.
November 19, 2024
Salt Lines Converge at Southern Utah Museum of Art
Salt Lines: Exploring Climate, Environment, and the Saline Influx examines the past, present, and future of salt in the global landscape through the work of duo Hylozoic/Desires, photographer David Maisel, and poet and photographer Alexandra Fuller.
November 19, 2024
Southwest Artist and Writer Residencies with Winter 2024–25 Deadlines
Southwest artist residencies with deadlines falling in winter 2024-25 in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
November 18, 2024
MCA Denver’s Dance Exhibition Churns with Social and Political Energy, Matching a “Moment of Anxiety”
“All my dances are protests,” says one artist from Movements Toward Freedom, which explores how bodily expressions can influence society.
November 14, 2024
