Who Is Exit? The Multimedia Collective Building Community for Borderlands Artists
Young borderlands artists often face a choice: leave or turn art into a hobby. A nascent El Paso group is shooting for a "second chance."
June 16, 2026
Dual Colorado Exhibitions by Ana María Hernando Unfurl Revolutionary Ideas in Tulle
In the wake of Argentina’s last dictatorship, Ana María Hernando's artwork only grew softer. Her practice is undergirded by "unstoppable" community.
June 11, 2026
For this Borderlands Museum, Moving Art Across the Line is a Moral Imperative
At the El Paso Museum of Art, a slate of binational projects blurs everyday logistics with ever-intensifying border politics.
June 09, 2026
The Twisty Afterlife of James Luna’s The Artifact Piece is Poignant and Devastating
Native artist James Luna bequeathed his most famous performance to protégé Erica Lord. On the eve of a rare reprise in Santa Fe, she recounts its fraught evolution.
June 05, 2026
Southwest Art News: June 2026
Border wall damages ancient Indigenous site in Arizona, Meow Wolf union votes on Santa Fe strike, and more top Southwest art news for June 2026.
June 01, 2026
Rocky Mountain Underground: Six Radically Remote Colorado Art Experiences
Quest to an “authentically dangerous” castle, a James Turrell Skyspace, a water tank-turned-recording studio, and other Colorado art experiences worth a long detour.
May 28, 2026
Feature2026 New Mexico Field GuideNew Mexico
Adobe Eternal
This summer, Unearthing Futures / Desenterrando Futuros brings together six artists working in adobe, tracing the material from ancestral building tradition to radical contemporary art practice.
May 22, 2026
Feature2026 New Mexico Field GuideNew Mexico
At 50, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center Expands its Sovereign Footprint
Collectively governed by New Mexico’s nineteen Pueblos, the Albuquerque center marks its semicentennial as a “little pivot” between worlds.
May 22, 2026
Artist Lily Reeves Believes Neon is Magic—Can She Convert the Rest of Us?
Neon nearly died at the altar of the LED revolution. Phoenix-based artist Lily Reeves is working to resurrect it, with literal witchcraft.
May 14, 2026
Forthcoming Nevada Museum is a Refuge for Endangered Species: Vegas and Reno’s Neon Signs
When Will Durham realized Nevada's iconic neon signs were going dark, he started collecting them. Decades later he's opening The Light Circus Nevada Neon Museum in Reno.
May 13, 2026
New Mexico Artist Residencies: So Enchanting, You Might Get Entrapped
Is New Mexico the Land of Enchantment or the "Land of Entrapment"? Apply for one of these eighteen artist and writer residencies, and you're bound to find out.
May 12, 2026
Beloved and Imperiled Christian Folk-Art Relic Salvation Mountain Gets a California Retrospective
A biographical show fortifies the legacy of visionary artist Leonard Knight in Ocotillo, California. If only his rainbow-hued magnum opus were as sturdy.
May 07, 2026
Southwest Art News: May 2026
IAIA fights another proposed federal funding elimination, Acoma Pueblo challenges AI data center developer, and more top Southwest art news for May 2026.
May 01, 2026
Mother-Daughter Show in Arizona Surveys the Melding—and Mitosis—of Artistic Inheritance
In their first-ever joint show in Scottsdale, Beth Ames Swartz and her daughter Julianne Swartz draw from shared esoteric knowledge to astonishingly varied ends.
April 28, 2026
How Clowning Around is Cultivating a Small-Town Avant-Garde Scene in Moab, Utah
Ephemeral Collective's roving performance festival in Moab holds lessons in pooling resources to shape a tiny counterculture.
April 23, 2026
New Mural Guidelines in Phoenix May Support Local Artists—or Restrict Them
As Phoenix overhauls its mural directives, local artists are weighing how more structure could professionalize—or narrow—the field.
April 14, 2026
Seven Days In, the New Mexico Museum of Art’s New Director Sets the Stakes
Marisa Sage’s art-is-for-everybody mandate might sound utopian, but at the helm of New Mexico’s most historically freighted museum, it's a massive administrative challenge.
April 09, 2026
“I Was Told I Couldn’t Do That”: Jody Folwell’s Endless Pueblo Pottery Revolution
In the 1980s, Pueblo artist Jody Folwell jolted Santa Fe Indian Market with political ceramics. Amid her retrospective, she's already pushing toward the next sharp statement.
April 07, 2026
Southwest Art News: April 2026
New Mexico Governor vetoes arts-related funding, Colorado lawmakers propose artist-first business bill, and more top Southwest art news for April 2026.
April 01, 2026
What Does Migration Look Like Outside Anti-Immigrant Crisis Narratives?
Tierras Reimaginadas: Migration at ASU Art Museum centers immigrant voices and reimagines migration across species, cultures, geographies, and time.
March 26, 2026
Loneliness and Longing on Paco’s Trails
An archeologist seeks the carvings of a 20th-century sheepherder, tracing stories of lust and loss across a threatened landscape.
March 20, 2026
FeatureSouthwestVol. 13 The Road
Marfas Everywhere
A million-dollar gambit in New Mexico is one of many small-town projects chasing the fabled success of Marfa, Texas. Can it actually be replicated?
March 20, 2026
From the EditorVol. 13 The Road
From the Editors: Southwest Contemporary Vol. 13 — The Road
Southwest Contemporary: The Road reconstitutes even the busiest Southwest arteries as byways that tether far-flung places and people.
March 20, 2026
Studio VisitNew MexicoVol. 13 The Road
Willie Lambert: Road Dog
Route 66 survives in fragments. In a handmade atlas, Willie Lambert pieces New Mexico's 500-mile stretch back together.
March 20, 2026
ArtistsNew MexicoVol. 13 The Road
The Road: Moira Garcia
An older name for New Mexico anchors Moira Garcia’s mixed-media mapping of Nahua migration, cosmology, and return.
March 20, 2026
The Road: Madeline Rupard
In her paintings of shimmering roadways, Utah-based artist Madeline Rupard reaches for the eternal.
March 20, 2026
PhotographyArizonaVol. 13 The Road
Bikini-Clad in the Body Shop, Liz Cohen Reframes Women’s Labor
Photographer and sculptor Liz Cohen visualizes "radically transformed bodies," revealing how labor reshapes machines and people.
March 20, 2026
Los Encuentros Models a More Accountable Marfa—But Can it Last?
At Ballroom Marfa, five Latinx artists scramble Marfa's mythologies with humor and ferocity. They leave behind a mural, and a challenge.
March 20, 2026
“I’ll Be in Debt”: What it Takes for Artists to Show at International Biennials
Accepting an invitation to a major biennial is one thing, closing gaps in institutional support is another. Three Southwest artists sound off.
March 10, 2026
For Her First Major Museum Solo Show, Cara Romero Does It in Her Own Time
Over six years, artist Cara Romero and curator Jami C. Powell resisted the art world’s rush to capitalize on Native art. Their show just arrived in Phoenix.
March 05, 2026
