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
Vol. 12 Obsession
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
All Vibes Must Die: Industry and Virality in the Lisa Frank Warehouse
Lisa Frank, headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, offers up a rainbow-bedazzled mirror to the emptiness of the American dream.
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
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
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
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
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
Obsession: Carol Sogard
Salt Lake City–based artist Carol Sogard obsessively collects and catalogues the remains of a world in crisis, wherein action, if not optimism, may be an obligation.
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
Field ReportUtahVol. 12 Obsession
Field Report: Park City
Beneath the glitz of Park City's skiing and film scenes, underground culture abounds—including a cowboy speakeasy, hidden Banksy murals, and subterranean scuba diving.
September 05, 2025
Guest Juror Raphael Fonseca on OBSESSION
In Southwest Contemporary Vol. 12: OBSESSION, curator and guest juror Rafael Fonseca finds a surprising scope and range of artistic obsessions.
September 05, 2025
ArtistsColoradoVol. 12 Obsession
Obsession: Joel Swanson
Denver-based artist Joel Swanson’s obsessive processes explore how formal and corporeal repetitions function as methods of discipline.
September 05, 2025
ReviewColoradoVol. 12 Obsession
Kent Monkman’s History Paintings Are Anything But Traditional
Kent Monkman’s exhibition at the Denver Art Museum is a provocative and stunning survey that champions the marginalized while subverting history.
September 05, 2025
ArtistsNew MexicoVol. 12 Obsession
Obsession: Luca Berkley
Multimedia artist Luca Berkley (AKA Jack Lope, Jenn Deere, and Piper Pelligrini) critiques narratives surrounding white American ranching through cheeky yet reverent performance, online as well as on stage.
September 05, 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
ArtistsArizonaVol. 12 Obsession
Obsession: Philip Gabriel Steverson
In video performance and charged sculptures, Philip Gabriel Steverson channels rage and pain at the loss of his mother through a devotion to healing.
September 05, 2025
To Affect Social Change, These Artists Put One Foot in Front of the Other
In Step After Step at Kimball Art Center, artists leave their studios behind to claim the moving body as a revolutionary artistic method.
September 05, 2025
ArtistsNew MexicoVol. 12 Obsession
Obsession: Taylor Engel
Artist Taylor Engel’s varied and chaotic artworks envelop viewers in a shared experience of all-consuming obsession, codependency, and repetition.
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
Obsession: Cande Aguilar
For Cande Aguilar, the hand-painted signs of the Rio Grande Valley define contemporary painting more than museums do.
September 05, 2025
EssayColoradoVol. 12 Obsession
A Newer West: Ruminations on Robert Adams’s Front Range Imagery
The republication of Robert Adams’s The New West evokes reflections on what it means to intimately know the subject of renowned photographs.
September 05, 2025
ArtistsNew MexicoVol. 12 Obsession
Obsession: Karl Orozco
By dismantling and depicting dead machines, artist Karl Orozco imagines new life cycles for our throwaway technologies.
September 05, 2025
ArtistsNew MexicoVol. 12 Obsession
Obsession: Justine Kablack
Albuquerque-based artist Justine Kablack devoutly repeats images of the road, embracing its contradiction as both limitless and constrained.
September 05, 2025
ReviewArizonaVol. 12 Obsession
Rasquachismo and Resilience: Ya Hecho Transforms Found Objects into Borderland Narratives
Artists working along the U.S.-Mexico border bring the rasquachismo aesthetic to Ya Hecho: Readymade in the Borderlands as the U.S. government escalates its anti-immigrant stance.
September 05, 2025
ArtistsNew MexicoVol. 12 Obsession
Obsession: jesse lovell
Albuquerque-based artist jesse lovell’s practice has expanded over the years to include P.I. work, living somewhere between caricature and sousveillance.
September 05, 2025
SWC Crowdsource: What is Your Current Art OBSESSION?
For Southwest Contemporary's Obsession issue, we asked arts leaders in our community about their current art obsessions.
September 05, 2025
SponsoredTexasVol. 12 Obsession
Discover World-Class Contemporary Art at this San Antonio Gem
Discover Ruby City, San Antonio's stunning contemporary art center born from Linda Pace's vivid dream. This jewel-like red building by David Adjaye houses 1,400+ works, sculpture gardens, and free programming.
September 05, 2025
SponsoredNew MexicoVol. 12 Obsession
Walk Between Worlds: A 2-Day Acoma Pueblo + Chaco Canyon Cultural Heritage Tour
Experience New Mexico's living history with this immersive, two-day cultural tour bundle. Explore Acoma Pueblo's Sky City and UNESCO World Heritage Site Chaco Canyon with expert local guides.
September 05, 2025
SponsoredColoradoVol. 12 Obsession
Beau Carey’s Brightness Bound Reimagines Landscape Painting Through Memory and Movement
Catch Beau Carey's innovative landscape paintings at Visions West Contemporary in Denver, October 3-November 15, 2025, with an opening reception on October 3, 6-8 pm.
September 05, 2025
