Tucson galleries and museums are tackling a fascinating array of topics during the fall 2021 exhibition season, bringing together artists working in neon, sculpture, video, installation art, photography, and more.
Here’s a look at six exhibitions to see during the fall 2021 exhibition season in Tucson, Arizona, including four that are currently on view and two that will open in the coming weeks.
Joel-Peter Witkin: Journeys of the Soul
September 14–November 27, 2021
Etherton Gallery
Etherton Gallery is showing more than fifty works by Joel-Peter Witkin, an Albuquerque-based photographer whose gelatin silver prints reflect vanitas and memento mori traditions. The artist photographs his subjects, including body parts of corpses and the nude bodies of people often rejected by mainstream culture, in staged settings, creating still-life photographs that often incorporate art historical and religious themes. Witkin’s process includes making marks on his master negatives and manipulating the surface of his prints through cutting, painting, and other techniques. In addition to photographs, the exhibition includes drawings and collages elucidating the artist’s mindset and methodologies.
Mujeres Nourishing Fronterizx Bodies: Resistance in the Time of COVID-19
October 8, 2021–January 30, 2022
Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson
Arizona-based artists M. Jenea Sanchez and Gabriela Muñoz have been collaborating for many years with Ammi Robles and the DouglaPrieta Trabajan women’s collective, both based in Sonora, Mexico. The museum is showing installations, photographs, mixed-media works, and videos that reflect these artists’ shared journey, which has centered on nourishing Brown bodies in the borderlands amid the pandemic. Exhibition themes include self-determination and self-representation, as well as food security and community. Featured videos highlight collaborations including gardening, painting a mural, and making chicken soup that was served during a community meal.
were-: Nenetech Forms
October 8, 2021–February 27, 2022
Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson
The Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson is presenting a group exhibition addressing migration, transformation, and survival in the Sonoran Desert. The exhibition will evolve during the course of its run, as some of these artists bring new work to the space. Organized by Los Angeles-based artists rafa esparza and Timo Fahler, the exhibition currently includes works in several media, including glass, installation, neon, sculpture, video, and more. Featured artists include Karla Ekatherine Canseco, Julio César Morales, Amina Cruz, Chico MacMurtrie, Ana Mendieta, and Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya. Exhibition organizers and University of Arizona students will work on a parallel project at Joseph Gross Gallery on the U of A campus.
Olivier Mosset
October 14, 2021–February 27, 2022
Tucson Museum of Art
Olivier Mosset, a Swiss-born artist who moved to Tucson after living for years in Paris and New York City, has several works on view at the Tucson Museum of Art. Curated by Julie Sasse, this exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, videos, and wall murals that reflect the artist’s embrace of geometric shapes and monochromatic colors, as well as his minimalist sensibility. Mosset was part of the avant-garde BMPT in Paris and the Radical Painting Group in New York, and his work has been shown at both the Venice Biennale and the Whitney Biennial. Here, his large-scale works counter the visual clutter of the 21st century.
The Art of Food
October 24, 2021–March 20, 2022
University of Arizona Art Museum
Food has long been a fertile topic for visual artists, who treat it with a full span of emotions and a wide variety of styles. When the museum reopens following its pandemic pause, it will display more than 100 works from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his family foundation arranged thematically to highlight the multi-faceted cultural significance of food. Featured works were created during the 20th and 21st centuries. Look for pieces by Enrique Chagoya, Damien Hirst, Hung Liu, Analia Saban, Lorna Simpson, and Andy Warhol.
Patrick Martinez: Look What You Created
November 4, 2021–April 24, 2022
Tucson Museum of Art
Tucson Museum of Art will be showing work by Los Angeles-based artist Patrick Martinez, who explores personal, civic, and cultural loss in communities of color using primarily mixed media and installation. The exhibition addresses tragic events, systemic injustice, presidential politics, and the pandemic as the artist seeks to center connection, empathy, equity, and humanity. Curated by Jeremy Mikolajczak, this is Martinez’s first solo museum exhibition in the American Southwest. Expect an intriguing mix of materials—from mass-produced lawn signs to clothing—that reflect the ways this artist is continuing to evolve and inspire dialogue in response to contemporary culture.
