Summer’s almost over, but you can fall forward into these Southwest art exhibitions in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah.

If it’s a summer bummer to you that the hot season is nearing its end, you can get all blissed out on these art exhibitions that either recently opened or soon will be unveiled in fall 2022. They include a debut show for a brand-new Salt Lake City gallery, an exhibition that will be the final one for a longtime SLC contemporary space, modern Indigenous art in New Mexico, and an art weekend in West Texas.
There’s also time to check out a handful of summer 2022 exhibitions before they close—take a peek at our handy hot-art summer 2022 guide for the skinny.
Arizona Art Exhibitions

Phillip K. Smith III: Three Parallels
October 29, 2022–August 6, 2023
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale
Phillip K. Smith III is a Southern California-based light and space artist who has drawn comparisons to Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, and Sol LeWitt. Three Parallels, the seventh exhibition in SMoCA’s Architecture + Art series, features a site-specific installation that “incorporates Smith’s precisely paced program of changing colors.”
Substance of Stars
November 6, 2022–ongoing
Heard Museum, Phoenix
This multi-sensory exhibition of historical and contemporary works focuses on the creation stories of the Haudenosaunee, Yup’ik, Diné, and Akimel O’otham and features “immersive digital technologies to showcase the cosmological and spiritual practices of each community.” Participating artists include Marie Watt (Seneca), Jacob Butler (Akimel O’otham), and Steven Yazzie (Diné).
Colorado Art Exhibitions

Who Tells a Tale Adds a Tail: Latin America and Contemporary Art
July 31, 2022–March 5, 2023
Denver Art Museum, Denver
The first exhibition by Raphael Fonseca, who is the Denver Art Museum’s recently appointed associate curator of modern and contemporary Latin American art, focuses on technology-based work by nineteen artists born between the years 1982 and 1996. Learn more in Emilie Trice’s recent review in Southwest Contemporary.
BACK2SCHOOL
August 20–September 17, 2022
Friend of a Friend, Denver
The gallery, headed by Lauren Hartog and Derrick Velasquez and housed inside of the historic, early-20th century Evans School building in downtown Denver, showcases works by forty-five regional and national artists from emerging to mid-career.
Nevada Art Exhibitions

Water by Design
August 20, 2022–March 19, 2023
Nevada Museum of Art, Reno
Predominantly drawn from the museum’s permanent collection, Water by Design features works by artists—such as Pilar Cereceda, Maya Lin, Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lokata), Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), Jaune Quick-To-See-Smith (Confederated Salish and Kootenai), and Oscar Tuazon—who have scrutinized the use, exploitation, and preservation of the dwindling natural resource and human right of water access.

Two Cultures, One Family: Building Family, Finding Home
August 30, 2022–January 28, 2023
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, Las Vegas
University of Nevada, Las Vegas women’s studies professor Erika Abad curated Two Cultures, One Family, an exhibition that asks questions about how ideas around family, gender, sex, and reproductive justice are negotiated today. The show includes paintings, sculptures, poetry, textiles, zines, drawings, and videos.
New Mexico Art Exhibitions

Self-Determined: A Contemporary Survey of Native and Indigenous Artists
August 18–November 27, 2022
Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe
This group exhibition of thirteen Indigenous artists—including Jordan Ann Craig (Northern Cheyenne), Ursala Hudson (Tlingit), and Dyani White Hawk (Sičangu Lakota)—engages “environmental themes, explore mythologies, rework traditions, and utilize technology as a tool of preservation in both formal and conceptional investigations through film, installation, photography, sound, beadwork, and studio arts.” It’s the first exhibition co-curated by executive director Danyelle Means (Oglala Lakota), who spoke with SWC last year shortly after she started her new job, and Kiersten Fellrath.

Contemporary Ex-Votos: Devotion Beyond Medium
September 30–December 22, 2022
New Mexico State University Art Museum, Las Cruces
A likely first-of-its-kind exhibition, Contemporary Ex-Votos pairs 19th- and 20th-century retablos (small devotional paintings) from NMSU’s permanent collection—which holds the largest collection of Mexican retablos in the country—with contemporary works by Latinx artists such as Marcus Xavier Chormicle, Justin Favela, Eric J. García, Daisy Quezada Ureña, Krystal Ramirez, and Xochi Solis.

Shirin Neshat: Land of Dreams
October 7, 2022–January 16, 2023
SITE Santa Fe
Land of Dreams, curated by Brandee Caoba, is a solo exhibition by Iranian American artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat. It features a multidisciplinary series of more than 100 photographs of New Mexico residents “embellished with Farsi calligraphy and small-scale illustrations,” a feature-length movie that includes appearances by Sheila Vand, Matt Dillon, and Isabella Rossellini, and additional film works.
Texas Art Exhibitions

Sam Reveles: Solastalgia
August 25–December 9, 2022
(RE)CONTEXT: Artists Reconstructing Words
August 25–December 9, 2022
Edgar Picazo Merino: Pasaportes Perdidos
August 25–September 23, 2022
Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, El Paso
Three new exhibitions at the Rubin Center at the University of Texas at El Paso include new paintings and works on paper by El Paso-born artist Sam Reveles, a group show of ten contemporary artists who incorporate words and text into their works, and a multi-media display by border artist Edgar Picazo Merino. A free public reception is scheduled today, Thursday, August 25, 5-7:30 pm.

Love is a House That Even Death Can’t Knock Down
September 17–December 10, 2022
Lawndale Art Center, Houston
The photography exhibition—featuring the work of Albuquerque-based artist mk (one of Southwest Contemporary‘s 12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now of 2020), Houston-born and -raised artist Irene Antonia Diane Reece, and Jamie Robertson of Houston—celebrates the sacred nature of Black life through family photos.
Chinati Weekend 2022
October 7-9, 2022
various locations, Marfa
The thirty-fifth edition of this Chinati Foundation event will focus on the recently restored John Chamberlain building and will also include tours of Chinati’s various art, architecture, and land works as well as a community dinner and art talks.
Utah Art Exhibitions

Friends of Friends
August 19–September 30, 2022
Current Work, Salt Lake City
This brand new contemporary gallery, tucked away in a warehouse complex on 500 West between 800 and 900 South in the Granary District, recently unveiled its debut exhibition Friends of Friends, which showcases the work of more than fifteen artists (including Cara Despain, Fazilat Soukhakian, and Gary Vlasic). The show is viewable by appointment through September 30, and on Friday, September 16, 6-9 pm during the Salt Lake Gallery Stroll.

Jared Steffensen: Idem Norms, Dorms Mine
September 16–November 4, 2022
Nox Contemporary, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City artist and Utah Museum of Contemporary Art curator Jared Steffensen closes out the long-running Nox Contemporary with a solo exhibition as John Sproul, Nox proprietor and a visual artist, has decided to shift focus to his studio practice. Steffensen’s exhibition Idem Norms, Dorms Mine (which are anagrams for modernism) include collages sourced from images found in ads and articles in architecture and design magazines, while the objects incorporated into the sculptures come from garages, offices, and homes. “The collages and sculptures in Idem Norms, Dorms Mine function as a reset,” writes Steffensen. “As a collective body, the works provide an opportunity to relearn making from a place that feels familiar yet creates unfamiliar objects.”