Counterculture Summer: Southwest Contemporary’s Summer 2025 Art Guide
Don’t sit it out. These sixteen explosive exhibitions across the Southwest will keep the fire lit for your summer of resistance.
June 18, 2025
News
Utah Artist Fellowship Program Awards $100,000 to 20 Artists
Utah's top artists push boundaries and challenge norms—meet the twenty visionary creators awarded $5,000 fellowships for their groundbreaking work in 2025.
June 03, 2025
Southwest Art News: June 2025
FBI returns stolen paintings to Taos museum, Tulsa institution repatriates Native remains and artifacts, and more top Southwest art news headlines for June 2025.
June 03, 2025
Texas Artist Michael Tracy Channeled the Violence and Transcendence of the Borderlands
Late artist Michael Tracy hit the Texas border village of San Ygnacio like a "cyclone." His creative aggression melded with an empathic awareness of his adopted home.
May 29, 2025
Bid Now in Southwest Contemporary‘s First-Ever Benefit Art Auction
Southwest Contemporary's Benefit Art Auction is stacked with beloved regional artists, from Judy Chicago to Virgil Ortiz. Support arts journalism and collect powerful artwork through June 7.
May 25, 2025
Amid Breathtaking NEA Cuts, Southwest Arts Organizations are Reeling—and Rallying Support
The Trump administration's shadowy National Endowment for the Arts grant retractions have Southwest arts organizations banding together to track the cuts and gather supporters.
May 15, 2025
“What’s Your Side Hustle?”: Hard-Earned Lessons on Artistic Survival from a Southwest Highway Town
The artists of Helper, Utah, have spent the last three decades honing strategies to strengthen their rural community—and make the regional market work for them.
May 13, 2025
Southwest Artist and Writer Residencies with Summer 2025 Deadlines
Apply for artist and writer residencies with summer 2025 deadlines in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
May 12, 2025
Meet the “Sad Little Houses” of Dallas, and the Artists on the Front Lines of the Housing Crisis
Three artists confront the Texas housing crisis with street-level projects using piñatas, murals, gentrification walking tours, and more.
May 06, 2025
Southwest Art News: May 2025
Suki Seokyeong Kang dies amid landmark Southwest show, Nevada Humanities gets a lifeline after NEH cuts, and more top Southwest art news headlines for May 2025.
May 01, 2025
Announcing Southwest Contemporary‘s Art Party Fundraiser and Benefit Auction
Southwest Contemporary announces the Art Party, our first fundraiser event and benefit art auction in support of arts journalism in the Southwest on Friday, June 6, in Santa Fe.
April 28, 2025
Shepard Fairey Unveils His First Arizona Mural in a City That Tried to Censor His Work
Shepard Fairey was nearly censored at the Mesa Arts Center. He's back with a monumental artwork—and thoughts on police power, fascism, and art as a "counterwind."
April 24, 2025
Rule Gallery Denver Breaks from the White Cube to Reimagine Art Viewership
Thirty-four-year-old Rule Gallery temporarily steps outside its white walls, presenting site-specific, time-based art experiences in the Denver area.
April 15, 2025
Amid Long-Term Closure, Flood-Stricken Roswell Museum Extends into the Community
While the Roswell Museum’s doors remain closed following the disastrous flood last year, support comes from the local community and statewide arts organizations.
April 08, 2025
A New Art Fair Debuts in the Southwest—Is It a Hit or a Miss?
Local artists and gallerists weigh in on Scottsdale Ferrari Art Week’s debut—and its efforts to bust regional stereotypes and elevate the Southwest on a global stage.
April 03, 2025
Southwest Art News: April 2025
Meow Wolf announces New York project, Georgia O'Keeffe protégé Juan Hamilton dies, and more top Southwest art news headlines for April 2025.
April 01, 2025
Decades After the Creative Class Arrived, Small Arizona Town Confronts Dual Realities
Local artists and art-world power players are next-door neighbors in Winslow, Arizona. Everyone and the mayor is weighing in on the town's creative direction.
March 27, 2025
Spring Forward: 14 Time-Bending Southwest Art Shows for Spring 2025
Catch these must-see spring art shows across the Southwest, featuring artistic time travelers Kent Monkman, Jorge Rojas, Lynn Hershman Leeson, and more.
March 25, 2025
Ex-Employees Shed Light on CCA Santa Fe’s Bitter Unionization Battle
Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe kicked off the year with a labor organizing win for staff, but not without union-busting allegations and three staff departures.
March 20, 2025
Are an Arizona Museum’s Changes to Transfeminisms Exhibition “Violent” or Pragmatic?
The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art made last-minute revisions to a traveling show of women, queer, and trans artists. Museum leadership and a co-curator differ on what happened.
March 13, 2025
Southwest Art News: March 2025
Santa Fe mourns Gene Hackman, Austin's Big Medium closes, another staff departure from CCA Santa Fe, and more top Southwest art news headlines for March 2025.
March 04, 2025
As Another Denver Art Project Goes Fugitive, Co-Director Counts “A Hundred Reasons Why”
"You can’t show art if no one can afford to make it," says Brett Matarazzo of BRDG Project, an arts nonprofit that just left its second location—with nowhere else to land.
February 25, 2025
In a Slash-and-Burn Era for Federal Funding, Here’s How Texas Arts Advocates Angle for State Support
Over 200 arts leaders descend on Austin's Capitol to dispense Texas charm—and return-on-investment pitches—for state funding at Texas Arts Advocacy Day.
February 20, 2025
Southwest Artist and Writer Residencies with Spring 2025 Deadlines
Apply for artist residencies with spring 2025 deadlines in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Oklahoma, California, and beyond.
February 10, 2025
This Utah Curator Launched Her Career with a Treatise on Artistic Rebellion
Nancy Stoaks of Park City's Kimball Art Center wrote her thesis on artistic rabble-rouser Niki de Saint Phalle, sparking a career-long fight for the underdogs.
February 06, 2025
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
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
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
