A Mission Impossible-Style Art Op Birthed One of the World’s Largest Mural Galleries
Street artists went vertical to enliven a levee in Pueblo, Colorado. As the project grew toward record-breaking scale, city officials swooped in.
July 07, 2026
public art
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
César Chávez Allegations Trigger Artwork Removals—and Concerns of Cultural Erasure
Before a recent fall from grace, Chávez was a rare Latino hero in Southwest public art. Now, arts leaders are asking how to de-center an icon without obscuring entire histories.
April 30, 2026
Jessi Cross’s Flow of Wildlife Releases A River of Creatures in the Santa Fe Railyard Park
Santa Fe–based artist Jessi Cross brings woodcut prints of roadrunners, bobcats, and more to Flow of Wildlife, a public mural at Railyard Park.
April 27, 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
Can International Art Star Olafur Eliasson Provoke Urgency to Restore Great Salt Lake?
After decades of decline and political inaction at Great Salt Lake, Olafur Eliasson flies in with a temporary public art project. Can this art-world Hail Mary provoke positive change?
April 16, 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
FeatureNew MexicoVol. 13 The Road
Return of the Buffalo
On a road trip across the former rangelands of the American bison, Cannupa Hanska Luger envisions a new monument.
March 20, 2026
Arrows on the Quanah Parker Trail
The “largest art installation in the world” covers the land in Texas once shared by bison, Comanche, and their horses. As a memorial, it represents but does little to repair.
March 20, 2026
Unpacking the Uneasy Cultural Hybridity of Paula Castillo’s Denver Monoliths
In Paula Castillo's three new public artworks across downtown Denver, cultural fusion is an optimistic and ideologically risky proposition.
January 15, 2026
Southwest Labyrinth: Your Underground Guide to the Region’s Mural Scene
Quest through this five-state guide to the most mercurial art field, featuring insider tips on essential Southwest murals, from alleyways to art districts.
October 21, 2025
Modern Nature: The Contemporary Art Guide to Southwest Botanical Gardens
Southwest botanical gardens have reshaped their grounds as living museums for stunning—and challenging—contemporary art. Discover seven culture-filled desert oases.
July 03, 2025
Art in the Heart: Farmington Taps Regional Artists for Historic Downtown
Art in the Heart brings regional sculptors to downtown Farmington, New Mexico, creating a walkable gallery that supports local artists.
May 23, 2025
Travel2025 New Mexico Field Guide
Unique New Mexico: Cognition Enhancer
Cognition Enhancer in Santa Fe is a colorful public sculpture, molecular puzzle, and wild local legend all in one.
May 23, 2025
Travel2025 New Mexico Field Guide
Unique New Mexico: Sol LeWitt, A Square, A Circle
Sol LeWitt's sculpture A Square, A Circle on the New Mexico State University campus is the famed Minimal and Conceptual artist's only outdoor, site-specific work in New Mexico.
May 23, 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
Through Barbed Wire: Amarillo’s Invisible, and Hypervisible, Monuments
Hallie Ayres follows the barbed wire strand to contrast the hypervisibility of Cadillac Ranch, the secrecy of Pantex, and the site-specificity of Combine City.
April 29, 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
EssayNew MexicoVol. 11 The Hyperlocal
Center of the Universe: Agency and Ecology in a 77-Degree October
Bruce Nauman’s Center of the Universe on the campus of the University of New Mexico inspires a personal ritual and creative essay that asks us to reconnect to the environment and ourselves.
March 07, 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
Mourn the Dead, Fight for the Living: How Should Salt Lake City’s Fleet Block Murals Be Commemorated?
The artists and families tied to soon-to-be-demolished Salt Lake City murals depicting people slain by police diverge on how best to preserve their legacy.
September 19, 2024
Succumb to Defeat or Persevere: Lessons from Rejected Public Art Proposals at the Arvada Center
I Regret to Inform You: Rejected Public Art explores the process of applying to and proposing a public art project, while grappling with the ubiquity of rejection.
July 23, 2024
Jeffrey Gibson’s Rainbow-Wrapped Venice Pavilion Has a Gritty Southwestern Origin Story
Meet the team behind the Santa Fe-based mural project that brought Jeffrey Gibson's Indigenous, queer dreamland to the Venice Biennale.
July 09, 2024
The Holland Project Shatters the “White Cube,” Curating Reno’s Skyline with Billboard Initiative
Prolific DIY arts organization the Holland Project takes its community-oriented message to the streets.
May 23, 2024
Reaching for the Light: Daniel Hawkins’s Wild West Dream of a Desert Lighthouse
Daniel Hawkins's surreal, fifty-foot Desert Lighthouse is a glowing, perplexing beacon in the desolate Mojave Desert, on the site of ecological catastrophe.
May 21, 2024
Wading in the Shallows: The Conundrum of Cj Hendry’s Public Pool
Cj Hendry's Public Pool delights some and confounds others, as it celebrates Las Vegas pool party culture while ignoring serious realities of PVC manufacturing, drought, and the wealth divide.
April 19, 2024
Memory and Meaning: Histories of Violence in Dallas’s Public Monuments
In this psychogeographic account, Emma S. Ahmad wanders the West End Historic District in downtown Dallas and considers how the various memorials reflect the shifting political landscape of the city.
April 05, 2024
How Commemorations to the Disenfranchised Have Forced a Reckoning with Utah’s History and Present
The narratives of the many racial and ethnic minorities whose experiences have indelibly shaped both Utah and American history deserve recognition and reckoning.
March 29, 2024
FeatureColoradoVol. 9 Living Histories
Whispers in the Walls: Navigating the Preservation of Colorado Murals Amid Urban Evolution
Amid rapid urban development, Colorado struggles with the preservation of murals as living testaments to cultural identity.
March 01, 2024
ArtistsArizonaVol. 9 Living Histories
Chip Thomas: Living Histories
Medical doctor, photographer, and public artist Chip Thomas has taken a historical turn in his work, building on deep, place-based research and activating architecture with archival discoveries.
March 01, 2024
