Work in Progress with Sammy Seung-Min Lee
Denver artist Sammy Seung-Min Lee engages paper through unique and distinct processes in creating wall pieces, architectural installations, artist books, and performances.
Jan 18
Visual Art
Jan 14
UMFA Acquires Works by Famed Japanese American Artist Chiura Obata
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts acquired thirty-five works by Chiura Obata, a visionary whose imprisonment at the Topaz camp is among the nation’s most shameful episodes of racial injustice.
Jan 10
Ten Mural Artists Making their Mark in the Southwest
Mural artists in the Southwest find inspiration in popular culture, social justice issues, and their own cultural heritage. Here’s a look at ten artists and what makes their work unique.
Jan 07
Work in Progress with Laura Spalding Best
Arizona artist Laura Spalding Best creates oil paintings on found objects, exploring the intersection of natural and built environments while confronting the impacts of climate change on the desert Southwest.
Jan 05
Review: The Dirty South at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
Artists in The Dirty South at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston work with materials and subject matter that reflect a century-long tradition of regional dialogue between Black visual art and music.
Jan 04
Anonymous Art Collective Depicts Victims of Police Violence in SLC Murals
In Salt Lake City, Utah, murals of individuals killed by police have become a community site of remembrance and activism.
Dec 27
Southwest Contemporary’s Studio Visits of 2021
A handy roundup of Southwest Contemporary's studio visits with Southwest artists in 2021.
Dec 21
Work in Progress with Jay Chung
In our latest studio visit, Dallas-based painter Jay Chung addresses climate change and challenges perceptions of the human figure.
Dec 14
Rees Bowen’s Evolving Art Practice
Artist Rees Bowen works across multiple media and is an adept collaborator, creating custom commissions for designers and corporate collections and large-scale, site-specific installations for architects and contractors.
Dec 13
Review: Oscar Muñoz: Invisibilia at Phoenix Art Museum
Oscar Muñoz: Invisibilia takes an in-depth look at fifty years of works that highlight the Latin American artist’s compelling examination of life’s fleeting moments via multiple artistic processes and media.
Nov 30
Review: Poetic Justice at the New Mexico Museum of Art
In Poetic Justice at the New Mexico Museum of Art, the social impacts and artistic contributions of Judith F. Baca, Mildred Howard, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith are on display.
Nov 16
Remembering the Future at the Heard Museum
In Remembering the Future: 100 Years of Inspiring Art, the Heard Museum’s new exhibition tells the story of an artistic movement that is often left out of the broader story of American art.
Nov 15
Review: 2021 Texas Biennial at SAMA and the McNay Art Museum
The 2021 Texas Biennial explores cross-sections of identity and project optimism in A New Landscape, A Possible Horizon across five venues in San Antonio and Houston.
Nov 11
U.S.-Mexico Binational Art Walk Brings Borderland Stories to Life
The Binational Art Walk in Douglas, Arizona and Agua Prieta, Sonora dispels the borderlands-as-monolith myth through creative expressions.
Nov 05
Review: Robert Burnier: Song Cycle at David B. Smith Gallery
Robert Burnier's exhibition Song Cycle at David B. Smith Gallery in Denver features small acrylic-on-aluminum wall sculptures folded into aesthetically and conceptually compelling shapes.
Nov 04
Review: 40 Years, 40 Stories at San Antonio Museum of Art
The San Antonio Museum of Art celebrates its fortieth anniversary with an exhibition showcasing the global and chronological breadth of its permanent collection.
Nov 03
Work in Progress with Trey Duvall
Denver-based artist Trey Duvall explores futility and absurdity as they relate to objects through installation, video, performance, and sculpture.
Nov 02
Joan Mitchell Fellowship Awarded to 3 Southwest Artists out of 15 Nationwide
Justin Favela, Luis Tapia, and Rose B. Simpson are recipients of the inaugural Joan Mitchell Fellowship, which gives awardees unparalleled recognition and $60,000 in unrestricted funds.
Nov 02
Activation/Transformation at the Wheelwright
Multidisciplinary artist Nathan Young newly activates the Wheelwright Museum’s collection of silverwork and jewelry with a site-specific installation Activation/Transformation.
Oct 29
Life is a Cumulative Exercise: Devon Dikeou’s Mid-Career Smear
FeatureColoradoVol. 4 Winter 2021
Devon Dikeou’s Mid-Career Smear in downtown Denver is a retrospective that examines "in-between" spaces with keen observation and irreverent humor.
Oct 29
Review: Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration
ReviewArizonaVol. 4 Winter 2021
The artists in Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration explore the relationship between visual culture and imprisonment at the Arizona State University Art Museum.
Oct 29
Review: Michael Menchaca: The 1836 Project at Artpace, San Antonio
San Antonio artist Michael Menchaca’s Artpace exhibition, The 1836 Project, is an immersive video installation employing poppy animation to take aim at “the colonial fantasies of the Texas creation myth.”
Oct 29
Patricia Marroquin Norby: The First Indigenous Curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Patricia Norby, the first Indigenous curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, talks about the representation of Indigenous art in institutional gallery spaces.
Oct 29
Studio Visit: Diana Calderón
Studio VisitArizonaVol. 4 Winter 2021
Raised in the borderlands, Phoenix-based artist Diana Calderón uses materials from Mexico and the U.S. to investigate her ancestral roots and immigrant experience while exploring both physical and spiritual borders.
Oct 29
Review: Armor at Center for Visual Art
ReviewColoradoVol. 4 Winter 2021
Armor, a group exhibition at the Center for Visual Art in Denver, explored physical and metaphorical barriers in the art-making process.
Oct 29
Studio Visit: Suchitra Mattai
Studio VisitColoradoVol. 4 Winter 2021
Denver artist Suchitra Mattai challenges Western traditions of painting through her use of culturally specific materials that are informed by the South Asian diaspora.
Oct 29
DIY, Together: A Look at Artist-Led Efforts Across the Southwest
FeatureSouthwestVol. 4 Winter 2021
A handful of DIY, artist-led endeavors in the Southwest demonstrate how artists don’t just DIY—they do it for and with each other.
Oct 29
Review: Hung Liu: Sanctuary at Turner Carroll Gallery
ReviewNew MexicoVol. 4 Winter 2021
Hung Liu’s Sanctuary at Turner Carroll Gallery in Santa Fe illuminated and paid respect to the renowned artist and her moving works.
Oct 29
Review: Maja Ruznic: In the Sliver of the Sun
Vol. 4 Winter 2021New MexicoReview
Maja Ruznic’s exhibition In the Sliver of the Sun at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos was reminiscent of a dream state, a loose and subdued world of imagination, distant memories, and notions of home and family.
Oct 26
Work in Progress with Oswaldo Maciá
Oswaldo Maciá, a Santa Fe- and London-based artist, utilizes the unconventional media of smells and sound to provoke questions about coexistence, human borders, and migration.
Oct 19
From Bodies to Borderlands: Fall 2021 Exhibitions in Tucson, Arizona
Tucson galleries and museums are tackling an array of topics during the fall 2021 exhibition season, bringing together artists working in neon, sculpture, video, installation art, photography, and more.
Oct 15
Review: Four Exhibitions in Mesa Explore Visionary Arts
Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum in Arizona explores the Visionary Arts movement with exhibitions featuring Alex Grey and Allyson Grey plus several contemporary artists based in and beyond the Southwest.
Oct 13
Remote Possibilities at the Harwood Museum of Art
Remote Possibilities: Digital Landscapes from the Thoma Foundation Collection presents digital art at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos.
Oct 01
SITE Santa Fe Presents Three New Fall Installations
SITE Santa Fe presents three multi-sensory installations by Joanna Keane Lopez, Oswaldo Maciá, and Johnny Ortiz for fall 2021.
Sep 29
Review: Hunt Slonem: Curiouser and Curiouser at K Contemporary
Hunt Slonem: Curiouser and Curiouser at K Contemporary in Denver features 200 pieces from the New York artist's career—including his signature bunnies.
Sep 22
Review: Exposure: Native Art and Political Ecology at MoCNA
At the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, worldwide Indigenous artists render the effects of uranium mining and nuclear bomb testing on their lands and people.
Sep 17
Review: Thais Mather: Western Blue at form & concept
Thais Mather: Western Blue at Santa Fe’s form & concept ponders the comprehensive characteristics of the color blue in a cunning display of sculptural installations, micro-pointillist drawings, watercolors, and holograms.
Sep 15
Daniel McCoy: Golden Light, Long Shadows, and Roadside Flowers
Golden Light, Long Shadows, and Roadside Flowers, a new exhibition by Daniel McCoy, opens at Hecho a Mano in Santa Fe on September 24.
Sep 13
Review: Gulf Coast Anthropocene at Project Row Houses
Gulf Coast Anthropocene, the latest exhibition at Project Row Houses in Houston, features works that stray from traditional narratives of the climate crisis to center the Black and brown communities most at risk.
Aug 31
Burning of Santa Fe Public Art Sculpture Remains Unsolved
Artist Tigre Mashaal-Lively talks with Southwest Contemporary about the burning of The Solacii sculpture, which was destroyed in a suspected arson outside of Santa Fe’s form & concept gallery.
Aug 25
Work in Progress with Derrick Velasquez
Artist Derrick Velasquez, who is represented by Robischon Gallery and runs Yes Ma’am and Friend of a Friend, is a key pillar in Denver's gallery and DIY scenes.
Aug 20
Radius Books: Artist Weekend Auction + Book Sale
Santa Fe artbook publisher Radius Books hosts its 2021 Artist Weekend to bring together all of its artists, writers, and collaborators.
Aug 18
Amid Voting Rights and DACA Rollbacks, Arizona Artists Revisit Good Trouble Bucket
As voting rights and the DACA immigration program took hits in Texas, Arizona artists Gloria Martinez-Granados and Joan Baron remain committed to John Lewis’s renowned call to make "good trouble."
