Visual Arts – Summer Exhibits – July 2010
By Britt Brouse
Tucson Green Times – July 2010
Informal Student Exhibit
Through July 24
Tuesday-Saturday, noon-4pm
The Drawing Studio
33 S. 6th Ave.
(520) 620-0947
www.thedrawingstudio.org
An informal exhibit of some of artworks by students of all ages at The Drawing Studio. The nonprofit association provides art instruction with a core curriculum of drawing, design, painting and printmaking.
Monthly Open Torch Night
July 25, 6-10pm
Sonoran Art Glass Academy
633 West 18th Street
www.sonoranglass.org
Make your summer evening even hotter and meet local glass artists and enthusiasts at the Sonoran Art Glass Academy where Flame Shop Manager Karl Taylor will give glass-blowing demos and open the flame up to participants for collaboration.
According to Alexandra Berger, the Academy’s assistant director, Open Torch Night is a low-key event where people who have some experience can blow glass affordably and communicate with others involved in the glass arts. “There are a lot of people who have day jobs and aren’t able to do glass full time, so this really allows the students to come together and share their knowledge and share their enthusiasm about the glass arts,” she says.
It costs $5 to participate, and artists need to bring glass materials; some tools will be provided. Children are welcome to attend, and those over 11 who have experience with flame-working can participate. While it’s necessary to have a few hours of experience under your belt to create with glass, there’s no charge to just watch the artists at work. Berger says many people come to open torch night who are new to the glass arts, and then end-up enrolling in beginner classes at the academy.
Memories of Things Past
Through July 31
11am-4pm
ART Gallery
1122 N. Stone Ave.
(520) 624-7099
Artists’ interpretations of this thought-provoking theme – a juried exhibition featuring paintings, sculpture and photography by regional artists.
Summer Art Camp Exhibition
July 31, 2 p.m.
Tucson Museum of Art
140 N. Main Avenue
www.tucsonmuseumofart.org
Celebrate the works of Tucson’s future arts community in this exhibit of works by young participants in the Tucson Museum of Arts’ Summer Art Camp. The exhibition provides children with a unique opportunity to display their works in a museum setting. Light snacks and refreshments provided.
Cultural Creations
Through July 31 & August 4-28
11am – 5pm
Contreras Gallery & Jewelry
110 East 6th Street
www.contrerashousefineart.com
The current exhibit features the work of two local artists, Hector Perez and Miguel Flores Jr. Perez is a recent graduate of UA. Flores is a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and Tohono O’odham Nation, and founder of Tucson’s Holistic Wellness Counseling and Consultant Services, which helps Native American and Latinos. The colorful paintings of both artists resonate with Latin and Native American art styles and traditions. Perez combines Aztec deities with lucha libre faces. Flores uses familiar local symbols such as the San Xavier Mission, a Yaqui dancer and cacti in his work.
The Milagros 2 show, beginning August 4, is a second installment of the original Milagros show from two years ago, with works created in the ex-voto style by dozens of artists including local painters David Tineo, Christina Cardenas and John Salgado and Cecily Garcia of Raices Taller 222 Art Gallery & Workshop.
The ex-voto style, originally developed in Europe, has since become an artistic tradition in Mexico. Contreras describes it as an Hispanic style of painting depicting a tragic scene with a saint or martyr intervening and a prayer or a thank you. There will be an opening reception for the exhibit on August 7, 6-10 p.m. with light refreshments.
Life Drawing
July 2- 31
Monday-Friday 10am- 5pm
The Florence Quarter Gallery at the Art Center Design College
2538 North Country Club Road
www.theartcenter.edu
Get to know Tucson resident and artist Tim Mosman’s work through “Life Drawings,” an exhibition of his paintings and drawings investigating the human body currently on display.
The 19 works, created between 2008 and 2010, are abstract paintings in gesso, oil, charcoal, and gouache, marked by bold gestures and expressive lines of black, white, and earth-tone reds. John Erwin, chair of the fine arts department at The Art Center Design College says viewing the work is both restful and engaging.
“Mosman distills the figure into its essential forms - line and shape merge to suggest bodily embrace or struggle, and then disappear into empty space - moments of conflict dissolving into submission,” he says. Erwin encourages visitors to come and support a local artist, to help ensure the survival of the creative class of artists and designers who he says enrich Tucson’s culture and commerce.
Mosman has lived in Southern Arizona for 16 years, and is represented by Conrad-Wilde Gallery in Tucson. Admission to the gallery is free and visitors can also view “MAW/Knee,” a mixed media installation by Art Center Design students Chris Donahue and Adrian Cornejo.
A Grand View: Arizona Landscape Photography 1871-2010
Through August 28
Etherton Gallery
135 South 6th Avenue
www.ethertongallery.com
A sweeping exhibit of Arizona landscape photography ranging from the oldest photograph taken in 1871 to the most recent from 2010. Gallery Owner Terry Etherton calls the show museum-like in its scope and hopes visitors leave with a sense of our state’s history as seen through the lens of photographers who’ve travelled through Arizona.
The show features a selection of 86 images represented by more than 30 artists. Some of the most exciting 19th Century photographs in the show were taken by Timothy O’Sullivan during the 1871 government-sponsored survey of the West. Other artists include Ansel Adams, Linda Connor, Forman Hanna, Eliot Erwitt, Richard Misrach, Frederick Sommer, as well as nationally-known Arizona photographers William Lesch, Jay Dusard, Edward McCain, Jack Dykinga, Jeff Smith and A.T. Willett.
“When you do a show that spans this much time, you get a whole lot of different kinds of photographs,” Etherton says. “You’ll be able to come in here and see at least five different ways of making photos.” Books about the photographers will also be on display for viewers to flip through, along with biographical information and explanations of all the different photography processes represented in the show.
“Because of all the negative press Arizona’s getting, we wanted to do something to really show the state in a beautiful light,” Etherton says. This grand photographic view indeed captures the paradox of Arizona – its cultural history, natural beauty and iconoclastic spirit.
Salvador Corona: Matador to Muralist
Through September 18
Arizona State Museum
1013 E University Boulevard
www.statemuseum.arizona.edu
This exhibition highlights the work of Mexican-born muralist and decorative artist Salvador Corona (1895–1984), who lived and worked in Mexico, Tucson and other parts of southern Arizona. Corona turned from a career as a bullfighter to art after his leg was gored in 1919. His work depicts idyllic pastoral scenes of Mexico’s past in murals, paintings and on furnishings, and still decorates many homes and businesses throughout the region.
Author: Britt Brouse is a local freelance writer.
