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. Cj Hendry, Public Pool, 2024, Sandy Valley, Nevada. Photo: Nancy Good. Cj Hendry: Public Pool April 5 – 7, 2024 Sandy Valley Ranch, Sandy Valley, Nevada During three short days, from April 5-7, 2024, Cj Hendry presented Public Pool, a temporary installation of impossibilities and dichotomies. I’ll willingly admit that I’ve been fan-girling her art for several years. Hendry’s head-scratchingly real ..read more

Photographer Maria Nancy Thomas and poet Rashaad Thomas, a creative couple based in South Phoenix, are using their work to explore a region brimming with the histories of marginalized communities. Maria Nancy Thomas, Stop, 2024. Courtesy the artist. This article is part of our Living Histories series, a continuation of the ideas explored in  Southwest Contemporary Vol. 9. Maria Nancy Thomas has taken hundreds of photographs of South Phoenix in recent years, eager to document life in the city she and her husband, poet Rashaad Thomas, call home. She’s motivated in part b ..read more

Diné artist, writer, and educator Brendan Basham approaches writing as he does life: as a process of transformation. Diné artist and debut novelist Brendan Basham. Courtesy the author. Words can provide a scaffolding for experience—novels, entire homes. For New Mexico-based writer Brendan Basham (Diné), a book begins with a feeling. In the case of his debut novel, Swim Home to the Vanished, which HarperCollins released last fall, two words encapsulated the feelings he wanted to write into.  “I was obsessed with the [Portuguese] word saudade,” Basham says, which “is this extreme sadness wi ..read more

In Performing Self at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, seven multi-disciplinary artists expand the concept of performance art with works that are extremely personal, even courageous. Laura Lee Shill, Still Available for Parties (detail), 2023, photo documentation of grief performed as humiliation and persistence, 20 x 25.25 in., framed. Courtesy the artist. Performing Self January 25 – April 28, 2024 Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art Performing Self addresses a dichotomy we humans contend with every day: when are we performing for others, and when are we truly ourselves? Furthermore, d ..read more

Do muralists have a legal right to keep their work from being altered or whitewashed? Experts and artists in the Southwest discuss artist contracts and the Visual Artists Rights Act. Alien Woman (2022) by Lucretia Torva. Mural on Roosevelt Row in Downtown Phoenix, AZ. Image courtesy of the artist. PHOENIX—Artist Lucretia Torva recalls painting the humanoid image of an alien from outer space holding a trio of balloons referencing local landmarks in 2022, using the front of a bungalow that housed a bar and music venue as her canvas. The art piece is located in a section of Phoenix’s ever-ch ..read more

In a world replete with ecological catastrophe and political turmoil, the customarily inward Andrew Alba channels calamities into catharsis for his exhibition of new works at Material. Andrew Alba, Dead, Not Dead, 2024, oil on canvas, 26 x 33 in. Courtesy the artist and Material, Salt Lake City. Andrew Alba: Inheritance March 1–April 19, 2024 Material, Salt Lake City On a pleasant day at the reservoir with his young daughter, artist Andrew Alba recalls with clarity his reaction to the startlingly low water levels. This indicator of a drastically changing ecological landscape flooded him with e ..read more

Francisco González Castro: Does Not Say «I», But Does «I»: Bodies, Limits and Transgressions at the Coconino Center compiles a decade of the artist’s endurance work challenging social structures. Francisco Gonzalez Castro, Ecúleo, 2022, charcoal and acrylic on canvas panel. Courtesy Coconino Center for the Arts. Neither endurance nor durational art is new. From the dance marathons of the Great Depression to Chris Burden having himself shot in the 1970s; to Tehching Hsieh and Linda Montano roping themselves together for a year, or Marina Abramović sitting silently opposite museum visitors for 7 ..read more

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. Looking over the grassy knoll on Elm street – the Triple Underpass bridge visible in the background. Photo: Emma S. Ahmad. This article is part of our Living Histories series, a continuation of the ideas explored in  Southwest Contemporary Vol. 9. At 9am on a Friday morning, I stand in Dealey Plaza, a city park in downtown Dallas also known as the “birthplace of Dallas.” T ..read more

Nick Larsen, who gives a talk about his Nevada Museum exhibition on Thursday, April 4, explores an invisible history through collage by “pulling from what already exists to visualize something that doesn’t.” Nick Larsen, Untitled from the series Old Haunts, Lower Reaches, 2023, printed Tyvek, thread, printed cotton, found fabric, repurposed t-shirt, 22 x 22 in. Courtesy Nevada Museum of Art. 1. I first saw artist Nick Larsen’s collages at the opening of a group show at Best Western, an artist-run gallery in Santa Fe. Old Haunt (Every Part of the Buffalo Check Shirt) was hanging next to Old Hau ..read more

Catch up on recent art news headlines in the Southwest region, including people on the move, grants, and more. Denver Art Museum workers voted to join AFSCME Cultural Workers United on March 12, 2024. Photo: Kara Mason.News Antoine Predock Passes Away at Eighty-Seven Internationally acclaimed architect Antoine Predock passed away at his home in Albuquerque on March 2, 2024, the Albuquerque Journal reports. Born in Missouri, he had lived in New Mexico for most of his life, calling the state his “spiritual home” and the place where he learned how to become an architect. His legacy is exalte ..read more