THE M.A.R.S. ARTSPACE LEGACY: Prints by M.A.R.S. & SelfHelp Graphics
In 1978 a group of artists and community leaders formed an artists’ cooperative, Movimiento Artistico del Rio Salado (M.A.R.S.) to promote visual and performing arts by contemporary Arizona, Mexican-American and Chicano artists. Nomadically exhibiting in a variety of spaces, their permanent gallery, M.A.R.S. Artspace, opened in central Phoenix in 1981. M.A.R.S. Artspace exhibited members’ artwork and served as a showcase for poets, writers, performance and video artists. To help provide operational support, M.A.R.S. members created limited editioned prints that sold through the gallery. Although their doors have recently closed, M.A.R.S. left an impressive legacy by donating forty-three prints to the ASU Art Museum. Though this gift is a mixture of work produced by both M.A.R.S. and Self-Help Graphics (a silkscreen print collective in Los Angeles), these screenprints, lithographs and monoprints convey the cultural identity, pride and artistic achievement by some of the best Mexican-American and Chicano artists.
List of Artists
Work by the following artists will be included in the exhibition: José Antonio Aguirre, David (Rivas) Botello, Paul Botello, Rudy M. Fernández, Jr., Carmen Lomas Garza, Pat Gómez, Luis A. Jiménez, Jr., Leo Limón, Gilbert “Magú” Luján, César Augusto Martínez, Tony Ortega, Arturo Urista, John M. Valdez, Larry Yáñez, Frank Ybarra,
Presentation
Organized by Jean Makin, THE M.A.R.S. ARTSPACE LEGACY will be installed in the ASU Art Museum’s Nelson Fine Arts Center location.
Duration
THE M.A.R.S. ARTSPACE LEGACY (January – May, 2004) is open at the Nelson Fine Arts Center: Tuesday from 10am to 9pm; Wednesday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm.
Support
The exhibition and related programs are supported in part by Friends of the ASU Art Museum
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