“Begin at the End” features 13 contemporary artists who experiment with the written word. Through a broad range of media, the artists explore typography as image, text as a system of signs and symbols, and language as a tool of political resistance. By breaking narrative rules, the artists challenge commonly held truths and question what […]
Drawn from ASU Art Museum's permanent collection, “Wonderland” presents the work of internationally-known artists Patti Warashina and Michael Lucero. The artists' long friendship began when Lucero was a student of Warashina's in the mid 1970s. Their ceramic sculptures share an emphasis on the figure and issues of the human condition. Mixed cultural and historic references […]
“Total Collapse: Clay in the Contemporary Past” features diverse and experimental work in sculpture, performance and site-specific installation. The artists utilize a variety of engaging practices which have contributed to and reflect recent developments and expansion in the field of contemporary ceramics. The exhibition is organized around ideas that explore the function of clay as […]
In his delicately rendered sculptures, Michael Sherrill seeks to elicit a sense of wonder from viewers and to make them see things afresh. Working with clay, glass and metal, his exquisite floral forms have the allure of Martin Johnson Heade's passionflower and orchid paintings and the botanical engravings of John James Audubon, at the same […]
Drawn from ASU Art Museum's permanent collection, “Look to Nature” presents the work of internationally-known artist Toshiko Takaezu. Growing up in Hawaii infused a deep sense of nature in her that never left. Takaezu worked actively in clay, fiber and bronze for more than six decades using a combination of Eastern and Western techniques and […]
"For the Animals" tests the physical, environmental and social boundaries between nature and culture by creating a hybrid installation of land and sound art. The project focuses on various species that are native to the Sonoran Desert such as the endangered jaguar and the Mexican grey wolf. These animals will be most affected by the […]
In March 2020, the museum underwent a hiatus unprecedented in its history with the closure of the state due to Covid-19. At that moment, we found ourselves having to innovate and radically re-imagine the museum's role in the digital realm. When George Floyd was killed on May 25th, the Black Lives Matter movement mobilized efforts […]
The Art in Focus gallery highlights artwork from the museum's permanent collection. As we, along with many museums across the country, actively work to build a more diverse collection that tells a representative history of art, we make it a priority to collect and exhibit artists who have been marginalized. A recent study of the […]
“Point Cloud (ASU)” is a newly commissioned artwork by Leo Villareal designed specifically for the ASU Art Museum in the Nelson Fine Arts Center. During his visit to the ASU Art Museum, Villareal was inspired by the museum's architecture, designed by Antoine Predock in 1987. Villareal used mobile 3D scan technology to map both the […]
From the textbooks of ancient Greek physician Hippocrates to current research on the coronavirus pandemic, we know that human health is impacted by environmental factors. Internationally renowned British artists Vicky Isley and Paul Smith of boredomresearch have collaborated with leading science institutions over the past decade to create dynamic video installations that explore how large […]
“BODY/MAGIC: Liz Cohen” is an exhibition that for the first time combines all aspects of artist Liz Cohen's “Bodywork” series, including new and unseen works in various media at various scales that include video, photographs, performance and ephemera related to the project. For the “Bodywork” series she transformed two cars, the American El Camino and […]
The ASU Art Museum presents an important exhibition of late work by José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949), a pioneering artist who founded the Mexican Mural Renaissance with Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros. “The Final Cut” is the first solo exhibition by Orozco in Arizona. Orozco's bold murals were the most complex of Los Tres Grandes […]
