ASU Art Museum
Bead Museum
Center for Creative Photography
Heard Museum
Mesa Arts Center
MOCA - Tucson
Phoenix Airport Museum
Phoenix Art Museum
SMoCA
Shemer
Tucson Museum of Art
West Valley Art Museum

Odyssey: The Photographs of Linda Connor
Norton Photography Gallery
November 30, 2008 to March 8, 2009

In Linda Connor’s photographs, even the humblest subjects assume a visual radiance. Both a rock in the desert and an ancient temple receive equal treatment through Connor’s transporting lens. Her photographs reveal the essence of her subjects, yielding a sense of truth and timelessness. Odyssey: The Photographs of Linda Connor on view now through March 8, 2009 at Phoenix Art Museum, is an aesthetic journey through the artist’s worldly pursuit of diverse and compelling subjects. This comprehensive exhibition represents thirty years of photographs and Connor’s extensive work in India, Indonesia, Turkey, Cambodia, Egypt, Tibet and the American Southwest.

"Connor’s engagement with global cultures is particularly timely,” commented Rebecca Senf, Norton Family Assistant Curator of Photography, Phoenix Art Museum. “By contemplating the sacred, she promotes heightened attentiveness to that which is ultimately unknowable but infinitely creative. Above all, her work celebrates the interconnectedness, intricacy and beauty of the world.”

An internationally renowned photographer, Connor embraces a wide range of subject matter, often capturing sites of mystery and contemplation that connect the physical and spiritual world. Just as sacred art evokes deep meaning without explicit explanation, Connor hopes her photographs serve a similar metaphoric function. Her photographs also capture elements of everyday life, such as the purposeful way people arrange their surroundings or the power of light to transform a space.

Connor’s technique is very distinct. A large-format view camera allows her to achieve remarkable clarity and rich detail. Her prints are created by direct contact of the 8x10-inch negative on printing-out paper, exposed and developed using sunlight. Toned and fixed with gold chloride, the prints have a warmth, luminosity and delicacy seldom found in standard photographic printing.

Odyssey presents 96 photographs and includes some of Connor’s best known work from the past three decades, along with more recent works that have not previously been on view. Connor was personally involved with many aspects of the presentation, including the sequencing of the images to guide viewers into making unexpected associations, providing a more poetic way to view her images. The result encourages viewers to enter into a personal photographic odyssey.

“Odyssey: The Photographs of Linda Connor presents not only the opportunity to see Connor’s amazing photographs, but to see them as the artist intended them to be viewed,” commented Senf. “This exhibition is an offering of Connor’s artistic vision.”

About the Artist

Infused with a curiosity and passion, Connor’s work honors her subjects and provides iconic glimpses beyond the world of physical appearance. A Bay Area resident and esteemed instructor at the San Francisco Art Institute for nearly forty years, she travels extensively to encounter and capture the ineffable. She has exhibited widely in the United States and abroad, and has been published in numerous books, journals and catalogues. Her work is held in major museum collections – including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London – and has been supported by Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, among other recognitions for fine-arts photography and education.

above, Linda Connor, O’Hia Hawaii 1997

Elihu Vedder's Drawing's for the Rubàiyát
November 15, 2008 - February 8, 2009
Harnett Gallery

Organized by The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the exhibition showcases 54 complex drawings made by artist Elihu Vedder to accompany Omar Khayyám’s classic 12th century Persian poem, the Rubáiyát. The combination of Vedder’s hauntingly beautiful images with Khayyám’s profound poems resulted in one of the most popular books ever published, a publication that made Vedder famous and revolutionized the publishing industry.

From the moment of its publication, Elihu Vedder's Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám achieved unparalleled success. Released in 1884, the first edition sold out in six days. Critics rushed to acclaim it as a masterwork of American art, and Vedder as the master American artist. Vedder created designs for the entire book -- its cover and lining paper, its compelling drawings, and its eccentric hand-drawn letters. Made with ink, chalk, pencil and watercolor, the highly imaginative, dream-like illustrations provide an early example of the swirling, curvilinear Art Nouveau style.

The Rubáiyát (the plural form of quatrain, or a verse unit of four lines) was written around 1120 by the Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet Omar Khayyám. He left upwards of 1,000 epigrams on the transience of existence and the uselessness of mathematics, science, or religion to untangle the knotted meaning of life. In the mid-nineteenth century Edward FitzGerald created the first English edition by translating 75 quatrains from various Persian manuscripts of the Rubáiyát. Although FitzGerald's edition of the Rubáiyát, which appeared anonymously in 1859, was a commercial failure, the poem was embraced by young Pre-Raphaelite artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti and aesthetic-movement writers including Algernon Swinburne. In England and America, the slim volume was handed from artist to artist, and it served as a touchstone for the spiritual and poetic in a time of strident materialism.

Drawings for the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám features the entire set of Vedder’s original illustrations with the exhibition of a small publisher’s mark. The Cup of Death, 1885-1911,Vedder’s mystical oil painting inspired by one of his Rubáiyát drawings, is also included.

The exhibition marks the fist time this collection of works has been shown in the Southwest.

Find out more by visiting the Smithsonian's dedicated web resource or reading a brief article
by the New York Times.

right: Vain Questioning (Illustration for Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám), Elihu Vedder, 1883-84. Chalk, pencil, ink, and watercolor on paper. Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1978.

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One for All, All for One: The Jumpsuit
The Kelly Ellman Fashion Design Gallery
September 6, 2008 - February 1, 2009

Skydivers wear them. Mechanics wear them. Iconic musicians wear them. Even Olympic destined world-record breaking swimmers wear them. One for All, All for One: The Jumpsuit offers an unsurpassed 90 year exploration of this simple and highly versatile garment. From an original WWI women’s factory uniform created in 1918 to several couture pieces fresh from the runways of New York and Paris, this original exhibition offers a retrospective view of both the fashion and functionality of the jumpsuit.

One for All, All for One explores the utilitarian beginnings of the jumpsuit – a quintessential work and flight uniform of the early 20th century – and follows the one-piece as it progresses and evolves into the often theorized garment of the future. The show incorporates several early examples of jumpsuits including a Charles Lindberg original flight suit, Levis mechanic coveralls from the 1920s and a WWII “Rosie the Riveter” uniform.

Highlighting the golden age of the jumpsuit – the late 1960s and early 70s – the exhibition features an official NASA spacesuit which is believed to have ignited the one-piece fashion craze. Images of astronauts dressed in space suits coupled with emerging freedoms for women, became inspirations for entertainers and designers alike. Jumpsuits embellished with appliqués, printed patterns and exotic trims became a fashion mainstay. One for All, All for One offers a chance to see amazing garments from this era including designs by Rudi Gernreich, Yves Saint Laurent, Donald Brooks and Norma Kamali.

In 2008, almost a century after first being introduced, one-piece garments are still not considered a fashion staple, but they continue to be worn by trendsetters around the world. One for All, All for One also incorporates some of the most recent renditions of jumpsuits including designs by Stella McCartney and Preen from their Spring 2008 collections. Also on display will be a number of sports pieces including an authentic NASCAR racing uniform, a skydiving suit worn by the landmark group Freefly Clowns and the new Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit.

Throughout the 20th century and now as we enter the 21st century, the jumpsuit maintains a fluid elusiveness of purpose and place. Its one-piece construction and easy-off center front zipper create its useful practicality and sex appeal – and, its impracticalities. It’s this juxtaposition and its wide range of uses that makes the jumpsuit such an important and intriguing subject to explore.

One for All, All for One includes more than 35 examples of jumpsuits uniting pieces from the Museum’s own collection with garments loaned by institutions from around the country. With an array of patterns, fabrics and styles and a myriad of world-renowned pieces, including high-fashion interpretations, the exhibition reflects the jumpsuit’s numerous stylistic and functional advancements.