MONUMENTAL PROPORTIONS:
Selections from the permanent Collection
March 15 through September 7, 2008

ARTISTS WORK SCHEDULED FOR EXHIBITION:
Leon Golub, Nam June Paik, Adriana Verajão, Enrique Chagoya, Oscar Oiwa, Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Derek Boshier, Deborah Butterfield, Sandra Ramos Lorenzo,
José Bechara and Jun Kaneko.

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Earth and Fire: Ceramic Beads from Around the World
October, 2007 - July, 2008

The story of ceramics may begin as early as 30,000 years ago during the Paleolithic Age (500,000 B.C. to 10,000 B.C.) Archaeologists have found small clay figures from that time in Eastern Europe. Ceramics have been made for centuries in numerous cultures around the world. The Chinese have been making ceramics since 8000 B.C. while in Egypt and the Middle East the ceramic tradition goes back to 6500 B.C. Most cultures of Mexico, Central and South America had potters by 1400 B.C. The ancient pueblo people of the American Southwest made pottery ca. 500 A.D. While ceramics began as utilitarian ware, over time it became a very popular bead making material.

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Lee Friedlander: American Monuments
May 17, 2008 — August 3, 2008

The theme of "the American monument" pervades Lee Friedlander’s lifelong investigation of the social landscape. In Friedlander’s photographs, statues, obelisks, and plaques play physical and symbolic roles, pointing to a commemorative impulse and collective sense of history. Nestled within compositions that also include cars, tourists, power lines, and other signs of contemporary life, they also suggest the accommodation of the past within the present. This exhibition features selections from the Center for Creative Photography’s collection of Friedlander’s American Monument series, which he first published in 1976 and continues to expand today. Selective comparisons, by artists such as Eugène Atget, Walker Evans, and Garry Winogrand, suggest points of departure for Friedlander’s unique exploration of a rich and inexhaustible theme.

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Young Jewelers
November 17, 2007 - September 7, 2008

IFeaturing the work of eight prominent young American Indian jewelers, this exhibit illustrates how jewelry expresses both individuality and shared experiences that emphasize the artists’ community and family. Artists include Liz Wallace, who creates much of her work through plique a' jour, a difficult enameling technique; Jared Chavez uses guitar wire to shape the abstract designs he stamps into the silver; Keri Ataumbi, who apprenticed with a silversmith in Bali and emphasizes form; Cody Sanderson, who creates whimsical works inspired by children’s toys like legos; David and Wayne Nez Gaussoin, whose work emphasizes the ethereal liquidness of silver; and Maria Samora whose inspiration is Pre-Columbian gold.

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CLASSICAL ILLUSION: Connie Imboden & Neil Borowicz
June 13 - Aug 10, 2008

Maryland artist Connie Imboden and Arizona artist Neil Borowicz have two distinct styles but both incorporate the human figure in their work. Through photography, Imboden provocatively captures the angles, space, reflections, and light made by her partially or full submerged subjects. In contrast, Borowicz realistically sculpts his subjects from white plaster, stoically immortalizing their form in a three-dimensional portrait.

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INVISIBLE CITY: Bill Mackey, Joe Robles, Walther Ruttmann, Dave Sayre
June 14 - September 20, 2008

Focusing on both the idea and reality of the city as a form of expression and a catalyst for creativity and innovation, Invisible City features an exhibition of paintings, drawings, and collages by Bill Mackey, Joe Robles, and Dave Sayre – all past and present MOCA artists-in-residence working from their studios in the very heart of downtown Tucson, as well as Mark Street's 2008 film Hidden in Plain Sight and a nigthly sidewalk screening of Walther Ruttmann's highly influential 1927 silent film Berlin, Symphony of a Great City from the sidewalk of 149 N. Stone

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The Modern Spirit in Chinese Painting:
Gifts from the Jeannette Asian Art Gallery Shambaugh Elliott Collection
Asian Art Gallery
June 17, 2008 – December, 2008

Drawn from the Museum’s own collection of works by 19th and 20th century Chinese artists, this selection will provide a link to the classical traditions of Chinese landscape painting as well as modern interpretations by artists who lived through the tumultuous 20th century. The exhibition includes works by several artists who are featured in A Tradition Redefined, allowing visitors the opportunity to see a greater range of these artists’ styles and subject matter over their lifetimes.

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Pushing Paint Around: selections from the permanent collection
May 10, 2008 - September 7, 2008

Paint has long had a special allure for artists—its rich viscosity, its nearly primal dynamic nature. As a material, paint brings with it a history of both romance and rebellion: artists often simultaneously reject the medium’s conventions and pay homage to its lofty legacy. Painters talk about the "skin" of a painting or the "body" of the paint—intimate terms that also suggest that the material is a living being with a will of its own and a certain sensuousness. On view in this installation are works that exemplify the ways painters "push paint around" with finesse, struggle and juicy experimentation. Included are works by Sue Chenoweth, Terence La Noue, Jeffrey Long, Jim Lutes and Ricardo Mazal, among others.

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The Portrait
May 20-June 18

Portraiture, from the classical to the conceptual, has long been a popular subject matter for artists. once the “bread and butter” of the realist painter, portraits have become more expressive over the years. Today’s portraits expose not only the inner thoughts and feelings of the artist or patron, but also reflect the societal, political and economic pursuits of our culture.

Exhibiting Artists: Rebekah Brems, Peter Bugg, Edie Daldrup, Edna Dapo, Michael Dixon, Scott Ellegood, Eliza Gregory, Tracy Longley-Cook,Deborah McMillion Nering, Howard Salmon,Chris Santa Maria, Arlene Scult, Allison Wear.

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Mexican Photographers Today: Facing a World in Transition
Selected Works from the Margolis Foundation
June 7, 2008 - September 28, 2008

Addressing the role of the socially-committed documentary tradition in photography, this exhibition features works by Manuel Alvarez Bravo, its greatest exponent, as well as those of Rodrigo Moya, and Nacho Lopez. The broad range of subjects—rites of passage and religious performances, struggles in the belly of a megalopolis, cultural displacement and incongruous realities—are addressed from highly personal points of view and styles.

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Cerealism: The Photography of Ernie Button
Through July 27, 2008

Photographs by Ernie Button appear in the Heffernon gallery of West Valley Art Museum beginning May 30. At a glance the works seem to be normal photos of desert landscapes, landmarks and pyramids. Up closeit’s a different story. It is breakfast cereal. And therein lies a tale that Ernie himself tells:

“Art is shaped by a person’s life experiences and I am no different. I was raised by a single mother, during most of my single-digit years, that struggled to keep her family and young children together. We didn’t have a lot of money so it was the small things that made a lasting impression on me as a child.

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