The 26th annual Art Detour: Snapshots of the weekend

The 26th annual Art Detour took over downtown on March 8 and 9, displaying work in more than 100 art spaces. The event can certainly be overwhelming considering all the events and exhibits shown throughout the entire weekend, so Downtown Devil sent out reporters to cover a few of the events you may have missed. Spanning across the boundaries of downtown Phoenix, our featured galleries and studios offer a snapshot of the weekend’s events.

1Spot Gallery

Indigenous art gallery 1Spot Gallery collaborated with Contemporary Native Art Magazine to present an abstract exhibit with about eight local and national artists.

Gallery co-owner Michelle Ponce said the magazine hosts one big show a year and wanted to do it at 1Spot. The show featured many established artists, Ponce said, some of who have already shown work at the Roosevelt Row gallery.

“It seriously showcases the strength of their work, especially in the abstract format,” Ponce said.

She said the pieces also dip into a traditional style while still expressing each artist’s personal story.

Two pieces featured were woodblocks spray-painted by Jaque Fragua. Along with other American Indian people ages 15 to 35, Fragua submitted his work to the magazine and won a spot in the show, coverage in the magazine and a financial award, Ponce said.

On Saturday, two local artists, Randy Boogie Barton and Jeremy Eyerock Arviso, spray-painted Ponce’s car in the courtyard behind 1Spot and Drive-Thru Gallery & Studio. She said she bought the car already painted with frogs from someone in San Francisco. She said she liked the new look.

The exhibit will stay up for the remainder of the month, Ponce said. — Danika Worthington

{9} the Gallery

Lauren Lee, known for her mural on the side of GreenHaus gallery and boutique, kicked off Art Detour weekend at {9} the Gallery with her show “Sisters of the Moon,” which runs through April 5.

The show features large oil paintings of vibrant flowers on black backgrounds that create “a deep sense of space and luminosity,” according to the show’s Facebook event page.

Phoenix was one of seven stops on author Elizabeth Earley’s tour for her debut novel, “A Map of Everything.”

The book is about a girl whose sister sustains a traumatic brain injury and the impact that accident has on their family. It was inspired by Earley’s own experiences – when she was 10, her older sister sustained a traumatic brain injury after a serious car accident.

Earley read from the book at her tour stop Saturday at {9} the Gallery. In addition, Joy Young read three poems and the band Sister Lip performed three songs.

The poet and band each wrote an original response piece that they performed at the event after the reading. A poet and musician performed at each stop of Earley’s tour, and each of their original pieces appear on a soundtrack Earley had made.

Copies of the book in black and white and full color were available for purchase at the event. Each one came with a copy of the soundtrack. Earley said she would divide her author royalties, with 50 percent going to the Brain Injury Association of America and 50 percent going directly to people she knows living with traumatic brain injuries.
— Kimberly Koerth

ASU Art Museum International Artist Residency at Combine Studios

The ASU Art Museum International Artist Residency program at Combine Studios opened its doors for both Art Detour and Emerge 2014 crowds to watch the creation of a traditional Tibetan mandala.

As of Friday night Nepali Buddhist monk Lama Ngawang had already worked for two days on the mandala — an intricate sand art design made by painstakingly drizzling colored grains of sand. Geshe Jampa, another Buddhist monk who resides in Phoenix, answered questions and provided commentary.

A shrine with flowers, incense, traditional Tibetan art and a makeshift offering of cookies was set up behind the mandala work zone. A short documentary about the mandala-making process played in the back of Combine Studios. Off to the side, a camera recorded the creation of the mandala throughout the days.

Each of the colors used symbolize a different value that contributed to the mandala’s overall message of compassion, wisdom and strength, according to Geshe Jampa. The completed mandala will be blessed and then taken to the Salt River, where the sand will dissolve and its spiritual energy carried wherever the river travels.

“We bring the healing to us,” Geshe Jampa said. — Alexandra Scoville

Central United Methodist Church

One of the greatest things about Art Detour is the opportunity to show art in unique places. Whether it’s a working studio or CityScape, this diversity allows you to explore much more than just the downtown galleries.

The search for a rare spot led me to Central United Methodist Church, next to the Phoenix Art Museum on Central Avenue and McDowell Road. Alongside the exterior wall of the church building lay 15 large paintings, the work of local artist and educator Jaswant Khalsa.

Khalsa’s paintings for this Art Detour span about four years of work and are representative of her style of art, which she called “figurative expressionism.” The most defined aspects of all her paintings are her soft and dreamy combinations of color.

“I’ve been doing artwork since I was quite young, but the style I do now has evolved over the past 10 years,” she said.

One can see the path her style has taken over the years: her earliest works in the collection show detailed faces and sharper lines, while her latest paintings offer a swirl of movement, with figures blending into the background and creating a cohesive composition.

“I start with a little seed of an idea, but you never know where that’s going to take you,” she said.

Khalsa has shown work at Art Detour and First Fridays in years past. Living downtown and close to Central United Methodist Church, she said it was a great place to show her art. The proximity to the Phoenix Art Museum couldn’t hurt, either. — Miguel Otarola

The Coe House Gallery

All weekend long, The Coe House hosted “Pre-Phab,” an exhibition of art by the 12 artists who created the Phoenix Phabulous History Mural. This was a chance to see what goes into artistic collaboration.

Muralist Hugo Medina, who curated the history mural, said that “Pre-Phab” is a chance to show “two different levels” of what the artists can do.

“I wanted to show the individual style of their works.” Medina said. “These pieces have more of the artists’ personalities, while the mural gave them a challenge to focus on their assignment to capture a part of a timeline. They were somewhat restricted by what they had to do to meet those guidelines, but in their individual artwork the only restriction is what they have.”

The Phoenix Phabulous History Mural was shown at Walter Studios for Art Detour, and it will also be displayed later in the year at Burton Barr Central Library, Phoenix City Hall and the Phoenix Opera House.

Medina has curated art at The Coe House for about a year. “Pre-Phab” is the first group show that he chose for the gallery.

“It’s a very small intimate space, so I like doing smaller shows,” Medina said. “It’s almost like having a show in your living room.”

On Sunday, Medina opened up his studio in The Coe House to visitors, which houses some of his own work and photography by his wife Kira Olsen. — Brandon Kutzler

Drive-Thru Gallery & Studio

I started my Art Detour experience on Saturday morning by visiting this small treasure on Roosevelt Row.

Photographer Andrew Pielage founded Drive-Thru Gallery & Studio as a way to display both his photography and the work of up-and-coming artists. For this Art Detour, he presented a selection of his work as a photographer for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.

Titled “Wright at Home: the Private Arizona Residences of Frank Lloyd Wright and His Family,” Pielage’s photography profiled two Valley structures designed by famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright: Taliesin West, Wright’s winter home and school, and the David & Gladys Wright House residence. The gallery, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and local graphic design company Image Craft LLC sponsored the show.

Pielage is well versed in his knowledge of the history of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Arizona work, and said some of his favorite pictures of Taliesin West were shot at dusk or night.

“I think Frank Lloyd Wright is a really influential architect all over the world, but especially in Arizona,” Pielage said.

Pielage held his first show at Drive-Thru Gallery January of last year, and has since gotten the chance to display the work of a variety of different photographers, including some who have never shown at a gallery before.

“When I was just starting out, I never had the opportunity to show in a gallery,” Pielage said. It’s justification enough to check out the spot – on Roosevelt Street right between Fifth and Sixth streets – for your First Friday art walk. — Miguel Otarola

Five15 Arts

Four cactuses poked out of the corner in the back of Five15 Arts gallery, an art collective with 11 artists.

The cactus installation was the work of Mary Shindell, who usually sticks to drawing, she said. The 3-D digital designs were cylindrical with LED lights in the middle. The top had plastic pipes with cactus flowers on the ends.

Shindell said she was drawing a cactus on paper and wanted the ridges to take over the whole page. She thought to roll the paper into a cylinder, something she had never done before, she said. From there she moved to digital designs to quicken the process. A neon artist suggested she add the lights in the middle.

The cactuses were next to paintings of cars and near five small canvases of calacas, exemplifying the diversity of the collection. Each artist in the collective was given five feet of space to fill, Shindell said.

The gallery also showed the work of two ceramic artists: Deborah Hodder and her stone ware emphasizing faces, and Susan Risi with ceramic tea pots, bowls and curly vases.

“There are not many ceramic artists shown on Roosevelt and we have two people,” Shindell said.

White spaces peeked through the art as people bought pieces throughout the weekend and brought them home.

The gallery was one of the original galleries on Roosevelt Row that decided to organize their open hours on Fridays, Shindell said. It has been on Roosevelt Row for about 11 years, she said. — Danika Worthington

Frontal Lobe Community Space and Gallery

A giant jellyfish with bulging eyes, a pink rabbit mermaid and a baby doll in a giant roll of sushi hang from the ceiling of the Frontal Lobe Community Space and Gallery. The seventh annual “Mutant Pinata Show” returned to Grand Avenue for Art Detour weekend.

Beatrice Moore, the owner of the Bragg’s Pie Factory buildings and curator of the show, said she is surprised every year by the variety the artists bring.

Moore starts gathering entries for pinata designs in December. Local artists submitted many of the 80 pinatas on display. However, students from the Metropolitan Arts Institute and from several local schools, including Silvestre S. Herrera Elementary School, contributed their own paper-mache creations.

“A lot of times you can’t tell the difference, honestly,” Moore said of the pinatas made by adults versus the ones made by younger students.

Moore said she makes sure to reach out to youth to help them enter the arts scene.

“The kids get really excited to see their work put up in a professional space, “ she said.

Most of the pinatas were hung from the ceiling of Frontal Lobe, though more than a dozen sat on the ground. Several pinatas explored darker themes, such as a cage full of winged, bloody baby dolls. Others were goofier or light-hearted, including “Potato Kitty,” the creation of an 8-year-old girl that features a potato-shaped cat carrying an ice cream cone.

“I think people like it because it’s not trying to be fine art,” Moore said. — Alexandra Scoville

The Icehouse

At The Icehouse in the warehouse district, Phoenix historian Marshall Shore set up a mini-golf course that doubled as an interactive art exhibit highlighting the history of Phoenix.

“The idea was to get people to be not just art observers, but to get them to play around with it,” Shore said.

Toddlers, teenagers, adults and even Mayor Greg Stanton came by to putt in the custom-built mini-golf installations.

Intrepid amateur golfers maneuvered around a painting by Hugo Medina in the style of Keith Haring, the head of Wally the Watermelon (mascot of the recently revived Glendale-based Arizona Watermelon Festival), and a chicken statue that once oversaw Gordon’s Market on Third Avenue and Roosevelt Street.

Other artwork included the “Westward Hole,” a punny interpretation of the famous Westward Ho hotel, and tributes to travel culture and Phoenix’s once-vibrant Tiki restaurant and bar scene.

Shore hopes to expand the collection again in its third year. Ultimately, the goal is for an extensive course that will take visitors around different locations in downtown Phoenix as they golf. — Brandon Kutzler

Lawn Gnome Publishing

About nine different tables covered the front lawn of Lawn Gnome Publishing Saturday night as local zine makers showcased their products at the fifth annual Underground Publishers Convention.

Jacki Orr, who planned the event, hung a sheet with “UPC” on it over part of the bookstore’s front porch and projected the movie “The Neverending Story” onto it. Hidden behind the sheet was a table for free food with oranges, cookies and vegetables. Bands also performed in the back of the bookstore.

The publishers were a mix of new zine makers, such as the writers of Tilt Magazine, which has only published two issues, and established creators like Tommy Cannon, who does Fred the Mustard Packet. Cannon is also illustrating the memoir of Philip Haldiman, who plays Denny in the indie movie “The Room.”

People meandered to each table talking to the publishers about their zines, buying copies or getting a free drawing of a wiener from “Phoenix New Times” artist and “Wait or Die” creator Brandon Huigens.

Publisher Buzza Wuzza, who writes “Buzza Wuzza,” was at the convention for the second time after moving to Phoenix from New York a few years ago. He said Phoenix has a “genuine” zine community. People do it for the love of creating zines, he said, and “don’t expect to make millions.” — Danika Worthington

Modified Arts

A downtown Phoenix staple. Modified Arts, located in the heart of Roosevelt Row, could definitely be considered a veteran spot for Art Detour festivities.

One artist has curated Modified Arts’s Art Detour shows for quite a few years. The artist, James Angel, has put on both solo and group shows at the gallery. For the 26th edition of the festival, Angel decided to round up 26 local artists for an exhibit fittingly titled “Twenty-Six.”

The artists chosen represented a mixed bag of what Phoenix has to offer, and the art in “Twenty-Six” definitely embodied that. From Ann Morton’s “My Sovereign, My Woman, My Maiden,” a QR code-shaped quilt knitted from the jeans of women as they attempted to cross the border, to Angel’s own piece, a painting featuring cubic shapes with soft shades of grey and blue-green, the variety and amount of art displayed at Modified Arts was pleasing and broadening.

Modified Arts will turn 15 years old this year, an important feat for a gallery that has provided downtown with some of its most memorable art events. — Miguel Otarola

MonOrchid

For this year’s Art Detour, MonOrchid featured artist Douglas Miles and his installment of APACHE X.

Miles is known for designing skateboard decks since 2002 through his own company, APACHE Skateboards. He also founded the Apache Skate Team here in Arizona.

Going beyond skateboard decks, Miles used items such as suitcases, Chinese paper, gas cans and even a dryer door to showcase his art at the gallery.

As people walked through the gallery, many stopped to look at the detailed work within the decks as well as the large art pieces on wood.

Local artist and author Kristin Bauer was captivated by what was seen beyond the spray paint.

“The found objects and different surfaces show how he uses his imagery,” Bauer said. “There is a deeper meaning in the subject matter to him, and you can see that.”

Miles is known as a street artist and print maker of his own original designs.

Children walking by were also able to pick up free skateboarding-themed coloring books and pencils. — Ruby Ramirez

Obliq/Gallery Luxx

Obliq art gallery and Gallery Luxx in the Arizona Center each had an exhibit for Art Detour weekend, along with special events on Friday and Saturday night.

Hispanic artists Joe Ray, Frank Ybarra and Gennaro Garcia exhibited art in the group show “Tres Cabrones Otra Vez” in Obliq. This show will be up until April’s First Friday.

Garcia, who had about a dozen paintings and sculptures on display in the gallery, said his art is a learning process. He enjoys learning new techniques and styles and getting the chance to experiment with what he learns.

“That’s the whole idea of being an artist – to create art,” Garcia said. “A chef has to create food, an artist has to create art.”

Next door, Fred Tieken’s “Visual Raconteur” show was on its last weekend in Gallery Luxx. The show, featuring about 20 paintings as well as the installation piece “Genetically Modified (Seeing is Believing),” was the first for the new gallery space.

“We want to activate these spaces as much as possible and get connected up with the community,” said Larry Ortega, the owner of Obliq and Gallery Luxx. “We want to reconnect with the downtown community and have art and music and everything cultural back in the shopping center.”

On Friday night, folk band Drowning Olsyn had a party for the release of their debut album, “Lie to Me,” in Gallery Luxx. And on Saturday night, the space hosted the “Apocalypse” poetry show. A total of eight poets performed, including Shawnte Orion, Jack Evans, Bill Campana, and Ernesto Moncada. — Kimberly Koerth

R. Pela Contemporary Art

After the Herberger Theater Center controversially banned Robrt Pela’s show “Prime Example” back in the fall of 2013, he debuted the exhibit at his own space, the R. Pela Contemporary Gallery. This time it was under a new name: “Banned at the Herberger.”

In addition to the illustrations of Ronnie Ray Mendez and photographs of Mike Ford, Pela added surrealist painter Lisa Albinger to “Banned.” Albinger was sitting in the gallery Saturday afternoon, painting and sketching when she wasn’t greeting guests.

“It was an invite that I wasn’t going to turn down,” Albinger said. Her art was likely chosen to join the show because of the similar subjects and themes between her work and Mendez’s, such as the female form and rabbits, she added.

Over a dozen of Albinger’s paintings of animal forms mixed with human bodies dominated the right side of the gallery. A series of four of Mendez’s illustrations were in the back, while his two giant spray-painted missiles nearly touched the ceiling in the middle of the room. Ford’s photographs, including the image “The Sodomite,” which incited the Herberger’s ban, were displayed on the left side of the gallery. — Alexandra Scoville

Walter Studios

On the corner of Seventh Avenue and Roosevelt Street stands Walter Studios, a large warehouse once used as a TV and film recording studio and now is an art and event space.

The building also holds Walter the Bus, an immense Volkswagen Bus; the Kalliope, a large trailer repurposed as a sound system; and Big Red, a beetle car reconstructed as a monster truck. The wheeled giants roll around various areas of the Valley and have headquarters at the Walter Art Gallery in Scottsdale.

Proudly displayed along one of the studio’s tall walls was the “Phoenix Phabulous History Mural,” a selection of 12 murals. These panels officially debuted at the Art d’Core Gala on March 1, which packed more than 500 locals into the Crescent Ballroom for a night of downtown celebration.

Carol Poore, the president and executive producer of storytelling organization Phoenix Phabulous Experience, said the work to create this mural started about nine months ago. Curated by local muralist Hugo Medina, each panel depicts a particular time period in the history of the Arizona capital, starting with the ancient Hohokam Civilization and culminating in a look at the city’s imagined future.

The panels were a chance for multiple artists to offer their view of a particular moment in Phoenix history. Especially captivating to me was Damian Jim’s minimal desert landscape for the Hohokam period and Michael Pruitt’s futuristic and sleek look at downtown’s growth, capturing Phoenix sports teams, dance and hotels all in one snapshot.

Poore said the murals were a way to include the new Walter Studios in this Art Detour.

“It’s a great way to introduce this place,” she said.

She said the mural exhibit would be at Walter Studios for about a month. After that it will go on a tour of important Phoenix locations, including the Burton Barr Central Library and the Phoenix Theatre.

“We want it to be a local attraction for the Super Bowl period, too,” she added.

I had the luck of coming down to this space and encourage other art lovers to see the history mural. One of my best finds of the detour. — Miguel Otarola

Contact the reporters at kkoerth@asu.edu, bkutzler@asu.edu, motarola@asu.edu, ruby.ramirez96@gmail.com, ascovill@asu.edu and danika.worthington@asu.edu