Performance and installation art are the flavors of the week. An internationally-renowned artist makes his downtown debut with a response to the desert culture he has experienced during his time in Arizona. A new performance art group aims to build relationships through creative expression. A major festival continues its tradition of multimedia quirks. A radical group aims to build community through bikes and music. And an electronic composer aims to challenge both performer and audience with his self-proclaimed dichotomous works. New art is the name of the game.
Matteo Rubbi: The Closest Thing
- Friday, Oct. 19 (opening reception)
- 6 to 9 p.m.
- ASU Art Museum International Artist Residency at Combine Studios: 821 N. Third St.
- Getting there: Walk — Third and Garfield streets
- Price: FREE
Recommended if You Like: site-specific installation, NASA, transportation
Since the early 2000s, the corner of Third and Garfield streets has been a hub for the First Friday art walk. At the time, the midcentury apartment complex had just been remodeled by photographer Wayne Rainey to serve as live/work space for burgeoning downtown artists. In 2012, with the recession, the building had become a shell of its former self, and the owner Rainey was forced to sell in order to hold onto his other property in monOrchid. Luckily, internationally-renowned Phoenix artist Matthew Moore was on the lookout for property at that time. Greg Esser and the ASU Art Museum came knocking as well. Thus a partnership was formed, with Moore offering up the newly-minted Combine Studios to Esser’s Desert Initiative, where it has become temporary residence for numerous international artists. After months of work, the venue’s new Project Space is set to open to the public with a site-specific installation from Italian artist Matteo Rubbi, who also currently boasts a solo show on the other side of town at the ASU Art Museum.
- Friday, Oct. 19
- 8 p.m. Show
- monOrchid: 214 E. Roosevelt St.
- Getting there: Walk — Second and Roosevelt streets
- Price: FREE
Recommended if You Like: speed dating, creative improv, Happenings
According to the group’s Facebook page, this is “performance and speed-dating for artists and nerds.” Gathering as part of the new Co+Hoots 2.0, meathubmeathub is a new take on creative and professional networking. Before their move to the new Co+Hoots along Washington Row, meathubmeathub is throwing a launch party at their temporary headquarters at monOrchid. Each event will begin with a series of 15-minute performance art pieces by a handful of featured artists. From there, all attendees forced to participate in guided conversations with fellow creative-types in a cross between speed dating and improvisation. Tired of the pretension of mixers but still want to meet creative peers? meathubmeathub just might be for you.
- Saturday, Oct. 20
- 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; After Hours 8 to 10 p.m.
- Grand Avenue Arts District: Grand between Seventh and 16th avenues
- Getting there: Bike — Grand between Seventh and 16th avenues
- Price: FREE
Recommended if You Like: funky boulevards, local tunes, Tucson’s Fourth Ave.
After a date change and some serious event competition over its first three editions, this is primed to be the Grand Avenue Festival’s best year yet. Over 30 galleries, performance spaces, shops and art studios will swing open their doors along the city’s quirkiest street. Returning this year are the ever-popular Re-Dapt Tours, providing visitors rare, guided looks at some of Grand Avenue’s most historic reused properties. Among this year’s tour guides is the ever-popular Marshall Shore, Phoenix’s only HIP-storian, taking attendees to the OS Stapley Building, Milum Textiles and 1205 Grand. Similarly returning is Bands on Grand, presenting well over 30 local bands all day and into the night. And lest you think movies be forgotten, adaptive-reuse documentary “The Greenest Building” will be presented throughout the day at Soul Invictus thanks to No Festival Required, and the legendary Banksy film “Exit Through the Gift Shop” will be screened outside in the parking lot of Bragg’s Pie Factory to close the evening.
- Saturday, Oct. 20
- 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Rusty Spoke Community Bicycle Collective: 1023 NW Grand Ave. (enter through back alley)
- Getting there: Bike — 13th and Grand avenues
- Price: Donations requested and auction items available
Recommended if You Like: DIY action, multimedia art, Food Not Bombs
The nonprofit shop offers used bikes, parts and repairs at very low rates or in exchange for a few volunteer shifts every Sunday afternoon and Thursday evening. And if you’d like to learn, the shop’s volunteer staff will happily teach you to fix things yourself during one of their regular classes. But to keep such a low-overhead shop in business, they have to ask for some help from time to time. This Saturday, during the Grand Avenue Festival, the shop will be open all day, featuring art from a variety of media, all available for auction, with all proceeds going directly to the Collective.
- Thursday, Oct. 18
- 7:30 p.m. Doors, 8:30 p.m. Show
- Crescent Ballroom: 308 N. Second Ave.
- Getting there: Walk — Second Ave. and Van Buren St.
- Price: $13 in advance at statesidepresents.com; $14 at the door
Recommended if You Like: LCD Soundsystem, new classical, Wham City
Dan Deacon has a degree in music composition. Dan Deacon plays electro you can dance to. Dan Deacon writes about nerd culture and references comic books. In 2007, Deacon broke through with Spiderman of the Rings, an upbeat, danceable electro record built for DIY venues across the country, where the artist built his reputation for performing directly in the center of the crowd. Deacon has continued to evolve, composing for movies, avant-garde masters So Percussion and numerous others, all leading into his newest acclaimed work, America. If you don’t know what to expect going to a Dan Deacon show, you’re in the right mindset. Simply be prepared for anything.
Events compiled by Connor Descheemaker
