This is one of the best fall arts seasons. Here’s why. For the first time, the late Louis Carlos Bernal is getting a big show and its right here in Tucson. Not only is the Center for Creative Photography doing a huge retrospective, but Pima College, where Bernal was a professor for many years, has a show of its own of his work and that of his colleagues at Pima. The U of A Museum of Art will have a fun show on surrealism. And, in a wonderful gift, Cynthia Miller has created a new gallery on the eastside to show the work of local artists. All over town, there will be something for everyone, just take a look.
University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography
At long last, one of the best artists and photographers in Arizona finally will be shown at the U of A’s Center for Creative Photography. The master was Louis Carlos Bernal and the show is called “Louis Carlos Bernal: Retrospectiva.” Born in Douglas, raised in Phoenix, trained at ASU, mentored by Fredrick Sommer, and finally settled in Tucson, Bernal became a beloved teacher at Pima Community College and a pioneering photographer. In his early days, he did all kinds of photography. But in his mid-30s, he found an old house in Downtown Tucson, unoccupied but filled with religious devotions, handwritten notes in Spanish, and the memorabilia of everyday life. Bernal tracked down Señora Mary Benitez, who had lived there. She gave him permission to take photographs in her house and, in the barrio, he found his calling.
He went on to make pictures of old women, cool teenagers, girls at sewing machines, and neighborhood groceries. He often returned to Douglas to photograph relatives and old friends. He also went to Lubbock, Texas, to take pictures of Chicano families there. He also traveled to Mexico City, where his work, especially his color photography, was widely admired.
Bernal’s life was cut short, when at 48, he was hit by a car while riding his bicycle to the Pima West campus. He was left in a coma and died four years later in 1993. Many friends over the years have kept his work alive, especially his dear friend and colleague, Ann Simmons-Myers. The exhibit features more than 140 photographs with an excellent catalog written by Elizabeth Ferrer that looks at the whole trajectory of his career.
The show runs from Sept. 14, 2024 to March 15, 2025, with a full schedule of public programs. A day-long community celebration, with food and music, will be held from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Oct. 12. And a separate exhibition, “Chicana Photographers LA!” will be up from Sept. 28 to Feb. 15. Check out the CCP’s calendar of events for more information: ccp.arizona.edu/calendar
The Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery
Pima College West
The other big Bernal show is at Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery - Pima Community College, Downtown Campus - where, beloved by his students, he taught his entire career. “Preserving Bernal’s Legacy” will have some of Bernal’s best photos, as well as works by colleagues and friends Ann Simmons-Myers, Charlotte Earley, Karen Hymer, Anh-Thuy Nguyen, Ernesto Esquer, Pam Golden, and Marietta Bernstorff. It runs Sept. 11 to Oct. 25.
Nadiah Rivera Fellah, an expert on Mexican American culture and Associate Ceurator of Contemporary Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art, will give a talk on “Pride of Expression: LatinX Photography and Lowrider Culture” from 6 to p.m. October 17, Proscenium Theater, Pima Community College, West Campus.
Pima College will present another show on Mexican American culture at the Pima College Desert Vista campus. Neda Contreras paints fun oils of skeletons driving in fancy cars, ex-votos of beautiful backyard landscapes, and pretty still lifes of desert wildlife.
University of Arizona Museum of Art
André Breton, the French artist and poet, was the first surrealist. As curator Violet Rose Alma said, Breton defined surrealism “as ‘pure psychic automatism,’ transcending reason to delve into the unconscious mind.” Surrealism began in Europe in the 1920s, but Americans got their first look in 1936, with an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
In the show at UAMA are works by 15 artists. Among them are Dorothea Tanning and Max Ernst, who lived for a time in Sedona. Two of the best-known are Joseph Cornell, a well-known American surrealist, known by children and adults for his collage boxes, and the famous Salvador Dali, of the extravagant mustache. And so are Kay Sage, who painted dark visions of future industrial landscapes, and her husband, Yves Tanquy, whose paintings were, by contrast, cheerful and colorful. “A Century of Surrealism” runs until Feb. 1.
Also at the UAMA are “Selections from the Great Mexican American Songbook” by collage artist Paul Valadez, which runs to Dec. 14.
The Arizona State Museum
Closed for major renovations until further notice.
Downtown
Blue Lotus Collective
Since last year, the Blue Lotus Collective has been bringing exciting work by African American artists to Tucson. In October, they open an exhibit of Arthur Monroe’s large abstract oil paintings. His paintings are beautiful, filled with colors, whites and reds and yellows.
Born in Brooklyn in 1935, he eventually studied with Hans Hoffman at a time when Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline were beginning to make waves in New York. After serving in the Korean War, Monroe moved to the Bay Area in California and hung out with jazz musicians. His friend, the saxophonist Charles Lloyd, said of him, “Arthur was a great painter, philosopher, sage and seer.” Monroe died in 2019.
Joanne Stuhr joined with Monroe’s son, Alaister Monroe, to curate the show. She says, “Working directly on the canvas without preliminary sketches or premeditation, his paintings reflect what was on his mind.” It runs through Jan. 20.
Tucson Museum of Art
The important Arizona Biennial opens on Oct. 19. This is always a must-see show that brings fresh new art to Tucson every two years. For 2024, Natasha Becker, the curator for the Arts of Africa at the Fine Arts Museums in San Francisco, will curate the show.
Also opening in October is “Paintings from Spanish America (1600-1800) from the Thoma Collection.” The show will feature 16 oil paintings from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela and Cuba.
There’s still time to see “Time Travelers: Foundations, Transformations and Expansions at the Centennial,” the wonderful show that opened last March to commemorate the Museum’s 100th birthday. It runs through Oct. 6.
MOCA-Tucson
“CACONRAD: 500 Places at Once” opens Sept. 13, with the 3D poems of C.A. Conrad on exhibition. Conrad describes their poems as “breathing wild creatures. They stand on the bottom of the page vibrating in the center of their bodies.” The poem sculptures are printed and hung on large sheets to make an installation that resembles a forest. Conrad will give a reading on Sept. 19. A reading room nearby offers works from the imprint Fivehundred Places, founded by artist Jason Dodge. It runs to Feb. 16.
Karima Walker, a local musician, videographer, and performance artist, opens her show, “Graves for the Rain,” on Sept. 13. “Attuning to the river through listening and movement,” Walker states, “I’m holding the microphone up to the river’s mouth, circling and circling, grieving in the absence of the body. Can I hear what the river is saying?” “Graves for the Rain” runs until Feb. 16.
Rounding out MOCA’s fall schedule is a video installation, “DEMO,” by Juan Obando and Yoshua Okón, who have had exhibitions throughout Europe and Latin America. Their installation will be up until Feb. 9.
Barrio Viejo
Etherton Gallery
Barrio Viejo has become a destination for art lovers, thanks, in part, to Terry Etherton. Since he left his Sixth Avenue location in 2021 to reopen on Convent Street, other galleries have followed.
Etherton’s wonderful summer show had some of the best photographs anywhere in the world, including Danny Lyons’ famous Texas prison series. The big fall show starting on Sept. 29 is another blockbuster, with two celebrated landscape photographers, Mark Klett and Michael P. Berman. Klett was a professor up at Arizona State University, where he did an astonishing range of work. For one series, “Reconstructing the View,” he rephotographed historic vistas of the Yosemite for a series of prints and collages, that mixed his own images with old photographs.
Now he’s retired and one of his brand-new projects is a series of huge prints of saguaros in layers of color set against bright blue skies. Each is printed on thin gossamer paper, and they are beautiful. Michael P. Berman, based in New Mexico, prints on big aluminum plates, hung in panels, to capture images of southwestern landscapes. His main piece for the show commemorates the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Gila Wilderness.
Andrew Smith Gallery
The Andrew Smith Gallery has been in Tucson for many years, showing fine art photography. At this time, it is open by appointment only.
Decode Gallery and Light/Space
One of the newer galleries on Convent Street, Decode Gallery, will run a show of black-and-white photographs, “Grayscale,” from Oct. 5 to 26. Another gallery nearby, Light/Space, also shows fine art photography, paintings, and sculpture.
Bahti Indian Arts
Mark Bahti’s Indian Arts has come down from the foothills into the barrio right next door to Etherton at 350 S. Convent Avenue. The location is different, but his fine collection of Indigenous arts is the same, from baskets and pottery to jewelry and fetishes to paintings and sculptures.
Five Points Neighborhood
Philabaum Glass Gallery
In Five Points Neighborhood, the Philabaum Glass Gallery has been run by Alison and Dylan Harvey since 2020, building on the legacy of founder Tom Philabaum. The Harveys are bringing in a new exhibition on Oct. 5. A father and son duo present their individual works in a joint show. Wes Hunting, the father, says “Working in glass allows me to orchestrate my symphony of light and color.” He makes glass in traditional forms, beautifully shaped vessels and vases in gorgeous blues, blacks and greens. His son, who goes by Wesley, works in newer forms, making what he calls “remnant sculptures.” The sculptures are in unusual shapes, stacked tiers of separate glass elements. One is a surprising and delightful pink. Another is lovely in green, gold and blue. Wesley says, “By working the material both molten and cold, I am able to achieve forms that are truly original.”
Through Jan. 18.
The Warehouse District
Raises Taller 222 Art Gallery
Raises Taller has been closed since July for building renovations, but John Salgado promises they’ll be back on Nov. 2 for their annual Dia de los Muertos show. That runs through Nov. 16, followed by a small works exhibition from Nov. 23-Jan. 4.
Contreras Gallery and Jewelry
Starting Sept. 7, 13 artists present their work in “Printmakers 2024.” Among them is Sylvia Garland, whose monoprints have beautiful bright colors. By contrast, Jack Davidson, trained as a landscape architect, makes stylized. highly detailed desert landscapes and still lifes with thick lines of gray and brown. Martin Quintanilla, originally from Mexico City, makes prints inspired by Mexican folk traditions. “Printmakers” runs through Oct. 19. Road construction on Sixth Street has been a challenge for the gallery, so call ahead for hours.
Coming in November is a group show with nine artists, including Neda Contreras. She’s also showing at Pima College’s Desert Vista Gallery.
Steinfeld Galleries
Close by Contreras and Raices Taller in the Warehouse District, the Steinfeld Warehouse Community Arts Center has several small galleries within its vast building. Untitled Gallery will have its Small Works show open on Dec. 7. In years past, as many as 70 local artists have been on exhibit. Events at Steinfeld often happen on the spur of the moment, so check their website to see what’s happening at Subspace and the 7-Legged Spider Gallery if you are heading down to the warehouse.
Central Tucson
Everybody Gallery
You’ll find the Everybody Gallery in a small non-descript house at 437 E. Grant Road. Iranian painter and sculptor, Nazafarin Lotfi’s show, “Real, Possible or Imaginary” opened on Aug. 24 and runs to Oct. 26. Her work includes paintings and paper-mâché sculpture, some in combination. The gallery notes suggest, “Viewed in Tucson, they might…bring to mind the ever-present debris found in streets, yards, and washes across the city … Politics here can be found in the tension between abstraction and representation, shifting perspectives and layers in the works.” Open Saturday 1 to 5 p.m.
The Foothills
Tohono Chul Galleries
The Tohono Chul Gallery, up in the northwest, has a new show, “The Exotic Sublime.” No less than 31 artists have created new ways to look at the plants of the Sonoran Desert. As the gallery’s promo explains, “Plants of all shapes and sizes, from basin to range, survive across five seasons — they seed, climb, roll, spread, poke, bloom, root, stem, branch, wither, bud, flower, and fruit.” All the artists are from Arizona, all with different points of view. Some are new to Tucson art lovers, some are well-known, like Barbara Jo Borch, Kate Breakey, Paul Waid, and Charles Hedgcock. Through Nov. 3.
Moira Marti Geoffrion’s show, “Pods, Seeds, and Plant Parts from the Sonoran Region,” is up in the Welcome Gallery. She works in a variety of media, from sculpture and painting to fiber art and performance. “All of her artworks, whether they are sculptural or 2D, are deeply conscious of the natural environment,” according to the gallery. And she “interweaves ideas related to her own family history.” Through Nov. 3.
In the Entry Gallery, drawings by Dana Smith are on exhibit for her show, “The Sonoran Desert: A Model for Surviving the Sixth Extinction.” She says, “The beautiful yet brutal desert has inspired me to investigate the world of invertebrates and microorganisms, the survivors of multiple planetary catastrophes, whether gathered from a habitat in my backyard pond and examined under a microscope or encountered while roaming the desert.” Through Oct. 27.
Jane Hamilton Fine Art and Settlers West
East of Tohono Chul in the Foothills are several art galleries worth a visit. Jane Hamilton Fine Art, 2890 E. Skyline, has paintings in a variety of styles, from traditional Western landscapes to contemporary figurative subjects. Settlers West, 6420 N. Campbell, specializes in paintings and sculptures of the American West, with cowboys, Indigenous peoples, and big Western landscapes They have a show opening Nov. 23 with pieces by some 50 artists.
Maderas Gallery
Coming down from the hills, the popular Maderas Gallery, 3035 N. Swan, has original paintings and prints by gallery owner, Diana Maderas. She is known for her desert landscapes and pictures of horses and dogs in bright colors. She also has works by Chuck Albanese, Pam Corbett and Aileen Frick among others.
The Eastside
Tucson Desert Museum
Further out on the eastside, the Tucson Desert Art Museum has been temporarily closed for the summer, but it will reopen on Sept. 5. Its collection includes gorgeous Diné textiles and Native baskets, and ongoing photography exhibits around Western history, such as “All the Single Ladies: Women Pioneers of the American West.”
326 Gallery
In great news for artists and art lovers, Cynthia Miller, a long-time beloved Tucson painter, has opened a gallery on the east side of town at 326 S. Wilmot. The 326 Gallery has periodic group shows of local artists the likes of Patrick Hynes, Paul Mirocha, Ana Laura Gonzalez, as well as Miller herself.
During their short runs, the shows are open to the public noon to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday and by appointment. From Oct. 17 to Oct. 20, 326 Gallery will show artists from Hive East, the studio complex adjacent to the gallery. That show will also be open to the public during the citywide Open Studio Tour the second weekend in November.
Just before Thanksgiving, the show “New Nature” opens with six Tucson artists, including Nancy Chilton and Krishna Raven Johnson. 326 Gallery promises to give artists in town lots of opportunities to see each other’s work and to present new work of their own.
