Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) marked the opening of their Fall Season this past Friday with two new exhibitions.
Celebrating the opening with wonderful art discussions, artists on hand, light hors d’oeuvres and music. The two new exhibitions presented included a large group exhibition titled Push Comes to Shove: Women and Power encompassing two galleries in SMoCA. This was a brilliant collaborative effort between ASU Intermedia Professor, Muriel Magenta, Ph.D., SMoCA’s Chief Curator and Director, Sara Cochran, Ph.D., and assistance od Julie Ganas the SMoCA Curatorial Coordinator.
According to the SMoCA website this exhibition “aims to use art as a critical catalyst in rethinking and transforming the advancement if women.” This engaging and diverse exhibition highlights “works that deal with the themes and issues of how women exercise and think about power” focusing on 4 women’s experiences who have held leadership positions in Arizona including Kyrsten Sinema, Rebecca White Berch, Barbara Barrett, Diane Enos, and Gloria Feldt. The exhibition features dynamic selections of artwork including sculpture, paintings, fabric, video etc. highlighting an impressive list of 19 artists.
Artists showcased included: Julie Anand, Malena Barnhart, Patricia Clark, Anne Coe, Grisha Coleman, Meredith Drum, Angela Ellsworth, Brooke Grucella, Hilary Harp, Suzie Silver, Mary Hood, Adriene Jenik, Siri Khandavilli, Muriel Magenta, Gabriela Munoz, Mary Neubauer and Todd Ingalls, M. Jenea Sanchez, and Forrest Solis.
Many wonderful pieces highlighted in this exhibition including: Brooke Grucella has created a massive vibrant and engaging painting combining her love of street art, comics and animation in her latest painting titled “Walking on Glass”. This piece depicts some of our countries most powerful woman including Hillary Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ginsberg, and Princess Diana etc. ”that the throne in question is actually an executive desk chair and not a throne in the traditional sense”.
“Labor” a stunning serigraph on bricks made with Mexican soil depicting created by Gabriela Munoz and M. Jena Sanchez. Sanchez learned how to make adobe create the bricks, they both took the portraits of the collective’s members and made silkscreens to transfer images to the bricks creating a brilliant and moving wall.
SMoCA continued their “The Architecture + Art Series” with its fifth edition of the series with Santiago Borja titled “Everything Falls into Place When It Collapses”. Borja typically works creating massive installations and "architectural interventions", this project allowed him the opportunity to create a site-specific project responding to the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. “SMoCA commissions architects and artists to create site-specific installations in response to the spatial, environmental and social context of the Museum’s site in Scottsdale, Arizona.” The artist examines an archaeologic landmark of the Southwest, presented models, drawings, photographs and reconstruction installation. According to the SMoCA website the artist, "Borja is interested in this cultural conversation that raises questions about how different cultures- Native Americans, tourists, academics, artists and administrators- relate to this archaeologial site".
SMoCA museum admission is only $7 for adults, $5 for students, and children under 15 are free. Every Thursday the museum offers complementary admission as well as Friday and Saturday evenings after 5pm. FREE Docent-led museum tours are every Thursday at 1:30 p (no reservations required); and every Sunday at 1:30pm from October through April, FREE with Museum admission. Located in the heart of Old Town Scottsdale at 7374 East Second Street, Scottsdale 85251. Visit their website for more information about exhibitions and events at https://www.smoca.org/. * All Images courtesy and copyright of SMoCA. *Fall Season Gallery Images courtesy of Nicole Royse captured during the opening reception and SMoCA.
