Events: Arizona - Phoenix - Scottsdale

FREE ADMISSION TO SCOTTSDALE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART ON SEPT. 22

SMoCA takes part in Smithsonian magazine’s 14th annual Museum Day

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art will be free to all guests on Saturday, Sept. 22, as part of Smithsonian magazine’s 14th annual Museum Day.

During the event, participating museums across the United States embrace the spirit of the Smithsonian Institution’s Washington, D.C.-based facilities — which offer free admission every day — and open their doors for free to those who download a Museum Day ticket. 

Tickets, which provide free admission for two people, will be available to download beginning at midnight on Aug. 15, at Smithsonian.com/museumday. A “Get A Ticket” button will appear on the Smithsonian website and you will be asked to enter your name, email address and confirm the museum you wish to attend before downloading your ticket. One ticket per email address is permitted.

“SMoCA is pleased to participate in this national event by offering free admission to celebrate the importance and relevance of museums today,” said Jennifer McCabe, SMoCA acting director. “We invite you to see the wide array of artistic styles and approaches that we currently have on view — from digital and experiential to drawing and painting.”

Exhibitions that will be on view at SMoCA on Sept. 22:

Wild Thing: Adventures with the Permanent Collection

May 19 – September 30

Featuring more than 140 artworks from SMoCA's permanent collection, Wild Thing celebrates all things animal — a menagerie in print, paint and sculpture. This thematic, playful exhibition explores the relationship between artist and animal and its enduring relevance in contemporary art, inviting visitors to discover works by notable Arizona artists such as Mayme Kratz, Randy Slack and Anne Coe, alongside pieces by William Wegman, Lynda Benglis and Alexander Calder. Being in the Southwest, images of horses, snakes and coyotes are routine. But bats and beavers? Yes. Birds and butterflies? Definitely. Fish, cats, dogs, frogs and a hippopotamus? Absolutely, and you will find them here. Children and adults alike will enjoy this family-friendly exhibition that invites visitors to take a walk on the wild side.

Refik Anadol: Infinity Room

May 26 – September 30

In this immersive installation by Turkish-born, Los Angeles-based artist Refik Anadol, museum guests step into a mirrored room that uses light, sound and technology to create a three-dimensional kinetic and architectonic space. The installation uses projection mapping to conceive a constantly changing virtual landscape — an imagined environment that attempts to merge the space between the physical and the virtual. The work is as experiential as it is thought provoking; the resulting experiment invites viewers to question their own perception of place and self.

Infinity Room is part of Anadol’s ongoing research that he calls “Temporary Immersive Environment Experiments,” which refer to the state of consciousness known as immersion. Typically occurring in virtual or artificial environments, the viewer’s awareness of his or her own physical self is temporarily transformed.  Originally presented in collaboration with the 2015 Istanbul Biennial, the installation has since traveled around the world before stopping in Arizona. This is a timed ticket exhibition. 

Lydia Okumura: SituationsJune 9 – October 14

This is the first solo museum exhibition of the Brazilian-born artist that showcases her dynamic installations, indoor and outdoor sculptures, and works on paper. The exhibition, spanning two galleries, is a survey of Okumura’s career, with work dating from 1971 through today. Known widely in Brazil for her spatially engaging work, Okumura remains under-recognized in her adopted country of the United States. She actively challenges viewers to question their perception of space through works that blur the line between two and three dimensions. Using simple materials such as string, glass and paint, her artworks balance line, plane and shadow.

On display is the installation In Front of Light for which Okumura won a prize in the 1977 São Paulo Biennial, along with additional installations from the 1970s and 1980s. These include the colored-string installation, Prismatic Appearance, from 1975, and several wire mesh sculptures recreated from Okumura’s 1984 solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo, including the installation Labyrinth.

Lydia Okumura: Situations was organized by the University at Buffalo Art Galleries, Buffalo, New York. The exhibition is curated by Rachel Adams, UB Art Galleries senior curator, and is supported by BROADWAY 1602, UPTOWN & HARLEM, and Buffalo Wire Works.