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On display at Etherton Gallery: Steve McCurry, Afghan Girl (Sharbat Gula), Peshawar, Pakistan, 1984 Fuji Crystal Archive print, © Steve McCurry/Magnum Photos, courtesy Etherton Gallery
Tucson is blessed with a wide variety of gallery spaces that are coming back to life as the pandemic recedes. Here’s a sample of what you’ll find.
DOWNTOWN
Philabaum Glass Gallery
The beloved Philabaum Glass Gallery is thriving under new ownership. The space, near Five Points, is luminous with beautifully colored glass artworks. The current show, Sense of Place, features glasswork by Erika Parkin of Tucson, known for elegant blown glass; Steffen Plistermann of Santa Fe, master of the organic; and Richard Parrish of Boseman, Montana, who hangs his glass pieces on the wall. Alison Harvey, the new proprietor, was the gallery’s manager under the original owners, renowned glass artist Tom Philabaum and Dabney Philabaum. When they were ready to sell in 2020, Alison jumped to buy. Her husband, Dylan Harvey, is a co-owner, but she is running the enterprise solo. Business is good, she says, and she’s loving the work. Through June 4. Philabaumglass.com
Etherton Gallery
Etherton Gallery is sailing along in its new digs in the Barrio Viejo. It’s now on its third exhibition in the Convent Street Gallery since its opening in September. Steve McCurry: Its Own Place and Feeling is a sumptuous look at some 30 brightly colored photos he took all over the world. A member of Magnum Photos and a recipient of many awards, McCurry has shot photos in armed conflicts in the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, and he covered 9/11 in the U.S. He’s most famous for Afghan Girl, a searing image of a teen with piercing green eyes. Ironically, given today’s chaos in Afghanistan, that 38 year old image portrays fear and sorrow all over again. Through April 2. Ethertongallery.com
Untitled Gallery
Untitled Gallery, situated in the Steinfeld Warehouse downtown, often invites many artists to the gallery to show their work. This time, though, the gallery members get their turn in the spotlight. The seven members—painters and sculptors—have a wide rain of interests, and you can see them all in the online gallery. Inna Rohr’s painting “Everglades” caught my eye; it’s a richly colored vision of a storm over the swamp.
Untitledgallerytucson.com
Contreras Gallery
The small downtown gallery, soldiering on through the road construction, has mounted a show for four local artists who carry a sense of place. Jane Buckman paints desert plants while Sylvia Garland turns to dainty flowers. Carolyn Sotelo put together a jaunty vision of a rundown Stone Ave. block, and Mano Sotelo has made fine full-size portraits of Tucson’s magnificent mountains and national parks. Contreashousefineart.com
Gallery 2Sun
The gallery specializes in local artists and vintage modern art but right now it’s open only by appointment. 520-360-8074. Fans can see the artworks at www.artsy.net/gallery-2-sun . gallery2sun.com
Raices Taller 222
After staging a sea of online shows over two years of the pandemic, Raices is on temporary hiatus. The gallery’s John Salgado says the team is considering new projects and hopes to get going April. “We’re looking at some really exciting ideas,” he says.
Raicsestaller222.com
AROUND TOWN
Everybody Gallery
The Everybody gallery has returned to Tucson! The cool contemporary gallery slid out of town in 2018. There were sightings in Chicago. And now the mysterious group is back in the Old Pueblo, at 437 Grant Road. The Everybody gallery “primarily works with emerging and perpetually-emerging artists,” according to a press release. Its new show, Sara Hupps: Soft Shoulder, is a “series of sculptural situations.” One of Hupps’s pieces has molded glass in lovely pale colors. Through March 26 Everybody.gallery
Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery at Pima College West Campus
The excellent Bernal Gallery is presenting work by two artists who live in Tucson.
Perla Segovia immigrated to the U.S. from her native Peru when she was 10 years old. Now a textiles artist, she created Threads of Immigration, a series of four installation that use thread and fabric to remember those try to cross the border for a better life. In one work, she embroidered a ream of canvas shoes, representing immigrant children who died in custody. A second installation, crafted with kiln glass, aluminum and poplar, honors migrant mothers. Wayne Gudmundson is an internationally known photographer with work in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, at the Center for Creative Photography and elsewhere. His new book of images is What Place Is This, with text by Dieter Berninge. Gudmundson sought out locations outside Tucson where historic events took place, and photographed what is left and what has changed.
UP IN THE FOOTHILLS
Multiple galleries have for years plied their wares high about the city, at Campbell, Skyline and Sunrise. Here’s a brief list.
Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery
Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery offers native American work and early and contemporary western art. The gallery also has a fine collection of paintings by the revered Maynard Dixon. On view in the gallery now is a suite of really interesting works picturing Navajo life, painted by Navajo artist Shonto Begay. medicinemangallery.com
Sanders Gallery
Sanders Gallery has been run by the same owner in the same building for more than 45 years. Like most of its art neighbors, Sanders specializes in “American western, wildlife and realism.” An array of Hopi Kachinas, symbols of spirit beings, are now on display on the Sanders webpage. sandersgalleries@sandersgalleries.
Settlers West
Settlers West is a reliable gallery for paintings of cowboys, horses, native people and stunning views of the southwest landscape. A roundup of American miniatures, created by dozens of artists, are on view in the gallery now. settlerswest.com
Jane Hamilton Fine Art
This 29-year-old gallery is more contemporary than most of the Foothills places. Fans can see that for themselves at an opening this Friday, Feb. 18, with a reception from 4 to 7 p.m. The show, Blossoms & Bells, features two artists. Ernst Gruler pounds out glamorous sound sculptures, and Greg Heil paints the desert, blending “traditional landscape with brilliant color and impressionist flare,” says proprietor Jane Hamilton.
Through Feb. 28. Janehamiltonfineart.com
Wilde Meyer Gallery
This gallery has a sister place in Scottsdale. Both outlets hit all the bases, from paintings to sculptures, and from figuration to abstractions. Samples are James Koskinas’s handsome brown and white horse and J.D. Berard’s abstracted desert in green and fiery orange. Wildemeyer.com
FoR Fine Art
The new gallery in the district, FoR Art, has another place up in Montana. As a result, the works on view go from “sweeping vistas of Glacier National Park” to sunburst paintings of the Sonoran Desert. The new enterprise wisely added Tucson painter Howard Post to the roster. The talented Post paints cowboys and ranchers in a fresh, spare style. Forfineart.com
Tohono Chul
Tohono Chul, the gallery in a desert garden is rejoicing in the recent acquisition of a permanent collection of American Indian art. Donated by Roy J. Kurtz, the collection is vast. A new exhibition will give visitors first looks at baskets and art.
Through April 27. Rick DeMont: Elemental Monuments: Rick DeMont, a masterful watercolor painter, has filled one of the gallery rooms with his large-scale paintings, many of them pure desert landscapes. Visitors can look close to understand his methods of color, scale and space. Even better, they can get the info directly from him at a talk at noon, Tuesday, Feb. 22, at the Garden Pavilion. Through Feb. 27
Tom Baumgartner | Codex Sonora. “Codex Sonora is a fittingly mysterious book, made up of extraordinary portraits accompanied by eldritch,” according to the gallery notes, “nearly indecipherable text, along with elusive graphs and symbols and strange diagrams that point outward to the stars.” Through April 27
Artmotion U.S.A
