ASU Art Museum presents 'The Other Mainstream ll'
The ASU Art Museum, "the single most impressive venue for contemporary art in Arizona" as noted by Art in America magazine, presents one of the best private contemporary art collections in Phoenix: The Other Mainstream II: Selections from the Collection of Mikki and Stanley Weithorn, September 27, 2008 – January 4, 2009.
The Other Mainstream II is the second exhibition at the ASU Art Museum that focuses on the adventurous contemporary art collection of Valley residents Mikki and Stanley Weithorn. The Weithorns are available for interviews.
True to its name, the exhibition reflects the dominance in the contemporary art world of artists from diverse backgrounds working with new issues of identity -- a new “mainstream”. Bold in imagery and its commentary on global concerns, most of the works in the exhibition were created after 9/11. They reach beyond simply examining politics, gender, and race, and challenge viewers to a broader examination of humanity through humor, fantasy and blunt honesty.
Well-known Valley collectors, the Weithorns focus their collecting on the narrative form of figurative paintings, drawings and sculptures. Artists whose work is included in the exhibition: Emma Amos, Gordon Cheung, Marcel Dzama, Clinton Fein, Chitra Ganesh, Marcia Kure, Chris Ofili, Masami Teraoka, Mickalene Thomas and Amy Wilson, artists who are regional, international, well-known or emerging. Artists Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry, the collaborative and husband and wife team from New York, have created a site-specific installation in the exhibition; the bi-racial couple confronts continuing concerns of racism in America, drawing on photography from the early twentieth century civil rights movement. Their video installation, Exchange, poetically and powerfully refers to the “One Drop Rule” in which a person with one drop of black blood in their heritage was considered “colored.”
Local artists Steve Yazzie and Roy Wasson Valle are also included in the exhibition.Yazzie’s work, Born Again #3, comments on the idea of rebirth and renewal through transforming a broken-down guitar into a work of art. Wasson’s Cleaning Up is a powerful yet humorous sculpture related to global warming, with a polar bear (the first animal on the endangered list as a result of global warming) operating a leaf blower. Wasson is also well known in the Valley for his t-shirts and collectibles.
The ASU Art Museum is part of the Herberger College of the Arts at Arizona State University. The Museum is located on the corner of Mill Avenue and 10th Street in Tempe and admission is free. Hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturday, and 1-5 p.m., Sunday. To learn more about the Museum and its programs call (480) 965-2787 or visit http://asuartmuseum.asu.edu.