The Exhibits Program at Tohono Chul presents visual stories linking the nature, culture and arts of the Southwest. Focusing on the work of regional artists, we display vibrant works of art in a diverse array of thematic group exhibits. The charming adobe Exhibit House, built as a private home in 1937, is an ideal environment for visitors to view Southwestern artworks. Galleries in the Exhibit House are open 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily.
Exhibitions currently on display:
ON THE DESERT: An Exploration of Fibers
April 25 – July 31, 2019 | Main Gallery
Reception with the Artists | Thursday, April 25 | 5:30 – 8:00 pm
Woven, torn, pulped, beaten, soaked, stained, dried, drawn, simulated, stitched, painted, printed, turned, found, photographed, felted, braided, knitted, knotted, collaged, carved, burnt, abraded, cast, cut, folded, flocked, hooked, pressed, laced, spun, sewn, etc.
Fiber can be and do so many things. For artists – it is a medium and a process – it is natural and synthetic – it is crafted by hand and industrially machined – it is everywhere and in everything – (like Pima Cotton) it is the fabric of our lives.
ON THE DESERT: An Exploration of Fibers will take to the desert in search of traditional and experimental artworks that are made of, on, and about any and all things fiber while simultaneously exploring (perhaps, redefining) the definition(s) of Fiber Art.
Artists were asked to employ every fiber of their being and contribute art works that are focused on the very fibers they are made with. The possibilities are endless.
Image | Lyn Hart | timepieces | handwoven cotton, hemp, linen, nettle and rayon tapestries altered with rust, tea, wine, agua de Jamaica, stitching mounted on reversed artist panel
Image | Anderson Weahkee | Frog Fetish | stone and beads | ACNO 87.2.2
PERMANENT COLLECTION | New Perspectives V
April 25 – July 31, 2019 | Welcome Gallery
Reception with the Curators | Thursday, April 25 | 5:30 – 8:00 pm
NEW PERSPECTIVES is the fifth survey of objects from Tohono Chul’s Permanent Collection curated by Tohono Chul’s valued Docents and Volunteers. Serving as Guest Curators for 2019 are Midge Berlowe, Jane Fairchild, Priscilla Herrier and Jim Karp.
The permanent collection was started in 1986 with a donation of sixty-five objects from the Estate of Mrs. Robert Wilson. Mrs. Wilson was the mother of Tohono Chul founder, Dick Wilson. The desire to preserve and exhibit objects is deeply rooted in the Wilson family. Dick’s great, great, great-grandfather was Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827), a portraitist of the Federalist Era and founder of Philadelphia’s Peale Museum, one of America’s first major museums. Roughly a century and a half later, Harold S. Colton and Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton (Dick’s uncle and aunt) founded Flagstaff’s Museum of Northern Arizona. Today, Tohono Chul’s Permanent Collection has grown to include over 350 regional objects ranging from basketry, textiles, and ceramics to sculptural works and paintings.
All of the guest curators have dedicated themselves to Tohono Chul and jumped at the opportunity to explore the Permanent Collection and share their knowledge and appreciation of the objects they have chosen.
TIM MOSMAN | One Painter’s Process
March 22 – April 28, 2019 | Entry Gallery Project Space
Tuesday Art Talk with Tim Mosman | Tuesday April 9th at 12pm noon in the Exhibit House
Tucson Based Artist, Tim Mosman, reveals the process he moves through in creating works on paper in his studio. With a mark of paint or an element collaged to the paper’s surface, Mosman’s process of ‘Look and Respond’ begins. Over time and with subsequent applications of painting and drawing material the balanced and muscular compositions are wrought into being.
“This body of work has been taking shape over the past 7 years or so. The paintings come out of what started as a studio exercise focused on allowing the process of drawing and painting to guide the evolution and direction of the work.
My focus is on the process, not the outcome. So, as I work through a stack of 20 or 30 pieces, over and over and over again, individual pieces begin to coalesce along their own visual thread and evolve in ways both subtle and complex. The works start as improvisation, then become more about dialog (process), and finally emerge as objects – each with an individuality that points back to the process and the body of works created.”
a TUESDAY ART TALK on Tuesday, April 9th at 12:00 noon with artist Tim Mosman. Tuesday Art Talks are free with admission.
Image | Tim Mosman | Jabberwocky | gouache on paper
Image | William Lesch | Ocotillo Jungle | archival pigment print
Art du Jour | William Lesch
December 2018 – March 2019 | Garden Bistro
Art du Jour features artwork by local and regional artists displayed throughout the dinning rooms of the Garden Bistro. The work of longtime Tucson artist, William Lesch is currently featured in the Bistro. Lesch is one of the region’s most recognized artists. He is an extraordinary photographer and a meticulous craftsman. He finds this world a miraculous place, and photography a means to explore it. More works by William Lesch are on exhibit in the Welcome Gallery of the Tohono Chul Exhibit House – he is the Featured Artist through February 6, 2019.
Image | Mark Rossi | Javelina Family | bronze
Sculpture in the Gardens | On the Grounds
Sculpture from Tohono Chul’s Permanent Collection by Mark Rossi, Fred Borcherdt, Kioko Mwitiki, David Weinert, Greg Corman, Ned Egan and others can be discovered throughout the Park. Works by Tucson artists Phil Lichtenhan, Tidhar Ozeri, and Stuart Ross Snider are on loan from the artists as part of the project Art in the Gardens.
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