4th of July at the Phoenix Art Museum: From a Barbie bonanza to Bell's amazing cubes
Phoenix, Arizona (Release): This 4th of July celebrate Independence Day with a heft dose of art and culture at the Phoenix Art Museum. The museum is open on July 4 from 10am to 5pm and promises to be an excellent destination for those who want to get away from the red, white and blue revelry that's sure to sweep Phoenix and relax and reflect amidst the beauty and innovation of some truly unique pieces of art. Here are some of the exhbitions that you can catch at the museum on the 4th of July.
Barbie: A Cultural Icon Exhibition
Date: Up to July 7, 2024
Where: Katz Wing Mezzanine Fashion Galleries
Created by Illusion Projects and Mattel, Barbie: A Cultural Icon Exhibition examines the Barbie brand’s 60+ year history and the doll’s global impact on pop culture. Across six sections, visitors experience more than 250 vintage dolls — including the original Barbie — from the collections of private collector David Porcello and Mattel, life-size fashion designs, exclusive interviews, and narrative sections that consider the style trends, careers, and identities that Barbie has embodied and popularized over the decades.
The Power of Pink
Date: Up to July 7, 2024
Where: Katz Wing Mezzanine Fashion Galleries
Drawn mostly from the PhxArt fashion-design collection, 'The Power of Pink' celebrates the history of the color pink, which is typically associated with feminine expression. The exhibition explores the color’s influence on fashion in all its complexities, tracing pink’s evolution from status symbol to gender marker to contemporary fashion statement.
Featuring more than 10 garments and ensembles, 'The Power of Pink' encourages thoughtful examination of the color and its influence on major designers such as Gianfranco Ferré, Christian Dior, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, and more.
Multiple Realities: Experimental Art in the Eastern Bloc, 1960s–1980s
Date: Upto September 15
Where: Steele Gallery
'Multiple Realities: Experimental Art in the Eastern Bloc, 1960s–1980s' is a survey of experimental art made by almost 100 artists from six Central-Eastern European nations, including East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia. The exhibition traces how a generation of artists with distinct experiences of locally specific state-sanctioned control "embraced experimentation and interdisciplinary practices to confront at times harsh conditions of everyday life, while circumventing and eluding the very systems that sought to surveil and silence them".
Larry Bell: Improvisations
Date: Upto January 5, 2025
Where: Second Floor Katz Wing
'Larry Bell: Improvisations' celebrates the career of renowned experimental artist Larry Bell, one of the most influential creators to emerge from the Los Angeles art scene in the 1960s, alongside Robert Irwin, Ed Ruscha, James Turrell, and others.
The survey explores the progression of Bell’s process from the 1960s through the present day. The exhibition debuts a selection of 'Light Knot' sculptures that suspend from the ceiling and appear to dance as they absorb and reflect the surrounding light. It also premieres one newly commissioned large-scale work—a cubic form representing the mercurial sun, surrounded by clouded glass evocative of the fog of Venice Beach, California.