Not a mirage: the rapidly growing Phoenix metropolitan area, which includes the towns of Scottsdale and Tempe, has become a substantial venue for contemporary art - Report From Arizona

Art in America, Dec, 2002 by Raphael Rubinstein

Modified Arts combines a successful alternative-music venue with a regular exhibition program. Modified Arts diligently mines the region's visual-arts scene in search of new figures, such as Thuong Nguyen, whose paintings and collaged prints are frequently pierced with nails. Paulina Miller Studio Gallery exhibits everything from landscapes to nonobjective painting. Among the gallery's dozen artists are J. Andrew Kurtz, who creates precise, elegant, metal assemblages; Los Angeles's Cindy Suriyani, whose paintings address identity issues; Karl Gustav Kroeppler, a painter of ethereal figures; and Steven Hofberger, who makes innovative paintings on glass.

The artist-run (and lowercase-loving) collective called eye lounge represents the work of its 14 members at both its Roosevelt Street headquarters and the nearby 515 art space. Each site features a monthly show for one member of the collective, while the eye lounge space also invites two visiting artists to share its back galleries each month. Among the gallery's artists are Melissa Martinez, an art-museum preparator whose sculpture and paintings mix materials in unusual ways, and Thomas Strich, whose mixed-medium photoworks deal with the southwestern landscape.

The other artists' collective in the downtown area is Holga's, which occupies the ground floor of a former hotel that has been turned into live-work space. The building's tenants use Holga's as a venue for their new work and frequently open their space to young, experimental artists from across the Phoenix area. Lastly, there is the Paper Heart, a venue that combines music and performance with monthly exhibitions by local painters and sculptors.--John Villani

John Villani is the art critic for the Arizona Republic.