Staff Reports | Happenings & Events
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art will present “Desert Perspectives,” a yearlong, collection-centered exhibition opening Saturday, Sept. 12.
The exhibition draws from artwork in the museum’s permanent collection, along with loans and new commissions, and brings together artists connected to the Southwest, according to a press release.
The exhibition features a multigenerational group of artists whose work explores the desert as both a physical landscape and a site of cultural and ecological significance.
Each artwork presents an individual perspective, while collectively examining how the desert in the Southwest has been represented, inhabited and understood over time.
Curated by Keshia Turley, assistant curator at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, the exhibition grew from an effort to place historical landscape works in conversation with contemporary pieces.
“‘Desert Perspectives’ began with a desire I had to reconsider the deserts of the Southwest, beyond the familiar visual and symbolic tropes that so often define them,” Keshia Turley, assistant curator at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, said. “The desert occupies a powerful place in the cultural imagination and, like many landscapes, has been deeply mythologized. The reality, though, is a lot more nuanced.”
The exhibition includes works by artists such as Jen Urso, Hyewon Yoon, Mark Klett, Ed Mell, Lon Megargee, Ellen Wagener, George Elbert Burr, Gerard Curtis Delano, Billy Schenck, Matt Magee and Fritz Scholder.
“Desert Perspectives” will unfold through three sequential rotations, each introducing a new perspective through works from the collection. A core group of loaned and commissioned works will remain on view throughout the exhibition.
“The perspectives or rotations can stand as individual viewpoints or build upon one another if seen in sequence,” Ms. Turley said. “Together, they suggest that the landscape surrounding us can’t — and shouldn’t — be reductive but instead exists as a dynamic intersection of representation, ecology, memory and lived experience.”
The exhibition explores how cultural narratives and environmental factors shape understanding of the desert over time, while highlighting ongoing changes influenced by human activity and ecological conditions.
“I think it’s easy to take it for granted or see it as peripheral instead of recognizing it as a site of density, meaning, activity and interconnection,” Ms. Turley said. “My hope is that the desert becomes less of a distant backdrop and more of an active presence. Ultimately, it isn’t my intent to offer a singular redefinition of the desert — far from it. Rather, it’s my attempt to encourage a more nuanced, attentive and expansive way of seeing.”
“Desert Perspectives” is organized by Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and curated by Keshia Turley, assistant curator.
