This week we spent a few hours exploring the Phoenix Art Museum, one of the largest art museums in the Southwest. The collection spans centuries and continents and they had a good mix of exhibitions during our visit.

Mary Corse – Untitled, 1966

Mary Corse had to take quantum physics courses(!) just to get certified to install the Tesla coils that power this piece. They’re hidden in the wall behind it and there are no visible wires, no plugs, just a glowing white rectangle. I almost walked right past it. It looked so unassuming, it had to be pointed out to me.

Yayoi Kusama Infinity Room

I’ve been to two other of her rooms at The Broad in Los Angeles and Crystal Bridges in Bentonville, but this was probably my favorite. The colors slowly shift and it feels like you’re floating in space. With the other ones you can always see yourself in the mirrors, with this one almost not at all, which made it feel like the trippiest of them all.

Art of Asia: Chinese Qing Dynasty Cloisonné

The Art of Asia galleries house a collection of Chinese cloisonné enamelwork from the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). These two pieces stood out to me with their popping colors

Radical Clay: Japanese Women Ceramicists

This was one of my favorite parts. It’s a special exhibition featuring contemporary Japanese women artists working with clay, and it was astounding. These pieces don’t look like anything you’d expect from ceramics.

What struck me most was the sheer amount of labor in each work. One sculpture is built from hundreds of paper-thin clay
layers. Another is covered entirely in hand-applied curls of clay, inside and out. When you get close and see the detail, you
start to realize just how much time and dedication has gone into each piece.

The gallery also featured a live ikebana display, the Japanese art of flower arrangement