Exhibitions

ASU Art Museum exhibitions align closely with our collecting mission and with the ASU Charter to work across disciplines to advance research and discovery of public value, and respond to the economic, social and cultural state of the communities it serves.

Exhibitions focus on socially, politically and environmentally engaged work by regional and international artists; innovative contemporary art practices; Latin American and Latinx artists; and 20th century and contemporary ceramics and craft.

The museum’s great strength is commissioning new and experimental work by mid-career artists and organizing early museum exhibitions for emerging artists. The International Artist Residency provides intellectual and physical space and support for artists to expand and re-envision their practice through collaboration with students, faculty and Phoenix communities.

Our exhibition history includes presenting Bill Viola in the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, called the Olympics of the art world, and organizing the first traveling exhibition of contemporary art from Cuba in the U.S. More recently, we presented an overdue retrospective of Miguel Angel Rios, which received a nine-page review in Art in America, and the Energy Charge exhibition which revealed the continuing legacy and influence of Ana Mendieta on contemporary artists like Simone Leigh, Kate Gilmore and Gina Osterloh. We have given the first major museum exhibition to artists who have gone on to international careers, like Guadalajara-based Gabriel Rico who will soon be featured at the Aspen Art Museum and the Venice Biennale. Our exhibitions have been featured in the New York Times and Artforum, traveled nationally and internationally including the Liverpool Biennial and the Museum of Art and Design in New York.