Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) will show an eclectic mix of exhibitions in 2022, including, clockwise from top left, “Brad Kahlhamer: Swap Meet,” “Teresa Baker: Capturing Space,” “Beverly McIver: Full Circle,” and “Phillip K. Smith III: Mirrorworks.”

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona ­– Artists Beverly McIver and Brad Kahlhamer will be featured in new exhibitions this spring at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) with other exhibitions scheduled throughout 2022.

“Beverly McIver: Full Circle,” a survey show of more than 70 works that captures the arc and continued ascent of the contemporary artist, will open to the public on Feb. 12. And opening on Feb. 26, “Brad Kahlhamer: Swap Meet” finds the New York- and Arizona-based Native American artist drawing inspiration from the ethnographic experience of fieldwork at swap meets throughout the Southwest.

Opening in April, “Teresa Baker: Capturing Space” features seven large-scale hanging works by Los Angeles-based Mandan/Hidatsa artist Teresa Baker, whose work is influenced by mid-century, New York, abstract expressionist artists. And in October, SMoCA will present the seventh iteration of its Architecture + Art series with “Mirrorworks,” an exhibition of new large-scale works by Southern California artist Phillip K. Smith III that creates a richly hued environment.

“Emerging in a post-pandemic world, SMoCA looks to artists who connect strongly with community and who help us expand our thinking about the world we live in,” said Jennifer McCabe, SMoCA director and chief curator. “Through these large-scale solo exhibitions, we are proud to present some of the most important artists of our time that represent a regional, national and global focus.”

Beverly McIver, “Black Girl Beauty,” 2018. Oil on canvas. Collection of Matthew Polk and Amy Gould, Maryland.

Beverly McIver: Full Circle
Feb. 12 – Sept. 4, 2022 

“Beverly McIver: Full Circle” presents a survey of more than 70 works that demonstrate the diversity of the artist’s thematic approach to painting over 25 years. Kim Boganey, director of Scottsdale Public Art, is curating the exhibition, her first at SMoCA since “HairStories” debuted there in 2003.
“Beverly McIver held her first solo exhibition as an emerging artist with Scottsdale Arts,” Boganey said. “More than 20 years later, we are excited to bring her back to SMoCA, this time as someone who has reached a national audience. I’m honored to curate this survey exhibition, both as a woman of color, and someone who has seen firsthand the tremendous arc of her career and her influence on others.”

The exhibition will include self-portraits that explore expressions of individuality, intimate portraits of family members and portraits of other artists and notable figures. This show will include recent work, resulting from a year McIver spent in Rome with American Academy’s Rome Prize. 

A complementary exhibition, “In Good Company,” will include artists who have mentored McIver, such as Faith Ringgold and Richard Mayhew, as well as those who have studied under her, including melissa m button, Claudio Dicochea, Chris Santa Maria and Lamar Whidbee, to name a few. 

A catalog will accompany the exhibition, published by University of California Press, which includes a conversation between McIver and Boganey. Additional essays include one by leading Black feminist writer Michele Wallace — daughter of McIver’s graduate school mentor Faith Ringgold — and another by Richard Powell, a distinguished scholar of African American art history.

“Full Circle” is curated by Kim Boganey, director of Scottsdale Public Art. This exhibition is generously supported by Wells Fargo, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Craven Allen Gallery.

Brad Kahlhamer, “Nomadic Studio,” 2020. Courtesy of the artist. © Brad Kahlhamer.

Brad Kahlhamer: Swap Meet 
Feb. 26 – Oct. 9, 2022 

New York- and Arizona-based Native American artist Brad Kahlhamer first exhibited at SMoCA in 2004 with the hugely successful “Let’s Walk West.” For his second SMoCA exhibition — nearly 18 years later — Kahlhamer draws his inspiration from the ethnographic experience of fieldwork at swap meets throughout the Southwest, with which he has engaged since his childhood.

The social and cultural space of the swap meet models and fuels Kahlhamer’s artistic practice in varying mediums of painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, performance and music. At the cross-section of Native American cultures and his own culture as an artist, “Swap Meet” becomes Kahlhamer’s meditation on a nomadic and intersectional contemporary condition that involves a social network of individuals of different ages, residency status, class and race. The exhibition is accompanied by a series of performances, a catalog and a new major commission by SMoCA.

“Brad Kahlhamer: Swap Meet” is organized by Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and guest curated by Natasha Boas, PhD. Exhibition support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Garth Greenan Gallery and Arlene and Keith Bronstein.

Teresa Baker, “Capturing Space,” 2021. Willow, yarn, artificial sinew, and Astroturf; 70 x 95 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and de boer gallery.

Teresa Baker: Capturing Space

April 16 – October 9, 2022

Los Angeles-based Mandan/Hidatsa artist Teresa Baker will feature seven large-scale hanging works in “Capturing Space.” Baker’s work is influenced by mid-century, New York, abstract expressionist artists, such as Helen Frankenthaler with her bold color fields and expanded scale.

Combining Native American craft traditions using buffalo hide, willow and other natural materials with artificial materials like AstroTurf and synthetic yarns, Baker said the exhibition contains new works made in response to the landscape of northeastern Wyoming on the high plains — beneath the Bighorn Mountains — and inspired by the vastness of that area, the unique geological formations of giant rocks (and the flora fossils imprinted on them), petrified logs and the sky.

“Essentially, I was inspired by the freedom of that land at Ucross, Wyoming, and wanted that freedom to enter my choices in my work,” Baker said. “I wanted to embody and capture that space in my work.”

Baker is the newest recipient of the Ucross Foundation’s Fellowship for Native American Visual Art and holds a master of fine arts from California College of Art in San Francisco. 

“Capturing Space” is organized by Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art with curator-at-large Natasha Boas, PhD. 

Phillip K. Smith III, “10 Columns,” 2019. Aluminum, glass, LED lighting, electronic components, unique color program. Image courtesy of Bridge Projects and the artist. Photo credit: Lance Gerber

Phillip K. Smith III: Mirrorworks 
Oct. 29, 2022 – Aug. 6, 2023 

Southern California artist Phillip K. Smith III creates experiential art that highlights changes in perception related to light, color, time and space, using reflections, varying translucencies and shifting colors. The artist’s interior installations provide richly hued environments that, as with other artists of the Light and Space movement, transform spaces to expand the sensorial experience of viewers. 

“Mirrorworks” is the latest installment of SMoCA’s Architecture + Art series, which presents ground-breaking projects by individuals whose work explores and challenges the boundaries between architecture and art. This exhibition presents a new large-scale, site-specific work that incorporates Smith’s precisely paced program of changing colors.   

“Phillip K. Smith III: Mirrorworks” is organized by Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and curated by Jennifer McCabe, director and chief curator.

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SMoCA is located at 7374 E. Second St., Scottsdale, Arizona 85251. It is open Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., and on Thursdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Admission is $10 for non-members; $7 for students, seniors (65+) and veterans; and free for Scottsdale Arts ONE Members and patrons 18 and younger. Admission to the museum is free every Thursday and every second Saturday of the month. Timed-entry tickets are required. Save time by booking online at SMoCA.org. View our safety protocols at SMoCA.org/reopening-guidelines.

SMoCA would also like to thank the following 2021–22 sponsors: City of Scottsdale, Billie Jo Herberger, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation, Institut Français and The S. Rex and Joan Lewis Foundation.