Dirk Arnold's Wishbone

On Friday, March 2, at the Temple Gallery  Dirk Arnold’s new exhibition, Dirk Arnold: Endangered Architecture features Arnold’s framed shadowbox miniatures of Tucson’s historic building facades, many of which have disappeared as generic urban sprawl has encroached upon the city. The exhibition opens with an artist reception on Friday, March 2, 2012, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, and runs through April 3.

Although trained as an architect, Arnold’s true love was constructing architectural models. Endangered Architecture was born of a happy communion between his training and the desire to preserve Tucson’s unique cultural heritage before it is lost to the chain stores and strip malls that are remaking the American city into a model of ubiquity and sameness.

Loft Cinema by Dirk Arnold

Arnold’s shadowboxes, such as the façade of the Tucson Warehouse & Transfer Co., transcend mere nostalgia. Architectural models, now themselves replaced by software, are the perfect, optimistic representation of the building-to-be, of the future.

Arnold’s shadow boxes capture that optimism, at the same time that they frame the architecture in a specific time. For Arnold, Tucson’s future is in highlighting and protecting the best of its past.  Arnold is also a local contributor to public art, recognized for his Tucson gateway neon saguaro. Dirk J. Arnold obtained a B.S. in Architecture from Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan. His professional background includes graphic design, technicalcommunication, and multimedia development.

DETAILS of Exhibition:

Exhibition:   Dirk Arnold: Endangered Architecture

Location: T E M P L E  G A L L E R Y / 330 S. Scott Avenue/ Tucson, AZ 85701

Phone: (520) 625-7370

Dates:    March 2, 2012 – April 3, 2012

Reception:   Friday, March 2, 2012, 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm

Regular Hours: Monday–Friday, 10am–5pm & before Arizona Theatre Company performances on Sat. & Sun.

Still Life Lady by Cynthia Miller

The Temple Gallery opens a new exhibition, Cynthia Miller: Paintings, featuring recent work by Tucson painter Cynthia Miller. The exhibition opens with an artist reception Friday, March 4 from 5:30-7:30pm and runs through April 5. The show features new work from the series Domestica.

New York by Cynthia Miller

Inspired by recent travels and a love of what she playfully describes as “the unstill still-life,” Miller’s work speaks to the immediacy of daily life. In the joyous world of Domestica, a series of mixedmedia paintings of furniture and household goods, (both real and imagined), everything is fodder for her paintings, from 14^th century fabric swatches and oddball studio props, to the bloom of cherry blossoms in New York’s Central Park. Painted in her loose signature style, Miller creates impressions of daily life using pattern and bold washes of color. In Still Life Yellow (2009), brightly patterned teapots and pitchers float in an ambiguous space. Fleurs 1 (2008) channels Matisse, as washes of terracotta and green collide with a vibrant blue and white striped vase and casually arranged flowers. Miller, a modern day Fauve, waxes lyrical about “the possibilities, the poetry of it all!”

Still Life Yellow by Cynthia Miller

Fleurs-1 by Cynthia Miller

Cynthia Miller’s work reminds us that spring is on its way and that renewal is possible for us all. Put a bounce in your step and head over to the Temple Gallery on Friday, March 4 for the opening reception. The Temple Gallery is located in SoCo (the recently designated cultural district South of Congress) at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. in downtown Tucson. For more information about the exhibition, please contact Etherton Gallery, which manages Temple Gallery, at (520) 624-7370 or info@ethertongallery.com. To confirm Temple Gallery weekend hours, call the Temple of Music and Art box office at (520)622-2823.

Dates:                                      March 4 – April 5, 2011

Reception:                           Friday, March 4, 2011, 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm

Regular Hours:  Monday–Friday, 10am–5pm & before Arizona Theatre Company performances on Saturday & Sunday

Drama Queen by Nikki Westra

The works of , Nikki Westra: Collage, will be exhibited at an artist’s reception October 22 at the Temple Gallery.  Her work features intricate collages using images appropriated from anatomical texts, published between the late 19^th and mid 20^th century.

The artist was inspired by meeting the renowned photographer Frederick Sommer.  Westra cuts up beautifully colored anatomical drawings and then rearranges the delicately veined organs and tissue in new relationships to make her collages. She literally transforms the machinery of  the human body reorganizing tissue and bone to make something new.

Valor by Nikki Westra

For example in Valor, Westra strategically juxtaposes unrelated parts of the body, bringing to life a fantastic new being that resembles a back-to-the-future Roman warrior. By moving pelvis, spinal cord and bony fingers to the surface, she constructs an exoskeleton helmet that protects the figure’s head and the green tracery beneath the skin. The accolades symbolized by the medal of valor, seem like meaningless praise to Westra’s inconsolable figure.

Game Face by Nikki Westra

This theme is also evident in Game Face, in which Westra reverses the position of tissue and bone to form a helmet, and here presents half a rib cage as a shield or perhaps a cape and transforms pieces of bone into an axe. Like Prometheus, who defied the laws of nature and created man, Westra’s transformation of the human body into new, unimagined beings, defies the laws of human anatomy. The effect is eerily beautiful and fascinating, drawing us in to look closely at the work and ultimately, at ourselves.

Nikki Westra returned to the practice of art after a distinguished legal career. Always an avid amateur photographer, early on she became interested in composition and balance. While living in Prescott, Arizona, during the 1990s, she made the acquaintance of photographer, Frederick Sommer whose philosophy of art and life had a profound influence on her work. Westra likes to think that Sommer, who also experimented with collage, would approve of the structure and source material of her collages.

Nikki Westra: Collages will be available for viewing and purchase until November 23, 2010. The Temple Gallery will host an artist reception on Friday, October 22, 5:30-7:30 pm.

LOCATION: The Temple Gallery is located in SoCo (South of Congress) at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave in downtown Tucson.

HOURS: Open Monday – Friday, 10am to 5pm and prior to Arizona Theatre Company performances on Saturday and Sunday.

For information about the exhibition, contact Etherton Gallery, which manages the Temple Gallery at (520) 624-7370 or info@ethertongallery.com. To confirm gallery hours, please call the Temple of Music and Art at (520) 807-8029.