– adventuring with ash –

The Phoenix Art Museum is the largest museum for Visual Art in the southwest United States. Opening in 1959, it quickly became a spot for locals to admire art from artists near and far. I went yesterday with my sister and it was the first time I had been back in over a year. We had a blast.

According to the Museum’s website, they have a collection of over 21,000+ pieces of art. Let me tell you about some of my favorite art pieces and installations. 🙂

When you first walk into the Phoenix Art Museum, you are immediately greeted by one of my favorite installations of the whole museum. The installation is called “Black Cloud”, brought to life by Carlos Amorales in 2007.

He was inspired by the annual migration of monarch butterflies from Canada to Mexico. All over the walls and ceilings are thousands of different-sized black monarch butterflies, 25,000 to be exact. They represent the “swarm” that one would see during migration. It is seriously such a surreal, cool thing to see. I’m in awe every time I go, it never gets old no matter how many times you see it.

Next up, we have the amazing work of Charles Gaines. The image on the left, is an installation he created called “Greenhouse”, which is a massive 12 x 16 ft enclosed glass sculpture that has 3 stainless steel, full-size trees inside. The enclosure fills with smoke and represents the impacts of global warming.

The photo on the right, also by Charles Gaines, is just 1 piece out of several art pieces he has titled ‘numbers and trees’. There were about 6 or 7 different art pieces, with different trees and different colors. Each pieces has 3 layers to it. A photograph, an acrylic colored sheet, and a layer of “paint by numbers”. Seriously so creative and so freaking cool to see. My sister and I were amazed. You can a little read about his work here.

The museum has so many cool art pieces. The one on the left below is a piece titled “Whaam” by Roy Lichenstein. I love comic book, pop art type of art. Always so cool to see. The art piece on the right is a piece titled “Mountain Village” by Philip C. Curtis, I fell in love with it.

They also have a whole fashion design collection, which features over 9,000 pieces of couture, accessories, and memorabilia. The museum’s collection spans throughout over 500 years of history, and is one of the most unique fashion design collections in the world.

The collection represents 5 centuries worth of fashion evolution in men, women, and children. Each piece of the collection was judged heavily on its characteristics, condition, and history. The collection houses pieces from Jean Paul Gaultier, Balenciaga, Givenchy, and Charles James.

Below are two photos from the fashion collection, one being a beautiful draped purple and pink dress I fell in love with, and the other a dress with “doodled on” designs that I found super cool. It tricks the eye into thinking the dress has pockets and stitching that isn’t there.

You also do NOT want to miss out on the ‘fireflies infinity mirror room’ or the miniatures room. Two of my favorite parts of the museum.

The fireflies infinity mirror room was created by Yayoi Kusama, and is actually titled “You Who are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies”. The installation is a room that is covered in mirrors, on the floor, ceiling, and walls. There are hundreds of LED light strings hanging from the ceiling, making it look like you are in a room with hundreds of fireflies, or in a galaxy filled with stars. It is SO freaking cool.

There also is a room called the Thorne Rooms. The Thorne Rooms are 20 different mini replicas of American and European rooms. Think big dining halls, fancy architecture, huge living rooms with huge gardens. The miniatures are so insanely detailed. Some of the rooms are replicas of real rooms that can be found in Europe. There were 30 minituraes that were created, and Narcissa Thorne herself donated 20 of them to the Phoenix Art Museum. They have been loved and cherished by many since.

So… are you wanting to go to this museum? I wouldn’t blame you if you were purchasing tickets as we speak! But no seriously, the Phoenix Art Museum is impressive and I’m glad to live in a city that takes the preservation of art and history seriously. The installations at the museum are ever-so changing, so i stop by every so often and see what’s new. Maybe ill see one of you there! 😉

Also, just a pointer, the Phoenix Art Museum is FREE to all visitors every Wednesday after 3pm! Definitely a kind offer worth taking advantage of. They do accept donations.

I hope you enjoyed my post 🙂 feel free to leave me any comments, and please enjoy a few more photos that I took during my time there the other day!