PHOENIX, AZ.- This fall, Phoenix Art Museum will host the first-ever symposium examining the significance of Chicano artist collective El Movimiento Artístico del Río Salado (MARS) within a broader art historical context, particularly in the U.S. Southwest contemporary art ecosystem and the larger Chicano Arts movement. Made possible through the support of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Terra Foundation for American Art, the day-long event will illuminate the cultural history, artistic development, and community impact of MARS through dynamic conversations among former MARS artists, Chicano and visual art scholars and curators, and leaders from local arts organizations. MARS: Revisited will be hosted at Phoenix Art Museum on Saturday, September 20, 2025, with panels from 10 am – 5 pm. Tickets are free and available to the public here.
“It is a privilege for Phoenix Art Museum to host this historic symposium that recognizes and celebrates the impact of MARS on subsequent generations of artists from across the U.S. Southwest region,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “We are grateful to all of our community partners, sponsors, and the former MARS artists and leaders who helped make this event possible. We look forward to continuing to shed light on the group’s important legacy through an upcoming exhibition and accompanying original monograph scheduled to premiere in 2028, which will help to deepen awareness of MARS’ significant cultural impact.”
El Movimiento Artístico del Río Salado (MARS) was a Phoenix-based arts collective and gallery established in 1978 by and for local Chicano, Indigenous, and Arizona-based artists. Working in painting, printmaking, sculpture, performance, and photography, members expressed a distinctly Mexican American and Native American point of view, utilizing aesthetics and iconography now characteristic of the broader Chicano Arts movement. The group organized exhibitions, created school programs, and established visiting artist series that engaged students and attracted Latino and Indigenous artists from across the U.S. and Mexico. In 1988, MARS organized the exhibition Rasquachismo, which was curated by Tomás Ybarra-Fausto, Lennie Ellen, and Rudy Guglielmo and presented in the group’s Artspace in Phoenix. For the exhibition, Ybarra-Frausto wrote an accompanying essay that coined the term rasquachismo, reclaiming the term rasquache – a disparaging slang word meaning “low-class” or “bad taste”. The essay and exhibition positioned rasquache themes and ideas within a new academic and artistic context as being “an underdog perspective,” making the most from the least. While MARS artists continued to produce work beyond this exhibition, the group’s work remained largely excluded from Southwest gallery and museum exhibitions throughout the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s.
“MARS: Revisited is an exciting and long-overdue opportunity to uplift the legacy of an artist collective that made such tremendous contributions to both the Arizona arts community and national art
landscape,” said Christian Ramírez, Cohn Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art and Director of Engagement at Phoenix Art Museum. "With this symposium, an upcoming exhibition, and a forthcoming publication, we intend to make space for these artists to receive the recognition they deserve within Phoenix and the greater context of art history.”
“The Museum’s commitment to recognizing local Latino art and culture couldn’t be timelier,” said Dr. Mathew Sandoval, Professor at ASU’s Barrett the Honors College. “In a moment when so much is being erased, it is essential for our community to be seen and our accomplishments remembered.”
During the one-day symposium at PhxArt, participants will experience four distinct panels that examine (1) the group’s origins as a distinctly Chicano arts movement, (2) the MARS Artspace gallery as an alternative space, (3) MARS’ dedication as a non profit to educating the Greater Phoenix community about art and culture, and (4) the collective’s larger legacy and impact.
Panelists include:
• Amalia Mesa-Bains (Keynote speaker and artist)
• Angélica Becerra (Bradford and Christine Mishler Associate Curator of American Art, the Huntington Art Museum Library and Botanical Gardens)
• Marissa Del Toro (Independent Curator and Assistant Director of Programs and Exhibitions, NXTHVN)
• Martín Moreno (Artist)
• Robert C. Buitrón (Artist)
• Cory Imig (Co-Founder, Impractical Spaces)
• Melissa Rachleff (Professor of Visual Arts Administration, NYU Steinhardt)
• Carmen Guerrero (Executive Director, Cultural Coalition)
• Liz Lerma (Artist)
• Terezita “Tere” Romo (Independent Curator and Affiliate Faculty in the Chicana/o Studies Department at UC Davis)
• Sam Gomez (Founder, Sagrado Galeria)
• Annie Lopez (Artist)
• Christian Ramírez (Cohn Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art and Director of Engagement, Phoenix Art Museum)
• Stephanie Roman (Executive Director, CALA Alliance)
• Dr. Mathew Sandoval (Associate Professor and Dean’s Fellow for Access and Inclusive Excellence, ASU Barrett the Honors College)
In 2028, PhxArt will expand on scholarship from the symposium by presenting the first-ever retrospective on MARS, with works by MARS artists and other contemporary creators who have been impacted by the collective’s legacy. The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication featuring essays written by the symposium’s scholars and artists, images from the event in conversation with archival photos and printed materials from the MARS archive, a brief chronology of the MARS organization, oral histories with key MARS members, and a small selection of images featuring MARS artworks.
