Events and exhibitions
We invite you to be an active part of our vibrant creative community.
Explore our events and exhibitions
An education in art goes beyond building knowledge and technical skills, it’s about finding one’s voice, igniting curiosity, connecting with others, making meaning of the present and discovering a place in the world. It is important to celebrate successes together because the experiences and relationships one creates here will inform the rest of their life.
ASU Events
Exhibitions
2025 Galbut Prize Exhibition
March 18 to 27 | Harry Wood Gallery
Opening reception | March 18 | 5 to 7 p.m.
The Galbut Prize is an annual exhibition and award juried by a rotating arts professional. This prize is awarded to an outstanding work created by one of ASU’s School of Art students. All MFA Art students and senior BFA Art students nominated by their area are eligible for this award. Martin and Cynthia Galbut are artists and art collectors whose love of art spans history, from Asian Art to American Tonalism and Contemporary Western American Landscape painting. The Galbut Prize is patterned after the Henry Ward Ranger Prize, which was established at the National Academy of Design and aimed at recognizing and supporting young talent.
Tenderizer
Feb 28 to March 15 | Step Gallery
Opening reception | Feb 28 | 6 to 9 p.m.
Tenderizer reimagines domestic objects and tools through eccentric, subversive designs. Sculptures are activated through photo and video performance to show how tenderizing is multiform—from the quiet, unseen work of digestive enzymes to the force of a pounding gesture. The exhibition embraces the potential of both discrete persistence and direct confrontation as liberatory modes. As hybrid accessories, the sculptural forms entangle with the body, encouraging an imaginative rethinking of cleaning, repurposing and emphasizing our capacity to redefine notions of “value” altogether. They beckon acts of personal and communal pleasure, supporting those wearing them by underscoring the dignity of their life-giving labor. With the sculptures functioning as both tools for reimagining and honoring domestic tasks and instruments of defense, the work explores resilience, transformation, and the shifting boundaries between care and protection.
Tones of Saturation
March 21 to 29 | Step Gallery
Opening reception | March 21 | 6 to 9 p.m.
Performances | March 21, 7 p.m. and March 22, 1 and 3 p.m.
“Tones of Saturation” invites us to witness beauty in its fullest spectrum—where grey deepens and lightens simultaneously, dissolving rigid dichotomies. Through movement and sound, seven performers and an experimental composer engage in a visceral inquiry into saturation and distraction, questioning how we navigate a world that often demands absolutes.
At its core, this work explores polarity—not as opposition, but as a dynamic tension that fuels expansion. It asks: Can we inhabit the in-between spaces of life and death, fullness and emptiness, without grasping for certainty? Through the resonance of sound and the tonal intelligence of the body, we seek to unlock new ways of being—liberating ourselves from the structures that confine perception.
Is neutrality in this liminal space possible? And if so, is it a form of peace? Tones of Saturation does not seek to answer but to open—offering an experience where ambiguity itself becomes a place of presence, depth, and freedom.
Image: Tones of Saturation - The ions we carry with us through space.
Tricky Ricky
April 3 to 12 | Northlight Gallery
Opening reception | April 4 | 6 to 9 p.m.
Tricky Ricky is an interactive thesis exhibition by Richard Pence. The exhibition invites the audience to experience the craft of chemical photography firsthand, encouraging participants to view photographs not only as windows into what is shown but as crafted objects whose production speaks to its value. As an educator, Pence seeks to inform and include his audience in explorations of the matter behind the photographic magic. With custom handmade cameras, novel analog printing techniques and edu-tainment, Tricky Ricky turns the gallery space into a living darkroom.
Image: Darkroom Table - 2024 - Wood, Acrylic, Steel, Darkroom Trays, Chemistry and Photographic Paper.
