We The People

The Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum presents a new exhibition focusing on the American experience.

- Rochelle Belsito

Figurative artists often find narratives for their canvases from experiences in their personal lives and in their surrounding culture. The result is diverse compositions that speak to artists’ own perspectives, but the works usually capture the attention of viewers because there can be a sense of familiarity. In the exhibition We the People at Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum in Arizona, more than a dozen artists will display artwork highlighting the American experience. These range from pieces with social commentary and self-reflection to works that record moments of everyday life.

On view through August 5, the show combines the ideas of its three curators—Tiffany Fairall, the museum’s curator of exhibitions; its chief curator Patty Haberman; and Frank Gonzales, an artist and the museum’s exhibit designer/preparator—to create a varied display of subjects, mediums and techniques. Fairall says, “Frank’s always had an interest in figurative art, and I had a more political bend and Patty is about showing exceptional artists.”

In further highlighting the show’s reach, the museum explains, “It is often said that America is a melting pot, but as we embrace our diversity and eclectic construct, perhaps a more fitting metaphor is the increasingly popular term ‘tossed salad.’ As a collective group of people with converging stories and different experiences, this exhibition captures a limited snapshot of the complex cultural fabric that binds not only our country but our humanity.”