New Exhibits
July 1-Aug. 30
@Central Gallery,
Burton Barr Central Library
1221 N. Central Ave.
    This exhibit features “Alphabet Ruins” by Rachel Wilson and “Code Loves You” by Angela Cazel-Jahn. Admission is free. The artists were selected to exhibit together because of their complementary use of text and symbols. Wilson’s mixed media monotypes deal with the theme of passing time and civilizations, expressed through alphabet fragments and cultural symbols. Cazel Jahn uses found objects, bits of text and computer code to create mixed media collages which explore the role of modern technology. Visit the gallery from 7 to 10 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 7, for Artlink First Fridays and a free reception hosted by the Friends of the Phoenix Public Library.

Student & Instructor Exhibit
July 7-Aug. 4
Shemer Art Center and Museum
5005 E. Camelback Road
602-262-4727
    The Shemer Art Center and Museum, along with the Phoenix Center for the Performing Arts, will feature the works of talented students and instructors this summer. The exhibit can be viewed during summer operating hours: Monday through Thursday from 12:30 to 8:30 p.m., Friday from 12:30 to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. For more information visit www.phoenix. gov/PARKS/shemer.

‘Chuck Close’
A Documentary film
by Marion Cajori
7 p.m. Wednesday, July 8
Whiteman Hall, Phoenix Art Museum
1625 N. Central Ave.
http://www.phxart.org
    This feature-length documentary, directed by the late filmmaker Marion Cajori and completed in 2007, examines the working process of acclaimed American painter Chuck Close. The film solidifies Close’s place in contemporary art as a re-inventor of the portrait. The artist’s subjects—family, artists, friends—provide insight into his work and their own, rendering a collective portrait of a creative generation. The film features Close and his wife Leslie, Robert Rauschenberg, Phillip Glass, Arne Glimcher, Brice Marden, Kiki Smith and Kirk Varnedoe, among others. Free admission; ask for a movie pass at the front desk. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Third Friday Concert Series
7:30-9:30 p.m. Friday, July 17
Civic Space Park
424 N. Central Ave.
    Bring your own blanket and enjoy this free concert in the city’s newest downtown park. You can take the light rail train to Central and Van Buren for a short stroll and no parking hassle.
Scorpius Dance Auditions
5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday, July 22
Scorpius Rehearsal Studio,
Metro Arts
1700 N. 7th Ave.
    Scorpius Dance seeks male and female professional dancers with strong performing and acting skills for its 2009-10 season. If you are interested in auditioning, e-mail lisa@scorpius dance.com by July 15.

Downtown Chamber Series
2 p.m. Sunday, July 26
Phoenix Art Museum
1625 N. Central Ave.
602-254-1491
    The Downtown Chamber Series brings classical chamber music to distinctive art spaces in downtown Phoenix, showcasing professional musicians and the works of local artists. This concerts feature works for piano and strings including Ludwig von Beethoven’s String Trio Op. 9 No. 1, Claude Debussy’s Violin Sonata and Johannes Brahms’s piano quintet Op. 34. Features performers are: Susan Fishman, piano; Anna Kazepides and Leslie Frey, violins; Mark Dix, viola, and Richard Bock, cello. The group repeats their performance at 7 p.m. on July 29. Tickets are $10; limited seating.

‘Spraypaint Curating:
On Bringing Phantoms
into the Museum’
7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 5
Phoenix Art Museum
1625 N. Central Ave.
http://www.phxart.org
    Join Rita Gonzalez, assistant curator of Contemporary Art at LACMA, and co-curator of “Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement,” for a discussion about the legacy of Chicano Art for a younger generation of artists today who are marked both by ancestral ties to the radical movement and its dual culture blending Latino and American influences and their experience within the broader contemporary art world. This lecture free with museum admission purchase is complementary to the “Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement” exhibit, which hangs in the Steele Gallery July 12-Sept. 21.