Teaching Artists
Jan 30, 2026 – Apr 19, 2026
Teaching Artists showcases the creative dialogue between teaching artists from XICO, Inc., and the young artists they mentored from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale. This exhibition highli...
Life on Mars: Erika Lynne Hanson and Steven J. Yazzie
Jun 14, 2025 - Sep 14, 2025
“Is there life on Mars?” David Bowie asked in his 1971 song that debuted fourteen years after the start of the Space Race and four years before NASA landed on the Martian surface. Since then, science has acknowledged that terraforming an uninhabitable planet like Mars is unachievable and that alternate solar systems holding Earth 2.0 are beyond human reach. Artists Erika Lynne Hanson and Steven J. Yazzie present works that link physical and metaphysical realities of nature, humanity, geology, and cosmology to position Earth as the endgame. Using practices that intermingle traditional craft and Indigenous knowledge with technology and abstraction, the artists illuminate the relative quickness of human gesture to planetary longevity. The exhibition features all new works in various mediums, including textile, sculpture, ceramic, painting, video, and photography.
Organized by Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and curated by Lauren R. O’Connell, curator of contemporary art.
About the Artists
Erika Lynne Hanson
Erika Lynne Hanson (American, b. 1984) is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and educator based in Phoenix, Arizona. Her projects are rooted in textile practices, ranging from weavings and video installations to participatory public workshops that actively engage with various sites and their inhabitants. Hanson is an associate professor of textiles/socially engaged practices at Arizona State University. She received a master of fine arts from California College of the Arts and a bachelor of fine arts in fiber from the Kansas City Art Institute. Hanson has conducted research across the United States and Scandinavia, with particular attention to rural locations that support the dialogue of posthuman ecologies within her practice.
Steven J. Yazzie
Steven J. Yazzie (Diné/Laguna Pueblo/American, b.1970) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Denver, Colorado. His practice produces painting, installation, video/film, photography, and community collaborations. Yazzie is a Navajo Nation member and a Gulf War veteran, serving honorably with the United States Marine Corps from 1988–92. He received a bachelor of fine arts in intermedia at Arizona State University and was named 2014 Outstanding Graduate for the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. Yazzie was a founding member of Postcommodity, an Indigenous arts collective, and the co-founder of the Museum of Walking.
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