There’s one name in the Phoenix art scene that everyone knows — and it’s not the most famous artist in town. It’s Lisa Sette, owner of the Lisa Sette Gallery.
You know you’ve arrived as an artist when your work lands in there — it’s a rarefied group including luminaries and statement-makers like Mayme Kratz, Angela Ellsworth and Mark Klett.
Her first gallery was in Tempe, and for many years she’s been in an Al Beadle-designed building in central Phoenix. But, she first really made her mark on the art world here as a pioneer of the Scottsdale gallery scene. Though it’s known for its cowboy oil paintings and desert landscapes, that’s not the kind of work that gets Sette excited.
She champions artists who have something to say — whether it be political, or whether it be William Wegman, famous for his artistic portraits of his own Weimaraner dogs.
This year, she’s celebrating her gallery’s 40th anniversary — an incredible legacy in an ever-changing Valley and an ever-underestimated art scene.
Sette joined The Show to talk about her legacy and her approach to art. She came to the state as an Arizona State University student in 1978 because she was interested in learning from a particular professor — a British photo historian named Bill Jay. At the time, Sette said, she thought she was going to be an artist herself.
Full conversation
LISA SETTE: And then as soon as I graduated, I realized that I was more interested in what other people had to say than what I had to say because of a fairly traditional normal upbringing and I, I just didn’t think I was that interesting so I was living in a house with six roommates, so seven of us total.
It was an old house that belonged to the first Tempe printer, I think. And we had no furniture, so there was, you know, nothing in the living room. And I thought, well, this is such a nice empty space with all this wall space, I should have an exhibition of my fellow artists. And so that must have been probably 1978 or 1979. Maybe that was my first gallery or idea of a gallery, but I knew, I knew as soon as I graduated that I didn’t really want to be an artist, but I needed to be close to art and in, in the arts.
LAUREN GILGER: OK, so you have your first quote unquote gallery show in your house, right? What did that feel like? Do you remember sort of getting a thrill out of being the curator, being the person to put this together?
SETTE: That’s a great question, great way to look at it. Of course I didn’t realize what I was doing at the time, but I must have loved it because I, I think I remember I liked organizing it. I liked the outcome. I mean there weren’t any sales or anything, but I liked how things looked and I liked that I was, you know, trying to elevate other people’s work.
GILGER: So you begin there and then you take it into, you know, the most successful gallery career in, in Phoenix, right? Like, how did you kind of make the leap from, you know, a house show into opening your own gallery?
SETTE: Well, I started as soon as I graduated, working with my ex-husband Joe Segura, and we opened a print publishing company and then that sort of easily sort of morphed into a gallery space for me in a little part of the front part of the shop. And I realized that prints, you know, fine art prints really weren’t, that wasn’t my thing and, and I wanted to show, you know, originals. So that was probably back in 1981. I’ve been an employer since 1981. I was in my like early 20s as an employer, which is really silly.
GILGER: But there must have been, I wonder, I wonder about this because so much of what you do right is relationships with artists and then relationships with buyers. So it’s a lot about people. How did you start to shape your language and your thinking about not just talking to people who might want to buy a piece of art, but talking to artists about how they sell it?
SETTE: I like people and I like connecting people and I like that artists think in a way that most people don’t. And that there are many people who are responsive to that type of thought and so I think my joy was in putting them together.
Courtesy of Lisa Sette Gallery
GILGER: Let me just ask you a couple of questions about sense of place, right? Like what you do is located here, right, physically, but I also know that you’ve worked with artists over the years that are from here.
You brought up artists from here and you’ve worked with a lot of artists that kind of deal with that idea like whether it’s an immigration kind of sensibility or if it’s somebody who wants to talk about the environment, sustainability, these sorts of issues that really ring true in Arizona. How do you view the artists you choose, the people you work with, and the place that you’re in?
SETTE: I’m gonna go back to the show we had before this one, which took place in October and it was timed for the election and it was called “Grand Canyon From Dreams to Memory.” And we decided to focus on immigration because I thought that was an important issue as it related to the impending election, and we chose seven artists from six different countries and I wanted their perspective on something that I personally sort of took for granted the Grand Canyon.
I mean, I had the privilege of being born in the United States. I went to the canyon once. I looked over it was magnificent and I came home and didn’t really think that much about it again. And so that brought artists from many different countries, but some of whom are, are here in Arizona, too.
The West has always attracted artists for many different reasons, the light, the landscape, and so we do work with a pretty great group of, you know, artists that happen to be based in Arizona.
Courtesy of Lisa Sette Gallery
GILGER: I mean, I wonder that because so much of what you think of when you think of the art scene and especially in Old Town Scottsdale there is Western art, right, which is not what you do. I wonder about the, the, the kind of going with trends or understanding where the headwinds are taking you and then sort of saying, no, I’m gonna show this instead because this is the artist I think is good.
SETTE: Well, we don’t follow trends we never have because I’m just not that hip and I’m kind of in my own little world and so I’m, I’m focusing on what interests me at the time and maybe that has to do with what’s happening in the world politically, you know, socially.
But I’ll also say that my idea of a Western artist is probably different than other people’s idea of a Western artist. Like my idea of a Western artist could be James Turrell, who’s working with, you know, the the extinct volcano, the crater up in northern Arizona, or for instance Mark Klett, who’s in our, both of whom are in our anniversary show.
And, you know, Mark’s looking at it from a geological perspective and and time, you know, time in the West maybe moves a little slower. You know, so I, I feel like we do show some Western artists, but they’re not, it’s, it’s not a traditional Western art that most people, you know, might, might think of.
Courtesy of Lisa Sette Gallery
GILGER: I want to ask you about the, the, I guess for lack of a better phrase, the art scene in Arizona in Phoenix and the valley, because you’ve been a part of it for so long and an important part of it for so long.
How do you view us in the national or international art world? Do people still think you’re crazy to try to sell fine art in Arizona?
SETTE: Yes.
GILGER: Simple as that.
SETTE: I, I mean, there’s a big art scene here. But again, it’s, I, I don’t want to say stigmatized, but it’s, it’s sort of put into a niche of maybe it’s the advertising that’s, that’s done around a lot of the art. And especially in Scottsdale. And it’s, it’s more traditional and it seems like they’re not really up to date with what’s really happening here in the art scene and we don’t have a lot of art criticism here that then reaches to a broader audience, you know, outside of the state so that makes it difficult to break the stereotype.
GILGER: Let me ask you about the idea of abstract versus, you know, something that’s more realistic or has a purpose in a very, in a more obvious way I guess. I wonder this about art because so much of art is subjective, right? And your job is to be sort of objective about this subjective thing and say this is what is good. You’re the arbiter of that, right? How do you know? How do you like, do you ever think you’ve had misses?
SETTE: Sure, probably had lots of misses. I mean, I guess the way that I would describe it is that I’m looking for an artist who’s the reason for creating it is sincere and, and, and they’re compelled to make it. They have to make it. They have to get a message out and the message is often personal, but then that personal message opens up to being something universal.
And I’m also looking like to see is the medium that you’re working in, does it make sense for what your message is, you know, for what you’re trying to get across? I’m looking for something that I, I’ve never seen anything like this before. I need a, a, a new medium or a new message that where they coalesce and they teach me something in a way that, you know, that I just respond to at a gut level. So the gut level probably comes first and then and then all the intellectual stuff happens after that.
But I’m, you know, I’m interested in people’s stories, like what’s, what compelled you to make this work? What was so important about your background or your experience that you had to create something for yourself, but then also to be brave enough to take out into the world?
GILGER: Is that how you view your role as, as the person, kind of the behind the scenes person who’s, who’s finding and choosing and, and displaying this work?
SETTE: I, yeah, I think maybe I was born in the 1860s or something like, you know, as an explorer and, you know, and to tread lightly on, you know, new land, but, but to discover things.
KJZZ’s The Show transcripts are created on deadline. This text is edited for length and clarity, and may not be in its final form. The authoritative record of KJZZ’s programming is the audio record.
