Charles Gaines, “Numbers and Trees (Arizona Series)”

by Lynn Trimble

Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona

Continuing through July 20, 2025

Charles Gaines, “Numbers and Trees: Arizona Series 1, Tree #3, Agua Caliente,” 2023, acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 1/8 x 132 1/2 x 6”. All images courtesy © Charles Gaines and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Keith Lubow.

A trio of stainless-steel trees stand within a circular 12-by-16-foot enclosure, where periodic bursts of smoke or fog and light in different colors infuse the interior with vibrant mystery. This ambiguity exudes from Charles Gaines expansive body of work spanning more than five decades. Gaines’ “Greenhouse” (2003-2023) anchors the exhibition, causing the gallery to reverberate with energy created by the artist’s distinct amalgamation of text, color, form, movement, and space. Eight large-scale triptychs from “Numbers and Trees: Arizona Series 1” (2023) are mounted on the surrounding walls, where they draw us into two worlds, that of the cottonwood trees prevalent in the Arizona landscape, and the rule-based grids that are central to Gaines’ conceptual art.

Approaching the transparent “Greenhouse” from any angle one sees not only the leafless sculptural forms placed inside, but also what lies beyond it. Thus it includes Gaines’ cottonwoods as well as other people making their way through the space, which emphasizes the communal nature of human experience and interdependence within the natural world. Nearby, two monitors convey historical and real-time information on environmental conditions, transforming the installation into a data-driven meditation on climate change while also speaking to the ways technology shapes systems of power.

Charles Gaines, “Greenhouse,” 2003-2023, wood, metal, UV printed polycarbonate, stainless steel, electronics, polyester, software, monitors, lights, installation dimensions variable. © Charles Gaines. Photo: Zachary Balber.

Beyond the lure of episodic explosions of color and light tied to this data, there is a textual element in the piece that appears more prominent with physical proximity and alludes to the intersections of climate concerns and social justice. Brief selections from W.E.B. DuBois’ “Black Reconstruction in America: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880” appear in black text on several panels of the enclosure. The essay was published in 1935, a few years before Gaines’ birth in Charleston, South Carolina. Growing up in the Jim Crow South, the artist had queries from early childhood, queries that would evolve into deep examinations of representation in society and art.

With “Numbers and Trees: Arizona Trees #1” Gaines continues his work with various species in the context of particular locations, such as pecan trees in the southern U.S. and baobabs in Tanzania. In each region, the trees play a significant role within the ecosystem and additionally have deep connections to history and culture. For the Arizona series, Gaines worked with photographs he’d taken of individual cottonwood trees growing near the San Pedro River close to Sierra Vista, a city just north of the U.S.-Mexico border. As elsewhere, the artist plotted the trees with specific colors and a numbered grid before creating his sequential overlays.

Charles Gaines, “Numbers and Trees: Arizona Series 1, Tree #3, Agua Caliente” (detail), 2023, acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts, 95 1/8 x 132 1/2 x 6”. Photo: Keith Lubow.

Each work in the “Arizona Series 1” series is titled after a river, creek, wash, or arroyo in Arizona or Utah. Typically found near water, cottonwood trees are known for being adaptive and resilient within a complex habitat that also sustains desert wildlife, including birds that migrate through the region. The trees are also featured in a variety of Indigenous cosmologies. By bringing these cottonwoods found in the borderlands into the museum space, Gaines elevates conversations around federal policies and actions that harm immigrants, Indigenous peoples, and the land.

The recently concluded “Charles Gaines: 1992-2003” overlapped at the museum for several months with the current exhibition. Together the two shows provided a more expansive window into the scope and significance of the artist’s oeuvre. Even so, this intimate glimpse into Gaines’ conceptual and aesthetic rigor and his resulting social and political incisiveness is a compelling entrée into the intersections of social justice and conceptual art.

Lynn Trimble is a Phoenix-based art writer whose work ranges from arts reporting to arts criticism. During a freelance writing career spanning more than two decades, over 1,000 of her articles exploring arts and culture have been published in magazine, newspaper and online formats. Follow her work on Twitter @ArtMuser or Instagram @artmusingsaz.