What it’s actually like
Some galleries on Main Street represent dozens of artists. Tennille Gallery & Artist Studio represents one: the artist who owns it. Tennille, who works under her first name, is a mixed-media sculptor, and this storefront is both her showroom and the place she works. That makes it small, personal and a little unpredictable: what is on the shelves depends on what has come out of the studio lately.
The work is what she calls symbiosis sculpture. Each piece is about the shared thread that links people, animals and the natural world. Every sculpture begins as a hand sketch and is then built in clay and finished with mixed media, and she describes the studio as a place of constant experimentation where traditional craft meets a contemporary vision. The result sits somewhere between fine-art sculpture and storytelling, and it is quite unlike the Western bronzes that made Main Street’s name.
The gallery is a member of the Scottsdale Gallery Association, the group that runs the Thursday ArtWalk, and it sits on the north side of Main Street next to Niki Woehler’s studio and gallery, another artist-run room. With Altamira Fine Art, Bonner David Galleries and Pavilion Fine Arts a few doors west, this stretch of the Main Street Arts District packs a lot of variety into one block.
What to buy
A symbiosis sculpture. The signature: a hand-built piece about the connections between people, animals and nature.
A commission. Tennille takes custom commissions and collaborations; bring an idea and start the conversation in the studio, or use the inquiry form on the website.
Whatever is newest. In a one-artist studio, the latest pieces show where the work is heading, and they are often on view before they reach the website.
Parking, timing and the practical stuff
The studio is on the north side of Main Street between Goldwater Boulevard and Marshall Way. Street spaces on Main are short-term and scarce in season; the free Civic Center garage off Drinkwater Boulevard is the reliable choice, about ten minutes’ walk east, and the public garage on the Fifth Avenue side near the canal is the alternative. The Old Town on foot note and the Old Town guide cover the surroundings.
Hours are Tuesday through Saturday during the day, plus Thursday evenings for the ArtWalk; it is closed Sundays and Mondays. The themed Gold Palette ArtWalk nights between November and April are the liveliest time on the street. Because this is a working studio, a weekday visit is the best chance for an unhurried conversation, and the gallery’s Instagram, @tennille_galleryaz, shows what is new.
Eat while you’re there
Sel is a few doors west on the same side of Main and is the obvious dinner. Malee’s Thai Bistro is a block east for lunch, Virtù Honest Craft on Marshall Way is the intimate dinner nearby, and Craft 64 at the west end of Main is the casual pizza-and-beer option.
How it got here
Main Street has been Scottsdale’s gallery row since Troy’s Cowboy Art Gallery opened in 1968, and for its first decades the street sold mostly traditional Western art through dealers who represented artists from across the country. The Thursday ArtWalk began in 1975, and the 1970s and 1980s filled the street with galleries.
The mix has broadened ever since. Contemporary painting arrived in force in the 2000s, contemporary Western in the 2010s, and in the 2020s the block between Goldwater Boulevard and Marshall Way has gained a cluster of rooms run by the artists themselves: Niki Woehler’s studio and gallery next door opened in 2020, Jim Klein paints in public at his Art Factory a few doors west, and the member-run On The Edge Gallery moved across the street the same year as Woehler.
Tennille Gallery & Artist Studio belongs to that newer wave. It is a member of the Scottsdale Gallery Association, the organization behind the ArtWalk since 1975, and it brings a kind of work that is still rare on the street: hand-built sculpture about the bonds between people, animals and nature, made in the same room where it is sold.
For a visitor, that is the appeal. On a street where the big rooms can feel like museums, this one feels like a visit to an artist’s workshop. The Main Street Arts District guide covers the rest of the row.