mutual adaptation

I’ve been exploring the urban landscape of the valley through my paintings for several years now. This exhibition, my third solo show at five15 arts, takes a departure from my previous work. In these new paintings I’ve sought to describe the very specific aesthetic of the Phoenix landscape and more completely present the natural desert and the man-made city. These two forces alternately support and oppose each other. Sometimes telephone lines and lamp posts struggle against cacti and mountains to reach an aesthetic reconciliation, but these elements always come together to create uniquely beautiful, flawed vistas. In the give and take of these everyday images there is a delicate balance that exists just between assimilation and accommodation. Right in the middle is the aesthetic adaptation which I find most interesting.

Laura Spalding Best

Solo Exhibitions
2009 mutual adaptation, Five15 Arts Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona
2008  from the passenger seat, Five15 Arts Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona
2007  autogeography, Five15 Arts Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona
2005  New Work, Studeo Tad Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona
2003  Patterns, Undergraduate Honors Thesis Exhibition, Arizona State University

Group Exhibitions
2009  2 for 1, Art Detour 2009, Five15 Arts Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona
2008  Arizona Wheels & Ink, Mesa Contemporary Arts, Mesa, Arizona
2008  Round Up, Five15 Arts Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona
2008  Sows and Bores, Pravus Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona
2008  $98 Show, Five15 Arts Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona
2008  6 x 6, eye lounge gallery, Phoenix, Arizona
2007  Deck, Bragg's Pie Factory Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona
2007  What Smells So Bad?, Five15 Arts Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona
2007  $99 Show, Five15 Arts Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona
2004  Cabin Fever, City Wide Studios 711, Phoenix, Arizona
2003  New Work, City Wide Studio 711, Phoenix, Arizona

Bibliography

Nina Carapetyan, “The Extraordinary Ordinary”, Phoenix New Times, Vol. 40, No. 3,
January, 2009, 39.

Wynter Holden, “The Outsiders”, Phoenix New Times, Vol. 39, No. 40, October, 2008, 40.

Robrt L. Pela, “Love Phoenix or Leave Phoenix”, Phoenix New Times, Vol. 39, No. 39, September, 2008, 16.

Ed Baker, “Skin Deep”, College Times, Vol. 8, Issue 5, September, 2008, 22.

Lara Taubman, “Phoenix Rising?”, art ltd., January, 2008, 56.

Lilia Menconi, “Sky Girl”, Phoenix New Times, Vol. 38, No. 46, November, 2007, 54.

Molten Brothers, Deck Catalog, October, 2007, 10. 

Current Employment

Exhibitions Manager, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, Arizona 

Education

B.F.A.  2003  Painting   Barrett Honors College, Arizona State University (Summa Cum Laude)

Grants/Awards

 2003  Award for Excellence in Painting Katherine K. Herberger College of Fine Arts