Laura Spalding Best, Alexandra Bowers, Rossitza Todorova
June 17 – July 9, 2016
Opening reception: Third Friday, June 17, 6-9pm
Closing reception: First Friday, July 1, 6-10pm
Each year, Modified Arts is proud to celebrate Independents’ Week with our officemates at Local First Arizona. The annual statewide promotion of locally-owned businesses gives Modified the opportunity to showcase uniquely place-based artworks from some of our favorite artists. This year, we are present the work of Rossitza Todorova, Laura Spalding Best, and Alexandra Bowers.
Rossitza Todorova presents works from her recent “Intersections” series, presenting her own interpretation of Arizona’s urban form. These deconstructed mapscapes may appear abstracted, but a close look reveals freeways, streetscapes—the poured-concrete forms which so dominate this “desert” city. Todorova’s works are currently on display at the Phoenix Art Museum as part of the 2015 Contemporary Forum Winners’ exhibition. Laura Spalding Best, then, hybridizes the harshness of the desert with our built environment in her “islands” of urban. Contrasting their manmade nature, Best’s portraits present powerlines and streetlights as oases, miragelike in the distance, arranged in an array to emphasize their endless presence across the Valley. Alexandra Bowers shares the purest natural: desert flora and fauna, shown again in array, surrounding us with their harsh beauty no matter how we choose to shut ourselves off with the built environment. The artist’s woodburning has long captured the city’s attention, and this latest series gives us the purest essence of these desert plants, turning their often-harsh look into something which draws the viewer close, urging them to interact.
Together, the three artists span the spectrum of what it means to be a resident of Arizona. The harsh manmade roads, the lights and power sources peaking out of the dirt allowing our presence in the desert, and the plants which form our base, which would remain whether we were present or not.
Gallery Hours:
Local First Arizona staff:
Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Gallery staff:
First Friday, 6-10 p.m.
Third Friday, 6-9 p.m.
Saturday, 12-4 p.m.
Or by appointment, scheduled by E-mail.
Modified Arts
407 E. Roosevelt St.
Phoenix, AZ 85004
www.modifiedarts.org
