Laura Spalding Best

Laura Spalding Best has been living and working as an artist in the Phoenix and Tempe area for more than twenty years, receiving her BFA in painting from Arizona State University in 2003. Since then, Best has been active in the local art scene and has received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, a Phoenix Art Museum Contemporary Forum Artist Grant and was selected to exhibit full wall installations in the 2018 and 2020 Arizona Biennial at Tucson Museum of Art. Best has also been commissioned to create several murals and public art installations in Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale and Avondale. Best’s paintings explore our shared landscape, the colors of the sky and a common visual language that connects people to place. In her studio work she focuses on oil paintings on found objects that depict the urban landscape of the Valley. Best is Senior Director of Exhibits at Desert Botanical Garden.