The Collectionists: Heidi Dauphin & Laura Spalding Best

In 2024, Heidi Dauphin and Laura Spalding Best were paired up to create an installation for Artlink’s Annual Gala at the Phoenix Art Museum. The two initially were uncertain how their practices would mesh as Dauphin is a mixed media/ceramic artist while Best is best known for her found object paintings and murals. However, after their first meeting, they formed an instant connection and friendship. Their conversations lasted for hours, discussing their individual practices. Among the many commonalities between both of their work was their desires to collect objects whether it be personal everyday items or found objects. Each of their collections were immense. Dauphin has an entire room dedicated to items she has saved over the years to use in her artwork while Best’s house has what she deems as, “paintings in waiting” tucked away throughout her house. Both realized that they wanted to peel back the curtain of their artistic practice and share their collection of objects but how?

That is when the idea of Curiosity Chapel was born. The team searched for months finding the right furniture to house their collection, creating a free-standing room from thrifted cabinets and dressers. Hidden inside the drawers were collections of objects from both Dauphin and Best’s studios. With each new drawer to open, a new discovery. Visitors spent hours going through each of the cabinets finding interesting collections of items along the way from bread tags to silver spoons. The question that frequently fell from visitor’s lips, “What’s next?” The duo felt this natural inertia to continue this installation and began discussing possibilities. Their resolution: implode Curiosity Chapel.

For The Collectionists, the artists decided that their one guiding rule for the exhibition would be that they could only create artwork from the collections that were in Curiosity Chapel. While on the surface, the exhibition appears to be about two artists that have an affinity to collect found objects, their practices are more interwoven than that. This exhibition explores the intersections of Dauphin and Best’s practices including their affinity for numbers and both of their habits of creating rules around their artwork. However, what seems to be most apparent in both of their work is how both of their artworks seem to collect something much more existential, the passage of time.

Opening Reception

Friday, September 11, 6-8pm