JAVA.June.2018

ARTS
WILD THING AT SMOCA
By Amy Young
If art exhibitions were summer pool parties, Wild
Thing: Adventures with the Permanent Collection at
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA)
wouldn’t be one of those chic rooftop shindigs that
feels slightly exclusive, as you cocktail and chill near
a shapely pool. It would be that big, all-day water
party – the one where everyone is welcome, where
you dive into a blocky body of water to splash and
romp with abandon, soaking up the surroundings until
you venture home sun-dazed, content and exhausted.
This summer show was organized by two members
of the SMoCA staff, Laura Spalding Best, exhibitions
manager, and Carrie Tovar, registrar. “We came up
with the idea together,” says Best, “as we were
photographing the permanent collection and kept
coming across more and more animals.”
What they pulled from the trove and chose to
display is a vast combination of prints, paintings
and sculptural pieces that celebrate the relationship
between artists and animals, as well as the
continued and subjectively intriguing presence of
animals in contemporary art.
“We wanted this exhibition to feel like an
exploration,” Best tells us. “With 141 artworks, there
is a lot to look at and to search for. We discover a
new animal or detail each time we go through the
show, ourselves, and that’s what we wanted to give
our visitors too – a chance to observe and make their
own connections to the art.”
It’s definitely a creature-filled journey, one that
sticks with you long after you’ve absorbed the many
images, moods and artistic styles and processes that
give you much to recall and think about later. In size
alone, this show is a heady affair.
The exhibition is filled with noteworthy, mostly
Arizona artists. Christy Puetz, with her whimsical,
bead-laden mixed-media sculptures, is one. In her
animal world created just for this show, monkeys join
forces for a jaunt in “The Ride.” Another piece finds a
group of birds hopping a ride on the back and antlers
of a patient four-legged friend.
Equally as captivating, albeit slightly more haunting,
is Mayme Kratz’s “Solo Flight,” composed of found
objects including desert debris, wood and a beautiful
bird. The latter is positioned in the center, flanked by
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