In Art: Phil Bender @ The Lab

In Art: Phil Bender @ The Lab

It is a great moment when the brand-new meets the well-aged in true harmony.
The 2003 born Laboratory, a non-profit institution dedicated to developing and presenting creative insight into contemporary art has opened it’s exhibition walls to one of Denver’s long-time, well-know, eccentric contemporary artists, Phil Bender.

Bender’s show, Last Place, exhibits 41 of his wall-hanging assemblages. Each piece contains one found object that is repeated numerous times over developing a large scale, geometric grid. The show collectively holds over 1000 found object components. The subject matter consists of everyday things including, basting brushes, matchbooks, yardsticks or hangers all found from local thrift stores, garage sales or your back alley.

Bender has been in Denver’s art community since the mid-seventies and graduated from Metro and the University of Colorado. Since 1980 he has been the founder, and co-director of the contemporary art cooperative, Pirate Gallery, and continues its ongoing success while housing some of Denver’s most innovative conceptual artists.

The incorporation of found objects into his work began in 1979, and has stuck with him ever since. During the eighties a movement could have been a boom that would fade away, but for Bender, he has prevailed through consistency.

The pieces seem to leave little to the imaginations, but once you place yourself in front of them, you receive a sense of nostalgia, consumption, origin and behavior. We all may have these things on our shelves, in our drawers or trash cans, but when they are perfectly positioned on a white-wall backdrop, you are forced to look at them from a new angle. There is a sequence of repetition and sometimes color variation that inspires beauty as well as embarrassment. What seems like a compulsive way of collecting and creating art, actually reflects our own compulsive-consumption and squander. It is OCD that has been reordered, reorganized and recycled.

This show is the largest displays of Bender’s work to date. He continues to be one of the most recognized, successful and adored local artists and art community leaders in Denver.

“I dream of having the freedom to play all the time.” – Phil Bender

“Don't be fooled by Bender's folksy facade. Yes, he is a junk collector, but he's also a conceptual artist with very serious intentions.” – Kyle MacMillan (Denver Post)

Show runs through May 1st 2008
The Lab is open from 12-8pm (Tues-Sat) and 12-5 (Sun)
For more information, please visit: www.belmarlab.org

*Join the Lab in saying goodbye to the exhibition "Last Place" and
roast artist Phil Bender.
7pm @ the Lab- FREE with advanced registration!
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About the Lab
The Lab is a place for the general public to engage with artists and scholars and a forum for personal reflection, public dialogue and creative experimentation around contemporary art and ideas. They combine elements of a museum, think tank, and public forum. Focused on contemporary art and culture, The Lab offers international art exhibitions, lectures, performances and more.

In the Spring of 2003, City of Lakewood and the Denver Art Museum worked collaboratively to envision how contemporary art could be integrated as a major feature in the Belmar District, a mixed-use residential and commercial, urban neighborhood in Lakewood, Colorado. An international advisory board representing leading contemporary art scholars, museum directors, curators, and artists helped refine further the concept of The Lab.

On September 16, The Lab threw open the doors to its 12,000 square foot permanent home on Upham Street in Belmar with an all-day celebration.

The Lab at Belmar
404 S. Upham St.
Lakewood, CO 80226
303-934-1777