Elizabeth Spavento
Iris Project Resident: February, 2020
I am a curator and artist living in Bakersfield, CA. Together with Jared Haug and Meg Hahn, I started a collective called Border Patrol that examines the relationship between contemporary art and corporate aesthetics. Border Patrol has staged exhibitions and events in a former dentist's office, burrito shop, shopping mall, and cemetery.
From 2016 - 2019 I served as the Visual Arts Programmer at SPACE in Portland, ME where I curated exhibitions, oversaw the Kindling Fund Grant as part of the Warhol Foundation's regranting network, and ran a residency program dedicated to highlighting the contributions of queer artists and artists of color. From 2015 - 2016, I co-curated ALL RISE with Meagan Atiyeh, a two-year temporary public art program for an empty acre of land in downtown Seattle. Americans for the Arts Public Art Network recognized ALL RISE as one of the nation's outstanding public art projects two years in a row. Previous curatorial projects include exhibitions with Disjecta Contemporary Art Center (Portland, OR), Open Source Gallery (New York, NY), and Interstitial Gallery (Seattle, WA).
I am a recipient of an Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Project Grant and have been awarded residencies with Iris Project (Los Angeles, CA); ACRE (Steuben, WI); and the Centre for the Study of Substructured Loss (London, England). I have lectured about curatorial practice and artist-centered systems at institutions such as Alfred State University, the Maine College of Art, the Portland Museum of Art, and Henry Art Gallery. I have been a juror and panelist for the Brink Award, Creative Time and Charlotte Street Foundation, among others. I am currently developing New Country, a contemporary art space in Bakersfield, CA with Jesse Sugarmann and Jared Haug.