Phil Bender: Last Place @ The Lab at Belmar (Denver, CO)

I had never been to a gallery or an art space in the middle of an outdoor mall. The Lab at Belmar is a nonprofit art space where art exhibitions, programs, lectures and performances take place regularly. They're supported by some local foundations and the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts. Will talk more about the space, but one of the shows there is titled Last Place by Phil Bender. Bender is a Colorado artist who's like my grandma and my mom (and myself pretty much up to now);collects everyday objects. For this exhibition, he gathered objects from thrift stores, estate sales and side streets, documenting the character of the West. People from the lab suggest that Phil identifies patterns of behavior which is totally true... consumer behavior! Anyways I did identify. The way it was mounted reminded me of my obsessive compulsive behavior.