David Best: Eyes and Ears

For more than five decades, David Best has transformed the overlooked and the everyday into exuberant works of art, finding beauty, humor, and humanity in discarded materials. Eyes and Ears presents a new body of work that marks a fresh chapter in the artist’s practice. More intimate in scale than his monumental architectural constructions and celebrated temple projects, these sculptures reveal an intensely playful studio practice driven by curiosity, experimentation, and delight.

Created from an expanded vocabulary of materials—including latex prosthetics alongside found objects, cast-offs, and handcrafted elements—the works blur boundaries between the familiar and the uncanny. Eyes seem to emerge from unexpected surfaces; ears, limbs, and bodily fragments become sites of transformation, inviting viewers into a world where objects possess personalities and improbable encounters feel entirely natural.

At once whimsical and deeply inventive, these sculptures embody Best’s lifelong belief in art as an act of joyful making. Rather than monumental gestures, Eyes and Ears celebrates the pleasures of improvisation, the freedom of play, and the boundless possibilities that emerge when imagination leads the way. In these intimate works, Best reminds us that wonder often resides in the smallest things—and that joy itself can be a radical creative force.