Meet Beth Davila Waldman | Artist, Curator & Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Beth Davila Waldman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Beth, can you share a quote or affirmation with us?
“The greatest opportunity you can make for yourself is the chance to be transparent. We are vulnerable in that we are mortal–no end of ways to be shut down or taken out–but the only ones truly at risk are the liars. If you are going to go to the trouble to lead people to your work, lead them to the center. That’s the completion of the mission.”
-George Lawson

This quote is not famous, but it was written by a dear artist friend George Lawson, who was also almost my dealer. Our conversations always got to the heart of the matter. Why are we artists? We do we want our audience to know? What is the point?

His written words in this quote truly centered me from the tribulations of our journeys as artists, to one’s purpose through this journey. It is the journey of being a person as well as an artists. One can gift oneself the freedom from one path to truly seek another. But what is most important is being authentic and fully committed. That is not only the mission of the artist but of our lives.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a mother of two teenage daughters. I am a wife of 20 years. Over the past four years, I have held four studios in two different states and three different cities. I grew up having gone to six different schools in three different us states and two countries. I have traveled by foot for 34 days on the trails of the Appalachians with tarp and food as my survival gear. I am a nomad. I seek out what I want, I have not settled.

I have worked in most areas of the arts to gain perspective and experience. I have worked hard to immerse myself in art scenes nationally in Los Angeles and New York while calling the San Francisco Bay Area my home since 1997. Nothing has been easy. Everything has been researched, sought after and pursued. My high sense of commitment and organization skills have allowed me and my family support an untraditional lifestyle of managing studios and communities in various cities. I want to ensure my daughter’s see if you believed in something, you had to work hard for it and not let traditional norms stand in your way. I am proud of that. I have heard them speak to that, and it is the best lesson I have to share.

Not everyone understood or supported, but I pursued. I think that my artwork is also about dealing with the challenges of our global landscape where the answers are not clear but there is work to be done. We can all contribute in our own ways, and I do not have the answer, but I can raise the questions for the public through my art. It is the most public way I can be part of the conversation of possibilities. Part of pushing towards change.

I dig for hope, I strive to change. I make art to make the idea of change possible by breaking ground and reinventing potential new constructs. As an interdisciplinary artist, my art leads with the idea of sanctuary from the various urban, undeveloped and dense urban terrains I walk through in the continuous chapters of life.

My art embraces a theoretical return to place using time as a framework, site as a reference, and material as a context. The resulting abrasions and shards strive to narrate the condition of the breeching survivor. They are vulnerable, yet powerful, dangerous while nodding towards chance. Having been led by the notion of sanctuary in examining our current political and historic landscape, I have been scanning our built environment for signs of the walls that made homes over time and cultures for centuries. My focus has been watching the development of civilization from their initial centers sprawl to the outskirts to create new homes. From the squatters on the rooftops of buildings in Hong Kong to those in the vast valleys outside my mother’s homeland city of Arequipa, Peru to the tent cities in the streets of San Francisco and Los Angeles, I have been witnessing with my lens the nomadic lifestyles humans embrace out of necessity to find our place in this world.

The concept of navigation and finding a place to call home has become a nomadic lifestyle of my own through my own art and our life in today’s current context. Navigating for me has become an act, activity and axis through which my sense of being and my art is being created.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
When I am in Los Angeles, I am committed to the arts and the food. I am often seeking to absorb both solo, sometimes with friends. Time is always a factor in my traveling through space. I love going to Commonwealth and Council as it feeds my soul, the setting, the art, the calm of the space. I definitely hit the high hitters like Regen Projects, Honor Fraser and Luis de Jesus. But always investigate the Bendix for Track 16 exhibitions, Monte Vista, Tiger Strikes Asteroid and Durden and Ray. I have some favorites outside of that. On the east side, Philip Martin Gallery and IdolWild are some favorites. One the west side, L.A. Louver & 18th Street Art Center are my regular stops. I have become an east side gal, so I take my friends to Gloria’s Cuisine or Kitchen Mouse for breakfast and Mason’s Dumplings, Hippo, or Town Pizza for dinner. In between, there are endless stops to feed the art addict’s soul from Manuela’s for a cocktail or appetizer in DTLA or Blue Plate Oysterette in Santa Monica.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I am supported by my family, my art community and my dogs. It truly is a group effort of coordinating, logistics and good old cuddles. But this past year, a friend with Naomi White has really kept me going and connected with my LA art crew. We recently co-curated an exhibition including our work in dialogue with that of Alicia Piller and together we brought fabulous energy forth and a deep dialogue between our work. This foundational landing feeds my soul going into this very busy next year! I do also have to thank artist Randy Colosky whose introduction to the German based publisher Snap Collective has led to the launch of my 1st Catalog covering over 25 years of my art practice from 1997-2024.

Website: https://www.bethwaldman.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/waldmanarts/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-waldman-7ba6305/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beth.d.waldman/

Image Credits
Joshua White Studio