Diane Best was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and studied in the San Francisco area at Stanford University and the San Francisco Art Institute before moving to Los Angeles. There, she developed a successful career creating commercial artwork for the entertainment industry and commissioned portraiture, while continuing to exhibit her independent work.
In 1995, Best relocated to Joshua Tree, California, where her practice underwent a decisive shift. Immersed in the Mojave Desert, she began focusing on the dramatic intensity of the landscape through painting, photography, and moving-image work. Seeking out remote and uninhabited terrain, her work captures fleeting moments of converging light and land—reflecting a deep commitment to both preservation and direct experience.
Working in the lineage of 19th-century American conservationist artists, Best brings a contemporary lens to landscape painting and filmmaking, informed by photography, cinema, digital imaging, animation, and theories of perception rooted in deep ecology.
After more than two decades exploring the deserts of the American Southwest, Best expanded her focus to the polar regions, traveling to Iceland, Greenland, South Georgia Island, and Antarctica. She identifies a profound connection between these “hot” and “cold” deserts—environments defined by vast scale, minimal human presence, and an overwhelming, often disquieting beauty that informs her emotionally resonant landscapes.
Her recent body of work, Other Worlds, marks a further evolution. Created during a period of personal and global upheaval, the series draws from memory, imagination, and limited returns to the desert as she navigates ongoing health challenges. These paintings move beyond direct observation into immersive, atmospheric spaces that merge external landscape with internal experience—inviting viewers into contemplative environments that are at once familiar and unbound by place.
Best has also been profiled in publications including Lifescapes: West Coast Art & Design, Palm Springs Life Art & Culture Magazine, Art Patron Magazine, and Telluride Inside, and was the subject of a KCET Artbound documentary (PBS Los Angeles). In 2020, she was selected as a Joshua Tree National Park Artist representing the U.S. Park Pass program.
---
Selected Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions (2007–2026)
JTNPA West Art Gallery, Yucca Valley, CA, 2026
Black Rock Art Gallery, Yucca Valley, CA, 2025
Telluride Arts HQ Gallery, Telluride, CO, 2023
Telluride Gallery of Fine Art, Telluride, CO, 2018
Porch Gallery, Ojai, CA, 2017
Taylor Junction Gallery, Joshua Tree, CA
Bunny Gunner Gallery, Claremont, CA
BoxoProjects, New York, NY, 2010
Desert Art Collection, Palm Desert, CA, 2010
Carnegie Museum of Art, Oxnard, CA, 2009
Southwest Art Museum (Lobby), Los Angeles, CA, 2008
Metro Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2008
Selected Group Exhibitions
High Desert Art Fair (BoxoProjects), 2026
Desert Forest: Life with Joshua Trees, Museum of Art & History, Lancaster, CA (Getty PST), 2024
Brand 52 Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper, Glendale, CA, 2024
Intersect Palm Springs, CA, 2022–2023
Palm Springs Art Fair (BoxoProjects), 2020–2021
Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Palm Desert, CA, 2019
Site: Brooklyn Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2019
Joshua Treenial, Joshua Tree, CA, 2015, 2017, 2019
Objective Painting, Telluride Gallery of Fine Art, Telluride, CO, 2017
Palm Springs Museum, Open Desert, Palm Springs, CA, 2016
Marks Art Center, Salton Sea Show, Palm Desert, CA, 2016
Moving Image & Film (Selected)
Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA, 2013
No Destination (3-screen installation), Furstworld, Joshua Tree, CA, 2014
Eco Lab (curated exhibition), USC, Los Angeles, CA, 2014
Joshua Tree International Film Festival, 2015
Best Shorts Competition (Award of Merit), 2014–2015
Timelapse Film Festival, 2017–2021
Oz Arts, Nashville, TN
Additional Credits
Joshua Tree National Park Artist, U.S. Park Pass Program, 2020
Education
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
BFA, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
Additional studies in animation and art, Los Angeles, CA
---
