Lucy Kienitz Spence

Lucy Kienitz Spence is a contemporary painter from Payson, Arizona. Her work explores perception, memory, and the landscape through layered mark-making and experimental surfaces. She incorporates oil, acrylic, and watercolors suggesting the effects of light and atmosphere.

Artist Statement

"American ICE" was painted in reaction to ICE immigration offices and detention centers. The piece depicts frozen figures trapped within translucent icy forms, symbolizing the dehumanizing conditions faced by detainees held in these “pods.”


Presented by the Jasper Project, The Degenerate Art Project II is the answer to an overwhelming request by artists and patrons of Jasper's inaugural Degenerate Art Project (July 2025) for an additional exhibition which will involve an open call for visual artists. This 3 week-long multidisciplinary arts event (Feb. 11–28 at Stormwater Studios) invites Midlands artists to respond to today's socio-political climate, and unite our local arts community—physically and in spirit—in support and solidarity during challenging times. Inspired by—and reclaiming—the legacy of the Nazi-labeled "Degenerate Art" of 1937, this project champions creative resistance and free expression through a visual art exhibition, featuring over 40 Midlands artists.