Although he took the reins of MCA Denver at this time last year, director Adam Lerner didn’t roll out his first full slate of shows until January. Exhibition venues typically plan their events a year in advance in order to make all the arrangements, so until then, Lerner had mostly…
Amy Metier et al. The impressive Amy Metier: Palimpsest features recent paintings by one of Colorado’s foremost abstract painters, Amy Metier. Metier’s style relates back to early-twentieth-century vanguard painting, combining elements of cubism and abstract expressionism. Her large canvases and small works on paper fill the main space at Havu,…
Allen True’s West. Allen Tupper True was Denver’s premier muralist during the first third of the twentieth century. Sadly, many of his commissions have been painted over or were lost when the buildings they were in were demolished. In an act of cooperation, the three big cultural institutions on the…
The RiNo district, north of downtown, is now a center for art, but it was originally one of Denver’s prime industrial areas. Among the landmarks in the funky neighborhood is the old Dry Ice Factory, a handsome and substantial brick structure from the 1920s that looks like a misplaced element…
We’ve all heard of the Gold Rush, which put Colorado on the map and led to statehood. But soon after, there was also a “Clay Rush,” during which ceramic artists like Artus and Anna Van Briggle began to flock to the Rockies. And as the intervening century has revealed, they…
Allen True’s West. Allen Tupper True was Denver’s premier muralist during the first third of the twentieth century. Sadly, many of his commissions have been painted over or were lost when the buildings they were in were demolished. In an act of cooperation, the three big cultural institutions on the…
In the early 1990s, with the millennium approaching, scholars, curators, collectors and writers in the art world were in a retrospective mood. Because of this, they began, for the first time, to look seriously at the history of art in Colorado. What has since surfaced from their sleuthing has been…
Kathy Knaus grew up in Wheat Ridge, where her father owned a meat market — Edwards Meats — that’s still a going concern now run by her nephew. When she was a teenager, she worked behind the counter during summer breaks from school. And since 2006, she’s created works of…
Allen True’s West. Allen Tupper True was Denver’s premier muralist during the first third of the twentieth century. Sadly, many of his commissions have been painted over or were lost when the buildings they were in were demolished. In an act of cooperation, the three big cultural institutions on the…
Since MCA Denver was founded in the late 1990s, its directors have simultaneously served as curators for its exhibits. There have been guest curators — Julie Segraves, John Grant and Petra Sertic come to mind — but no one permanent. For most of the museum’s history, former director Cydney Payton…
When he was a kid, Tim Flynn dreamed of owning a hardware store — not one of those sleek big-box operations, but a cozy shop that reeked of grass seed. Life took him on a different course, though, and this fantasy of Flynn’s never came to pass, but that hasn’t…
A couple of weeks ago, I discussed the persistence of representational imagery in the fine arts by zeroing in on a group of shows in which artists created contemporary versions of realism (“Real Time,” February 4). This week, turnabout being fair play, I’ll look at the equally astonishing longevity of…
Allen True’s West. Allen Tupper True was Denver’s premier muralist during the first third of the twentieth century. Sadly, many of his commissions have been painted over or were lost when the buildings they were in were demolished. In an act of cooperation, the three big cultural institutions on the…
Allen True’s West. Allen Tupper True was Denver’s premier muralist during the first third of the twentieth century. Sadly, many of his commissions have been painted over or were lost when the buildings they were in were demolished. In an act of cooperation, the three big cultural institutions on the…
Although member shows at co-ops are typically presented side by side and often in close quarters, whether they work together isn’t something that is usually considered during the installation. As a result, it’s rare to see a slate of simultaneously scheduled shows that function both individually and in concert. But…
The continuing appeal of various forms of realism is remarkable when you consider that its would-be replacements, abstraction and conceptual art, have been around for a hundred years already. And the depiction of representational imagery shows no sign of becoming passé. Just look at Christoph Heinrich’s Embrace! now at the…
Artist Clark Richert plays a big part in the history of hard-edged pattern painting in the state. He was a protegé of George Woodman in Boulder, who’s the granddaddy of that significant movement, but it was Richert who launched a veritable school of followers that includes Bruce Price, Jason Hoelscher,…
Allen True’s West. Allen Tupper True was Denver’s premier muralist during the first third of the twentieth century. Sadly, many of his commissions have been painted over or were lost when the buildings they were in were demolished. In an act of cooperation, the three big cultural institutions on the…
Although Adam Lerner took the reins of MCA Denver last March, most of the exhibits on display since then were booked by his predecessor, Cydney Payton. That changed when Lerner rolled out six shows collectively titled Looking for the Face I Had Before the World Was Made. “I’m excited to…
Allen True’s West. Allen Tupper True was Denver’s premier muralist during the first third of the twentieth century. Sadly, many of his commissions have been painted over or were lost when the buildings they were in were demolished. In an act of cooperation, the three big cultural institutions on the…
Jim Milmoe is a legend in the local photo scene, with a career more than six decades long — most of it in Colorado. He moved to the state in the 1940s to attend Colorado College, where he graduated in 1949; he later earned an MFA from the University of…
Though he died over half a century ago, Allen Tupper True’s work has been thrust back into the spotlight. In the past few months, the Denver artist has been the subject of a book, a documentary and a three-part exhibition being presented at the Denver Public Library, the Denver Art…
