Al Wynne. Al Wynne is one of the greatest artists to have ever worked in Colorado, and his accomplishments rank right up there with those of acknowledged masters such as Vance Kirkland and Herbert Bayer. And Black Forest Magic: Paintings & Sculpture by Al Wynne proves it. The Colorado native’s…
It would be easy to argue that all art is partly about the artist who created it. But that doesn’t mean every piece can be classified as art of identity. No, that relies on a person’s sexual, ethnic, racial or religious background as a key element. The current art-of-identity era…
One of the city’s great cultural treasures, the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art is the brainchild of founder Hugh Grant, who started it a few years ago to display the work of one of the state’s greatest modern artists, Vance Kirkland. But Grant quickly expanded its mandate to…
The Colorado Center for Public Humanities at the University of Colorado Denver is hosting a lecture series called “Islam in American Culture.” The idea, partly inspired by President Barack Obama’s outreach to the Muslim community, will look at the connections between American culture and the Islamic world. The second lecture…
For a few days last month, Denver and the Front Range were shrouded in a smoky haze, courtesy of the forest fires in California. It was more than a little unsettling, lending the town a doomsday quality right out of a disaster movie. But fires are a natural part of…
Al Wynne. Al Wynne is one of the greatest artists to have ever worked in Colorado, and his accomplishments rank right up there with those of acknowledged masters such as Vance Kirkland and Herbert Bayer. And Black Forest Magic: Paintings & Sculpture by Al Wynne proves it. The Colorado native’s…
Currents. Traditional American Indian art is a well-established genre, and many Native American artists still practice the old forms of weaving, pottery-making, metalwork and basket-making. But there are also contemporary artists among the tribes, and this latter group is the focus of Currents: Native American Forces in Contemporary Art. The…
The sluggish economy has affected the bottom line for art galleries, just as it has other businesses, but you wouldn’t know it from looking. In recent months, exhibits as good as, if not better than, ever have been unveiled one after another. And with the fall season now underway, you’d…
William Biety, director of the van Straaten Gallery, never fails to come up with interesting shows to fill the place, and the current pairing, Floyd Tunson: Remix and Andrea Modica: Platinum/Palladium Prints, is no exception. Interestingly, both artists have an association with quaint Manitou Springs: Tunson has his home and…
Earlier this year, curator Christoph Heinrich undertook a major reinstallation of the Denver Art Museum’s Modern and Contemporary collection. The result, dubbed Focus: The Figure, is in the Hamilton Building. For the 2009 Logan Lectures, sponsored by Vicki and Kent Logan and the DAM Contemporaries, Heinrich invited artists whose work…
Currents. Traditional American Indian art is a well-established genre, and many Native American artists still practice the old forms of weaving, pottery-making, metalwork and basket-making. But there are also contemporary artists among the tribes, and this latter group is the focus of Currents: Native American Forces in Contemporary Art. The…
Denver artist Michael Brohman is known for conceptual sculptures and installations with ambiguous narratives. He’s also known for having edgy, if not questionable, tastes that result in the use of stomach-turning materials like human bones and skulls, animal pelts and remains and, believe it or not, horse manure. And then…
Big-Lots. This show comprises some very big abstract paintings by Wendi Harford that are strong and artistically ambitious. Harford earned a BFA at the University of Denver in the 1970s, where she studied with the late Beverly Rosen, and there are subtle references to her mentor’s influences throughout the show,…
The tight-looking duet James Dormer & Paul Flippen, at Translations Gallery (1743 Wazee Street, 303-629-0713, www.translationsgallery.com), features two artists on the faculty of Colorado State University. Though both work on paper, their approaches are quite different: Dormer is a classic modernist, while Flippen delves into postmodernism. Neither is particularly well…
Very rarely is it possible to start out on the wrong foot and yet wind up hitting a successful stride. But somehow, in the case of the History Colorado Center, getting it wrong at first hasn’t precluded the possibility of getting it right later. In 2005, a state building committee…
Big-Lots.This show comprises some very big abstract paintings by Wendi Harford that are strong and artistically ambitious. Harford earned a BFA at the University of Denver in the 1970s, where she studied with the late Beverly Rosen, and there are subtle references to her mentor’s influences throughout the show, but…
It’s hard to believe that twenty years ago, many people felt photography wasn’t an art form, especially since it would be easy to argue that today it’s the preeminent one. This naysaying of the past was partly the product of the medium’s mechanical aspect: Many people had the naïve view…
Big-Lots. This show comprises some very big abstract paintings by Wendi Harford that are strong and artistically ambitious. Harford earned a BFA at the University of Denver in the 1970s, where she studied with the late Beverly Rosen, and there are subtle references to her mentor’s influences throughout the show,…
Surely one of the most interesting places in Denver for fans of modern art is Burns Park, a triangle of grass and trees at the western edge of Hilltop, bounded by Colorado Boulevard, Alameda Avenue and Leetsdale Drive. What makes the park a hot spot for art enthusiasts is the…
I love group shows, in particular those that are held together by a clearly defined organizational theme. At their best, these sorts of exhibits can lay out a broad-based historic, aesthetic or stylistic narrative — sometimes all three at once. But solos can also be superior because they give viewers…
People don’t typically associate mid-century modern architecture with Historic Denver, the city’s preeminent preservation advocacy group, but they should. “We want to educate our members about mid-century modern by highlighting its importance, so we’re focusing on it more and more as the buildings become fifty years old and older,” explains…
Childsplay. For this show, the floor of Walker Fine Art has been covered with rough-hewn playground equipment made of wood and bronze. And despite the show’s title, all of it has been made for, and scaled to, adults, who are meant to interact with the individual pieces. The mostly kinetic…
