With no exhibition director on staff at present, the art program at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities is essentially rudderless. Executive director Gene Sobczak is running the program in his spare time, but he is no art expert, and he’s busy with other duties. In addition, Sobczak…
Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The fall opener at the Center for Visual Art is a conscientious survey of the careers of Christo and Jeanne-Claude as seen through their personal print collection documenting their pioneering conceptual work that began in the 1960s. The exhibit, which includes more than a hundred works of…
In many ways, magic realism anticipates conceptual realism, even though it’s not actually an early form of the cutting-edge style. Boulder has been a center for magic realism for decades (I guess art really does imitate life), in no small part because of Frank Sampson and Luis Eades, artists who…
Making the most with the least is a specialty of Sandra Phillips, owner of her namesake gallery on Santa Fe, which opened five years ago. A tiny and cramped storefront with an almost invisible street presence, the facility has little to recommend it from the outside. Inside, there’s only a…
Last week, the Colorado Historical Society announced that Steven Turner will become the director of the State Historical Fund. That means that Turner is resigning as the director of Historic Denver. The promotion is good news for those of us who appreciate the old buildings of Denver. Not because Turner…
Over the last quarter-century, old-fashioned representational imagery has supplanted abstraction, which had dominated most of the cutting-edge art of the twentieth century and become the preeminent expression in the fine arts internationally. It’s not that abstraction is passé; it’s just that more and more artists have embraced the figure to…
Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The fall opener at the Center for Visual Art is a conscientious survey of the careers of Christo and Jeanne-Claude as seen through their personal print collection documenting their pioneering conceptual work that began in the 1960s. The exhibit, which includes more than a hundred works of…
The death last winter of Mark Travis, a contemporary artist who made his reputation in Denver’s go-go scene of the 1980s, left a big question mark regarding a scheduled exhibit of his work. His representative, Michael Burnett of Space Gallery (765 Santa Fe Drive, 720-904-1088, www.spacegallery.org), had asked Travis to…
On September 3, I made my way to the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver as I’ve done so many times since the new building opened last year. But this time I wasn’t in pursuit of an art show. Instead, I was headed, along with a few hundred others, to the memorial…
About Us… et al. In the West Gallery at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art is About Us…, put together by freelance curator Mark Addison, who brought in two dozen works of conceptual realism by a raft of internationally known artists in addition to pieces from his own collection. Addison…
I’m a political junkie, so having the Democratic National Convention here was a treat. And since Denver strategically spiffed up over the last few months in preparation, it was a delight to see our beloved city looking sensational on TV and giving us some civic pride. There were glamour shots…
Ever since the Denver Art Museum unleashed the Daniel Libeskind-designed Frederic C. Hamilton Building in 2006, the rest of the top galleries and art centers around here have felt the heat. To compete, they’ve presented one great show after another, seeking to outdo each other. And showing up the DAM…
About Us… et al. In the West Gallery at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art is About Us…, put together by freelance curator Mark Addison, who brought in two dozen works of conceptual realism by a raft of internationally known artists in addition to pieces from his own collection. Addison…
Last week, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center concluded its nearly year-long search for a new director by hiring Sam Gappmayer (pictured). The job represents a big promotion for Gappmayer, who is currently the director of the much more modest Sun Valley Center for the Arts, in Idaho. Second only…
The Modern and Contemporary department at the Denver Art Museum gained official status in 1978 when the institution hired Dianne Vanderlip to head it up. During her nearly three decades in the post, Vanderlip facilitated the acquisition of thousands of works for the permanent collection. But between shopping sprees, she…
Mark Travis blazed onto the Denver art scene in the 1980s, and he exemplified the lifestyle of the classic artist-persona as made famous in fiction: He drank, smoked, did drugs and chased women while banging out one great painting after another. Although Travis first made a name for himself with…
About Us… et al. In the West Gallery at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art is About Us…, put together by freelance curator Mark Addison, who brought in two dozen works of conceptual realism by a raft of internationally known artists in addition to pieces from his own collection. Addison…
Although he moved away ten years ago, Gary Sweeney has a long and committed relationship with Denver. Sweeney is a conceptual artist with a taste for pop imagery, as seen in his best-known local creation, the pair of decorated maps titled “America, Why I Love Her” at Denver International Airport…
I’ve long thought of Denver as being the Rodney Dangerfield of American cities, because we just can’t get no respect. But ever since the Democrats announced they would hold their national convention in town, those of us who live here are starting to feel more like Sally Field, because it…
Adam Helms is a New York artist interested in taking up political themes in new works on paper and a monumental sculpture. His solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver — which officially opens tonight — is his first museum show anywhere, and director Cydney Payton is the one…
About Us… et al. In the West Gallery at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art is About Us…, put together by freelance curator Mark Addison, who brought in two dozen works of conceptual realism by a raft of internationally known artists in addition to pieces from his own collection. Addison…
The one thing about Denver that I really can’t stand is the relentless lack of support for local artists among the entities that could make a difference. Not only does this wrongheaded approach cheat the artists, but it shortchanges the city, too. The latest affront is Dialog:City, which is being…
