In the past few years, Denver’s art world has reached such a critical mass that many of our marvelous alternative spaces have been lost in the shuffle. As a palliative for that, I’ll now lead a whirlwind tour of the present offerings at two of the best. At Spark Gallery…
The development of abstract painting a hundred years ago can be easily explained by the rise of photography fifty years before that. Since cameras were much better than brushes at recording reality, painters moved toward new ideas, like abstraction. Given this, it’s hard to explain the continuing appeal of representational…
Art offerings along Santa Fe Drive are uneven, at best, but a few places always seem to have something worth looking at. There’s the Sandy Carson Gallery, of course, the ArtDistrict’s flagship. But there is also Space Gallery (765 Santa Fe Drive, 720-904-1088, www.spacegallery.org), directly across the street. Space ordinarily…
Dale Chisman. Since Dale Chisman is among the greatest abstract painters who ever plied their trade in Colorado, this show is unquestionably one of the most significant of the year. Recent Paintings by Dale Chisman is also a rare chance to see his work in depth, as it has been…
Sandy Carson Gallery is featuring two sculpture shows in the front and a large print show in the back — the latter being a late addition intended as an introduction to the gallery’s new owners and a new era there. I’ve covered the changes previously, but here’s a recap: Sandy…
Berghaus, Douglas and Riverhouse Press. In the front spaces at Sandy Carson, there’s a whimsical yet intelligent show called Clearing: The Kinetic Sculpture of Marc Berghaus. The pieces are mechanical, with the most clever use of machinery being “Freeway Chase,” in which viewers look through the frame of a TV…
Surely the biggest art news last week was the joint acquisition by the Denver Art Museum and the Anschutz Collection of “Cowboy Singing” (pictured), an 1892 painting by Thomas Eakins valued at between $5 and $8 million. In addition, the DAM has also acquired two Eakins sketches, both of which…
When I mentioned to a friend that I was writing about quilts, he rolled his eyes and said, “Oh, please, you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.” It’s a common reaction, and I know a lot of people feel this way, because every time I write about a quilt show,…
Inspiring Impressionism. This is hardly your run-of-the-mill effort in which a cavalcade of big-name European artists are represented by minor works. Instead, it’s an intellectually stimulating exhibit crowded with iconic pieces by some of the most significant artists who ever took brush to canvas. Curated by the DAM’s Timothy Standring…
The Denver Art Museum’s outlandish Hamilton Building (100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, 720-865-5000, www.denverartmuseum.org) has fans and detractors. As for myself, I love it and think it’s one of the great landmarks of the city. But there are some problems with the handling of the interior. The cheap and already…
When two different groups of people, one made up mostly of artists, the other comprising collectors and donors, began to separately brainstorm back in the 1990s about the creation of a new contemporary-art museum in Denver, one of the biggest motivating factors was the desire to showcase art made in…
Clyfford Still Unveiled. A master and pioneer of mid-twentieth-century abstract expressionism, painter Clyfford Still was something of an eccentric in the artist-as-egomaniac stripe. His antisocial behavior led to a situation where 94 percent of his artworks remained together after he died — a staggeringly complete chronicle of his oeuvre that…
As demonstrated by shows at Robischon and the Center for Visual Art, conceptual photography has come on strong in recent years, and in the process, it has revolutionized the medium of photography itself. Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art has long showcased this kind of work — in which the photos…
Denver’s Month of Photography ended weeks ago, but many of the exhibits are still up and running. So maybe the highly successful March event should have been called the “Season of Photography,” or even “Photo Spring.” Regardless of what it should have been called, it was an incredible chance for…
George Carlson. Put together by curator Ann Daley, who has shaped and defined the Western collection at the Denver Art Museum, George Carlson: Heart of the West deals with the career of an accomplished neo-traditional artist who looks to the century-old Impressionist style for inspiration. The Carlson exhibit includes nearly…
There’s a lot going on at Plus Gallery (2350 Lawrence Street, 303-296-0927, www.plusgallery.com), which has two solos on display and is featuring two other artists in small presentations. And there’s some news: Plus will be moving to 25th and Larimer streets this fall. Denver architect Steve Chucovich has been hired…
There’s been so much going on in the Denver art world that we reached a critical mass of activity during the last month or so, especially considering that spring is typically light. In addition to multiple shows at the Denver Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, there was…
George Carlson. Put together by curator Ann Daley, who has shaped and defined the Western collection at the Denver Art Museum, George Carlson: Heart of the West deals with the career of an accomplished neo-traditional artist who looks to the century-old Impressionist style for inspiration. The Carlson exhibit includes nearly…
Monroe Hodder really gets around. In the past twenty years she’s lived in New York, San Francisco, Rome and — get this — Almaty, which is in Kazakhstan. Currently the painter is dividing her time between her permanent residence in London and Steamboat Springs, where she has a second home…
Over the years, I’ve often seen the truth in the old saying “One person can make a difference.” Often it’s for the good — for instance, the way Hugh Grant at the Kirkland Museum has almost single-handedly raised public awareness about the history of Colorado art, or the way Clark…
George Carlson. Put together by curator Ann Daley, who has shaped and defined the Western collection at the Denver Art Museum, George Carlson: Heart of the West deals with the career of an accomplished neo-traditional artist who looks to the century-old Impressionist style for inspiration. The Carlson exhibit includes nearly…
George Carlson. Put together by curator Ann Daley, who has shaped and defined the Western collection at the Denver Art Museum, George Carlson: Heart of the West deals with the career of an accomplished neo-traditional artist who looks to the century-old Impressionist style for inspiration. The Carlson exhibit includes nearly…
