I am a man, the current offering at Ironton Studios and Gallery (3636 Chestnut Street, 303-297-8626), purports to be about men’s art. For the past thirty years or so, shows about women’s art have become pretty common, while shows about men’s art have not. This exhibit doesn’t really change that…

Considering its outlandish appearance, the new Frederic C. Hamilton Building of the Denver Art Museum has overshadowed what’s on display inside. There are some exceptions, however, and first among them is RADAR: Selections From the Collection of Vicki & Kent Logan, which is installed in the Anschutz Gallery on level…

For me, the real meaning of the holidays involves Burl Ives retelling the story of the foggy night that Rudolph led Santa’s sleigh, and Brenda Lee rocking around the Christmas tree — not to mention taking a moment to listen to Vince Guaraldi back up Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy and…

Hugh Grant, founder and director of the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art on Capitol Hill, has been a kind of Santa Claus for Denver, bestowing gifts of support and exhibits on the art community. A few years ago, when the Kirkland was just getting off the ground, the…

The smart-looking P Design Gallery (2590 Walnut Street, 720-259-2516) is dedicated to presenting design in an exhibition format with a decidedly fine-art flavor. The current exhibit is DoubleButter Boontje, a duet of shows featuring a trio of artists. The DoubleButter part of the title refers to the collaborative effort of…

Simon Zalkind, director of the Singer Gallery at the Mizel Center for Arts and Culture, is best known for group shows based on some kind of theme, which are often plugged into other events, such as lectures, plays or films, that share the same topic. But lately he’s come across…

In the past few weeks, there’s been a plethora of news relevant to Denver’s art and architecture scenes. Denver’s Creative Spaces Task Force, which is dominated not by artists but by city employees, was launched last January with much fanfare. I wasn’t too excited, because I knew from past experience…

I’m sure you’ve all heard more than enough about the Denver Art Museum’s Frederic C. Hamilton Building. That’s too bad, because there’s even more to say about it in light of the show that just opened at Sandy Carson Gallery. Daniel Libeskind: Inspiration, Process and Place is filled with drawings,…

A lot of people make Denver what it is, but few have changed the face of the city the way architect Cabell Childress did (“Mind Over Matter,” August 5, 2004). Born in Virginia in 1932, Childress earned a degree in architectural engineering at Georgia Tech in 1954. After graduation he…

A funny thing happened to photography on the way to the 21st century: It went from being degraded as an inferior way to convey aesthetic concepts to one of the most significant aspects of contemporary visual culture. The medium provides the foundation not only for a wide array of photo-based…

A couple of years ago, Lauri Lynnxe Murphy opened a funky gallery dedicated to showcasing artists who were doing experimental work. This gallery is called Capsule (554 Santa Fe Drive, 303-623-3460), and it was the immediate successor to Murphy’s boutique, Pod. But, as they say, all good things must come…

With all the excitement — and criticism — caused by the unveiling of Daniel Libeskind’s Frederic C. Hamilton Building, the inaugural exhibits installed inside have gotten lost in the crossfire. Now that the smoke is beginning to clear and it’s Thanksgiving week, I thought it would be a good time…

There’s a charming little group show at Sandra Phillips Gallery (744 Santa Fe Drive, 303-573-5969) with the grammatically challenged title of CONVERSATIONS REFLECTIONS. (Shouldn’t that be CONVERSATIONAL REFLECTIONS or CONVERSATIONS REFLECTED or even CONVERSATIONS /REFLECTIONS?) Anyway, unlike the plodding gait of the title, the show itself flows beautifully, with the…

A generation ago, when you said “contemporary art,” it was assumed you were talking about creations from New York City, south of 54th Street — even if you were referring to internationally important material. In the 1980s, everything started to change. First there were the artists from Italy and Germany,…

Of the various alternative spaces in Denver, Spark Gallery (900 Santa Fe Drive, 720-889-2200) has more than its share of established artists as members. Surely this explains why Spark is a flagship of the Santa Fe Arts District. It is one of only a handful of places along the row…

Fine-art videos have been playing a larger role in the contemporary realm in recent years, but I have a hard time understanding why. And a significant group exhibit with the clever title What Sound Does a Color Make? , on view through the weekend at the Center for Visual Art,…

Now that famous New Yorker Steven Holl is no longer involved with designing the courthouse portion of the Justice Center complex (see review, page 44), all the talk is about whether or not the local architectural firm klipp is up to the job. So it’s perhaps relevant to look at…

Mayor John Hickenlooper’s predecessors made that whole mayoral-legacy business look like a snap. Federico Peña can be credited with many important things, including shoving the idea of a lower-downtown historic district down the throats of property owners, thus saving the neighborhood from being scraped for surface parking. And he became…

The new P Design Gallery (2590 Walnut Street, 720-259-2516) adds something new to the art scene in town: a place where design is presented not only as home furnishings, but as serious contemporary art. P is partly a furniture boutique showcasing cutting-edge design and partly a proper exhibition space, where…