It’s hard to believe that Pirate: a contemporary art oasis (3659 Navajo Street, 303-456-6058) is a quarter of a century old, but since exhibition titles don’t lie — and the current one is 25 Years of Pirate: Past and Present — it must be true. The venerable artists’ cooperative debuted…

One of this season’s most important shows — at least to those of us with an interest in the history of contemporary art in our region — is Opened Windows, a retrospective devoted to the work of Boulder painter Virginia Maitland that is nearly through its too-short five-week run at…

The dead of winter is either the best or the worst time to see art shows filled with heavy psychological content. The best because it’s the time of year to go inside and to turn inward; the worst because being inside and turning inward might make you depressed — and…

Back in November, Kate Thompson, director of William Havu Gallery, got an unusual phone call from Darren Howelton, a producer for ABC’s hit reality show Extreme Makeover — Home Edition. The L.A.-based executive was doing advance work for an episode of the program that would soon be taping in Arvada…

A really smart-looking show now on view at Pirate (3659 Navajo Street, 303-458-6058) has a very matter-of-fact title: New Work by Jimmy Sellars. Sellars is an associate member of the co-op, so his work would normally be found in the back of the gallery space, under the loft. But because…

We’ve all heard the old saw about a picture being worth a thousand words, but what about pictures of words? Are they worth a thousand words — and then some? Or are they worth less than a depiction of something else? I’m not sure what the answer is, but I…

Earlier this fall, the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver (1275 19th Street, 303-298-7554) launched a program called “NEW PIC” that highlights the work of worthwhile emerging artists in the area. Selected artists, who must live in Colorado and be under the age of thirty, are given a six-month residency at the…

Denver artist Jeff Starr became famous locally in the ’80s, but in the late ’90s, he took a powder and disappeared. Last year he made a big comeback when his work was selected for the 2003 biennial at Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Artists step in and out of the…

Though Spark Gallery (900 Santa Fe Drive, 720-889-2200) has been in its new digs since this past summer, the members have yet to figure out what to do with the new spot. I have an idea: Wheel some of those temporary walls into the generously sized storage area. Better yet,…

Over the past few decades, the contemporary-art world has gotten so vast that no single approach can characterize our era in the way that abstract expressionism represents the ’50s or pop art evokes the ’60s. Now, just about anything goes, as long as it isn’t of the Bob Ross/ Thomas…

Well-established Denver artist Michael Brohman takes an idiosyncratic route to contemporary sculpture in his solo, ME AND MY SHADOW, now at Pirate (3659 Navajo Street, 303-458-6058). Brohman has a preference for working in old-fashioned ways, using metal casting as his method and the nude human figure as his subject. However,…

Daniel Libeskind must be happy with Denver since, unlike in New York, the Polish-born American architect has been allowed to follow his vision to its logical conclusion. In New York, Libeskind’s Freedom Tower, which will be erected on the site where the World Trade Center once stood, was neutered and…

Brandon Borchert’s Random Art Two, currently at Capsule @ Pod (554 Santa Fe Drive, 303-623-3460), is one of this season’s hottest prospects. Though Borchert has shown around for the past several years, he was little known until earlier this season. His big breakthrough came with an appearance in this summer’s…

One of the Denver Art Museum’s greatest strengths is its New World department, which houses two distinct collections: Pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial. For more than two decades, the department’s founder, visionary curator Robert Stroessner, enthusiastically collected relevant material way ahead of supporting scholarship. He was buying things before anyone –…

There’s an interesting if uneven exhibit of abstract paintings and sculptures at the enormous Studio Aiello (3563 Walnut Street, 303-297-8166). Called Quartet, it includes the work of four artists: Andrew Speer, Chad Colby, Michael Burnett and Jonathan Hils. Speer, who is well known to many because he’s taught in the…

The definitive art history of Colorado has yet to be written, but even without a scholarly guide, it’s not hard to list the great ones. In terms of mid-century-modernist abstraction, for instance, it is widely known that Herbert Bayer, who lived in Aspen, and Denver’s own Vance Kirkland towered over…

The redevelopment of Stapleton International Airport by mega-developer Forest City has been surprisingly successful. The town center at 29th Avenue and Quebec Street is very nice, being the best-designed of the many ersatz downtowns that have sprung up all over the metro area. Like Lowry before it, Stapleton has made…

Cydney Payton plays many roles at Denver’s smallish, newish Museum of Contemporary Art, including that of director and chief curator. She doesn’t put together every show at MCA, but she does organize the vast majority of them. In fact, it was her reputation as a first-rate curator that got her…

The formal exhibition spaces at the Arvada Center (6901 Wadsworth Boulevard, 720-898-7200) are called the Lower Galleries and the Upper Galleries; they’re currently filled with impressive solos by Charles Parson and Emilio Lobato (see review, page 45). But there are more informal places at the center where art is exhibited…

I’ve been pretty tough on Jerry Gilmore, chief curator and director of the art program at the Arvada Center, because he seemed to model his behavior on that of the proverbial bull in a china shop. Soon after he took over a few years ago, for example, longtime staff members…

Mark Brasuell’s solo at Edge Gallery (3658 Navajo Street, 303-477-7173) has the bizarre title of Difficult Abstraction. I say it’s bizarre because the four paintings that make up the show are not the least bit hard to look at. The artist apparently attacked the canvases with paint-loaded brushes, which resulted…

Art displayed in public places dates back to the very start of civilization. The Egyptians, the Greeks, the Persians, the Chinese, the Romans and many other ancient cultures adorned their buildings and streets with art. And the situation has changed little over these several millennia. In the here and now…