Catherine Opie began shooting photographs at the height of the AIDS crisis. Her portraits of LGBTQ people were born from the urgency of the moment: She was watching her friends die. Over the years, her work has evolved from documentary portraiture and landscapes toward greater abstraction and a study of…
#64: Joseph Coniff Like many of Denver’s notable emerging artists, Joey Coniff got off to a fast start after leaving the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design and the mentorship of Clark Richert, climbing aboard with Rule Gallery right out of the chute. It’s not hard to see why:…
As I stood outside a show at last weekend’s Underground Music Showcase, immersed in a nice conversation with my friend and former bandmate, we were the victims of a walk-by insult. But not the regular old street harassment kind of thing — no this was hollering of a different kind…
For Justice Kwesi Kwarteng, Colorado Fashion Week has been largely a labor of love — and hard work. Inspired by Fern Mallis, the former executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and founder of 7th on Sixth Productions, since 2011 CFW has focused on building an economically…
Typical county fairs hand out blue ribbons for livestock, quilts and homemade pies. The 2014 Denver County Fair, which starts next Friday, August 1, will hold competitions for all of those, too. Only some of the pies might get you stoned. See also: “Denver County Fair’s planned Beer Pavilion goes…
Sherissa Gibson has joined the growing cadre of designers who are offering their interpretation of “fashion” in the Mile High City. Her designs for Skye Gibson Designs are created for the confident, sexy woman. We recently caught up with Gibson to talk about how she got into the business, the…
People who say they don’t like board games are probably playing shitty games. What’s not to like? You get to hang out with friends and scratch a competitive itch while pretending to be a business tycoon or ruler of the world. That’s a good time! Well, it is as long…
#65: Jeffrey Dante Campbell A longtime fixture on the local hip-hop scene as the rapper Apostle and founder of the youth-friendly Colorado Hip-Hop Coalition, Jeff Campbell’s been around the block — and ventured away from it — over the past two decades, before coming back with a bang: Last fall,…
There’s no crying in air hockey.Do you consider yourself a gladiator in the arcade? When the Denver County Fair hosts the 2014 Air Hockey World Championships next weekend, all of Colorado’s rec-room warriors are free to join — but the competition sounds stiff. See also: “Beer pavilion out, super-sized pot…
Artist Jon Zahourek teaches anatomy from the inside out, creating model skeletons from clay. And with the Studios at Overland Crossing, just off Santa Fe and Evans, he’s also built a community center from the inside out, taking a former pottery factory and turning it into a space for art…
It feels weird to commemorate quitting something that almost killed you. But on July 22 every year since 2006, I say thank you and congratulations to myself for being alive and healthy. As a drunk, I was somehow spared multiple DUIs; I drove drunk — blackout drunk, at that –…
#66: Matt Barton Artist Matt Barton hails from Colorado Springs, where he teaches at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and creates fantasy worlds in video and installation, in which animals talk and strange landscapes shimmer and people walk through prismatic lights. In these playgrounds for adults, Barton invites…
No need to sweat the rising temperatures: Your next kid-tastic adventure is just a fountain away. That’s right, the Denver metro area boasts some of the coolest, child-friendly fountains known to man, most adjacent to day-trip-worthy family attractions — and all free. What are you waiting for? Grab the kids,…
Most people think of the annual Colorado Renaissance Festival — or any Ren Faire, for that matter — as a medieval Comic-Con. But when we visited this annual blast from the past in Larkspur, we found the Renaissance Festival an ideal place for a strapping fellow to bear witness to…
Kelly Shortandqueer has been a staple in Denver’s creative community for over a decade. As a co-founder of the Denver Zine Library, a square dancer with the Rocky Mountain Rainbeaus, a victims’ advocate for the Colorado Anti-Violence Program and, most recently, an award-winning drag queen, he has no shortage of…
Jumping for joy with the Uganda Project. #67: Andrea Moore As a creative, Andrea Moore can’t be categorized: She works in words and action, embracing poetry, performance, photography, visual art and the less definable art of self-discovery — not just as a form of expression, but as a way of…
Forty years ago, one of the most infamous horror movies of all time was released. Tobe Hooper’s grimy, lo-fi The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was filmed on a small budget — reports differ, but no more than $300,000 by any account — and went on to gross $30 million at the…
Romance is always in the air, but Colorado is especially enchanting in the summer, when you can have a lovely time outside — or inside, escaping the heat. With so much to do during the warmer months, we’ve narrowed down the options to this list of ten of the best…
So, you’ve got a kid, huh? Whether it’s your own rambunctious preschooler or the bratty nephew you’ve been charged with keeping alive for the next five hours, the most important thing is leaving your house where valuables are liable to be destroyed and seeking refuge on somebody else’s property. In…
Crowds turned out at Tracks this weekend for the fifth annual Apocalyptic Ball, a fundraiser for the Colorado AIDS Project that combines drag queens — including RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Delta Work — and mini-fashion shows for a good cause. Photographer Eric Gruneisen brought back these images and more of…
For some of us, half the battle of being in a band is having the wherewithal to start one in the first place. Even if you’re not a musician, you probably have at least one musician friend who has a ton of fancy gear in his or her basement but…
#68: Gretchen Marie Schaefer Artist Gretchen Marie Schaefer, another TANK Studio member with roots as a RedLine resident, explores issues of mortality, decay and rebirth in two and three dimensions, building installations that take off from where her drawings leave off, using and reusing materials from one work to the…
