When you step out of the elevator on Level Four of the Denver Art Museum’s North Building over the next few weeks, you’ll see a colorful Quetzalcoatl flying above the lobby, letting loose two trails of Monarch butterflies into the pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial galleries. They’re part of Las Almas…
Conceptual art has a century-long history, dating back to Marcel Duchamp’s radical “Readymades” in the early 1900 s. By appropriating a snow shovel and then calling it a sculpture, for instance, Duchamp proved that artists had the sole authority to define what art was. From there, conceptual art grew to…
One of the reasons why people in this post-post-modern world respond so passionately to outdoor artis its impermanence. It will not be there forever, reminding us of our own fleeting existence. And ‘Duct Work, a massive mural project just completed in the viaduct space under I-70 at 46th Avenue and…
How great a visual wonder is 4,000 lanterns floating through the air at once? Enough to stop traffic. The entirety of cars in both lanes on I-25 came to a crawl on October 15 to witness the beauty as lanterns glided just above traffic to the west on a slight, warm, October…
Since opening in May 2013, Cold Crush has been place where artists could express themselves without restraint. Art was an integral part of the bar at 2700 Larimer Street, from the performers inside to the exterior of the building, including the south-facing facade that became a street-art canvas known as…
This weekend you can explore a colorful survey of traditional indigenous textiles at the Museo de las Americas or take in the most contemporary examples of contemporary art at Dateline — and that’s not all. Here’s a sampling of what’s new at Denver galleries. A Mano/By Hand Museo de las…
Below the bustle of the highly-trafficked corridor where Speer Boulevard meets Broadway, there’s a new, reflective set of murals along the banks of Cherry Creek. Called “Paramount,” the two murals were painted over the past several weeks by Alexandre Orion, a world-renowned artist from San Paulo, Brazil. And they are…
Michael McClung and Warren Campbell — the Michael and Warren behind Michael Warren Contemporary — have done a good job of introducing Denver audiences to Colorado artists who live and work outside the metro area, especially those from the Western Slope. An excellent example is the current exhibit Chasing Dragons:…
“Start at the bottom of the ballot.” Those were the final words of wisdom from Deborah Jordy, executive director of the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts, at the October 4 breakfast meeting designed to chew over the results of the CBCA’s latest “Economic Activity Study of Metro Denver Culture.”…
The editors of birdy like to joke that their magazine is banned in Thornton. And it’s true that the collectible arts and literary publication is no longer allowed inside the lobby of a particular art company there. birdy had donated a free advertisement to the Thornton-based business, but the owners were offended…
The Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities is marking its fortieth anniversary with two notable shows: Looking Back: 40 Years, 40 Artists, a survey of Colorado contemporary art over the past four decades that I reviewed last week, and Moving Forward: The Next Forty Years, an exhibit in the…
Every time I buy a tube of toothpaste, I fail. Part of my intention with the Mayday Experiment is to change everything, and that includes what I buy, and what I put down the drain. The drain issue is partially functional: Since I opted for only a greywater tank in…
South Broadway’s Cabal Gallery crew painted the town bloody on Saturday, October 8, for the Cabal Creep Show, a horror-fanatic’s dream/nightmare come true, with art depicting fanged underworld creatures, cleaver-wielding housewives, skeletal wildlife and giant spiders. And then there were the people! All photos by Aaron Thackeray. Now see the…
Even before Denver International Airport opened in 1995, conspiracy theories about the new facility were taking off – and thanks to social media, they’ve really flown over the past twenty years. Now airport officials are making lemon out of that lemonade, with Conspiracy Theories Uncovered, an exhibit that opened Monday…
This weekend the reopened Museum of Contemporary Art Denver segues into fall with three big shows, while the galleries at Leon and Super Ordinary shine on with a couple of sweet solos. Kim Dickey: Words Are Leaves Nathan Carter: Ladies and Gentlemen, Meet the Dramastics Bodacioussss MCA Denver October 8…
Boulder-based painter Sarah McKenzie has a handsome solo at David B. Smith Gallery called White Walls. The show’s title refers to the traditional exhibition space in a gallery or museum — typically a set of white walls on which art is hung — and in this show, McKenzie depicts these…
I love my city, I really do. Even if it is frustrating at times, with our traffic problems, the flood of ugly development, the constant “reimagining” of already-established neighborhoods, an embarrassing dog-poop epidemic and the inhumane treatment of our most vulnerable population, Denver is still a pretty great place to live. I’ve…
An inordinately large proportion of Colorado’s art-exhibition venues — including alternative spaces, galleries, museums and art centers — are located within the relatively confined area of central Denver. We’re talking about approximately 80 percent of the art infrastructure in the entire state. And while a number of surrounding suburbs and…
Five years ago, Stu Alden, co-owner of Ink Lounge, started ManCraft, a holiday market for male crafters, with a roster of eleven artisans. His goal was to give males a voice in holiday markets and a place to show off their crafts, and ManCraft succeeded far beyond his expectations, growing to include more than…
This weekend you can go outside, both literally and figuratively, at a grand landscape-based exhibit by Boulder artists, on an art walk through an historic Lakewood neighborhood or on a different walk through the grittiest of locales — under the I-70 viaduct. Evolving Visions of Land and Landscape Boulder Museum…
Painter Mark Brasuell has been part of Denver’s alternative gallery scene since the 1990s. For most of that time he was a member of Edge Gallery, but a couple of years ago he made a surprise move to join Spark Gallery on Santa Fe Drive. He now has a solo…
In northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, various Native American cultures stretching back to antiquity created distinctive works of art. Hundreds of years ago, Latino culture began to flourish in the area, establishing its own set of artistic currents. Finally, a century and a half ago, European-Americans came, and among…
