Though it may seem unlikely as you stew in I-70 gridlock, Colorado is an excellent place to enact your high-speed racing fantasies. Or at least, Playground Games seems to think so. Forza Horizon for the Xbox 360 is an open-world racing game that takes place in our fair state, against…
Timothy Standring, curator of the Denver Art Museum’s exclusive exhibition Becoming Van Gogh, traveled the world for several years to beg and borrow the show’s more than seventy paintings and drawings. It wasn’t an easy task. “People aren’t going to loan works by van Gogh, arguably the most well-known artist…
Michael Paglia visits Robischon Gallery in this week’s review, taking in work by three different artists. The main show focuses on Judy Pfaff and her installations. There is also a small show featuring Ana Maria Hernando, and a larger one with pieces from Katy Stone. Continue reading for photos from…
The visual arts in Denver reached an obvious high point in the fall of 2006, when the Denver Art Museum opened the Hamilton Building. But some runners up, date-wise, would have to include the following year, when MCA Denver moved into its new building, and last season, when the Clyfford…
If you missed the second presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney last night, you might not be able to understand your friends’ jokes this morning. Aside from an aggressively unexpected use of the phrase “gang bangers,” last night also featured the much-memed line in which Romney mentioned “binders…
The inaugural Art Meets Beast at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver was a surprise hit in 2010, featuring local chefs and arts enthusiasts in a mashup of mammoth proportions. And now the beast is coming back, with a two-day exploration of art that will culminate in a bison feast…
Melissa Borrell has been making jewelry for years — stylish, lightweight metal or 3D-printed nylon necklaces and dangling earrings in clean, sculptural shapes. But recently, she’s had a hankering to create something larger and less functional. The result goes on display at PlatteForum when her installation, tessellate, opens tonight with…
Denver has become the leading destination for all things related to the marijuana industry, especially now that Colorado sits on the precipice of a decriminalization law with Amendment 64, and a cutting-edge show by Dampie, a progressive artist who specializes in hemp-culture art, just opened at HoodLab, the gallery located…
One of the great historians of our time, Dustin Lance Black is responsible for some great dramatic portrayals of our country’s past. Whether his subject is Harvey Milk, J. Edgar Hoover or the California State Supreme Court, Black is painstakingly thorough with his research and masterful with his storytelling. While…
What is dasHAUS? Created in Germany, the compact pavilion demonstrates the most up-to-the-minute green technologies in home-building, from the sleekest of sustainable materials to renewable energy systems. Packed full of bright ideas, dasHAUS started a fourteen-city tour of the U.S. a year ago; now it’s at home in Denver’s Sustainability…
To celebrate the Great American Beer Festival, which is in town right now, and the release of its newest beer, End of the World Midnight Wheat, the Shock Top division of Anheuser Busch hired artist Stan Herd to create a massive piece of crop art in Lochbuie, near Denver International…
The tradition of the small-town social is vanishing even faster than Colorado’s small towns. All the more reason to head out to the eastern plains this weekend for The Big Feed, a unique blend of art show, county fair, hoedown and foot-stomping celebration of rural culture unfolding at the rodeo…
Not all art has to have meaning. Some of it is made just for the hell of it, because it’s fun to make art — and sometimes that art ends up being beautiful. Or not. Munny shows tend to fall into this second category, just because it’s cool to see…
Mayor Michael Hancock, Arts & Venues Denver and the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs just announced the 2012 recipients of the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts: Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe, Denver Ballet Guild and Emmanuel Gallery. The awards will be presented at a free, public celebration…
The Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design is fast building a reputation as a quality artist-making machine, and Joseph Coniff, a young RMCAD graduate, is living proof. Westword critic Michael Paglia called his 2011 exhibition at Rule Gallery “a spectacular debut for a young artist” and the show also…
The fall opener at David B. Smith Gallery is dedicated to Gregory Euclide, whose unusual work has made him someone to watch out for in the realm of contemporary art. Gallery owner David Smith has been a longtime supporter of Euclide, and this show, Observing only the ease of my…
Once you recognize Kevin Hennessy’s singular style, it’s hard not to notice his work all over Denver. “I used to do the specials on the chalkboard at City, O’ City when I worked there — they’d leave me on the clock and let me (design),” says Hennessy, whose official job…
For Now Showing, our fall arts guide inserted in the September 27 issue of Westword, we asked dozens of luminaries on the local arts scene — including winners of the Westword MasterMind awards — to take a survey about the state of the arts. We published many of the responses…
What do you get when you mix sexually adventurous adults, hot music, cocktails and the swanky atmosphere of the Jet Hotel & Lounge? A really fucking brilliant night of glittery, sweaty, naked and par-naked fun for which the memories are almost as titillating as the event itself. I felt very…
Beer and beards. It’s one of the greatest combinations in the history of the world. And luckily for guys with facial hair who like drinking beer, Wahl Home Products will be passing through Denver during the Great American Beer Festival, handing out $500 to the man with the best beery…
The Deer Pile’s turning into Denver’s stand-out salon, a cozy place where art and comedy and poetry mingle. Here no one’s considered an outsider — no matter how disenfranchised they might feel on the outside. It’s the kind of place where an event like Baby Hair can catch hold. Billed…
Artist/artrepreneur Eric Matelski earned his Westword MasterMind award (class of 2010) largely for his tireless promotion of other artists. Over the years, he’s gotten people talking at monthly events and shows hung at Dazzle and other bars and restaurants where people gather to enjoy themselves while they’re looking at the…
