The PlatteForum formula — pair a resident artist with a classroom of kids to co-create a body of art for a culminating exhibition — is currently in the able hands of sculptor and DU adjunct professor Kevin Curry, who often reclaims machinery, signage and the parts of technology to instill…
When an artist does work that is ahead of his or her time, it usually means the work is under-appreciated or even unnoticed. To some extent, that’s what happened to John Haeseler, who, beginning in the 1970s, created pieces that responded to both dada and pop art while addressing social…
At 11:00 this morning, an asteroid 5-20 meters in diameter came within 7,800 miles of Earth. Asteroids and meteorites (ever wonder the difference?) make close calls with Earth all the time, but no time in the history of the world was so harrowing as 1997 and 1998, when the Earth…
A God-send to every kid with a mildly sadistic urge to make drawing, like, a hundred times harder than it needs to be, the Etch A Sketch has been around for more than half a century, proudly complicating the shit out of tasks as normally simple as making a diagonal…
Back in 1948, a group of European-inspired artists known as “The 15” shook up the Denver Artists Guild with abstract work far removed from the Western-themed art Coloradans typically get associated with. This week, that group is getting recognized at the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art with an…
In an effort to ward off the persistent tagging of its building, The Matchbox on Larimer Street hired a group of some of Denver’s biggest-name artists — with funding from Pabst Blue Ribbon — to cover its walls with odes to that storied hipster beer. Last night, those artists –…
Lighthouse Writers Workshop, the fourteen-year-old creative writing school that has helped some of Denver’s best authors, is moving and consolidating its classrooms and office space into the historic Milheim House at 1515 Race Street. The house, built in 1893 for John and Mary Milheim, was originally located at 1355 Pennsylvania…
There’s something inherently unsettling about a person as perfect-seeming as Martha Stewart, something steely and cold within that gaze of practiced affability that belies a certain underlying strain. You get the sense that, like all things tightly wound beyond their breaking point, Martha Stewart must eventually explode. So it’s a…
The story of art in the twentieth century is well known. The center of the world in 1900 was in Europe, while American art was dominated by regionalism, a representational style derived from realism. With the rise of the Nazis and the advent of World War II, however, European artists…
A Ceramic Collaboration. To celebrate the fourth anniversary of his Plinth Gallery, which is specifically dedicated to contemporary ceramics, Jonathan Kaplan has mounted a show that highlights the clay scene in Colorado. Conceptually, the show has two parts, but it’s been installed as a single idea. The first part is…
House arrest isn’t just for political prisoners, Pol Pot and Ponzi scheme artists anymore. In the last few years, many celebrities have had the pleasure of serving hard time in the comfort of their own cushy homes — including Lindsay Lohan, who was placed under house arrest on June 17…
It wasn’t a big surprise to Sophia Dixon Dillo that a few technical problems cropped up during the installation of her Light and Line show at Ice Cube Gallery this morning; when you’re working with some 25 miles of fishing line, there are bound to be a few snags, so…
Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds, the world’s leading collector of failed superhero franchise leads, opens today. Reynolds plays Hal Jordon, a fearless test pilot who’s chosen to become part of an intergalactic peacekeeping force called the Green Lanterns. They use their power rings to harness the green energy of “willpower”…
Books, says Alicia Bailey of Abecedarian Gallery, are by nature interactive, so it’s ironic that the often delicate handmade books she usually exhibits can’t be handled too much. But when the two small shows Interactive Artifact and Music Bo(o)x open tonight with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m., the…
Homing pigeons are amazing birds. From a young age, they have the ability to find their way home to where they were raised from hundreds of miles away. This ability — which has yet to be fully understood – made them perfect for delivering messages in ancient Egypt, where people…
In this week’s edition of Gratuitous Randomness, we examine the antidote to the Scumbag Steve (and Scumbag Girl) meme — which rocketed to popularity with online communities like 4chan and reddit — Good Guy Greg. Here’s a curated list to get you up to speed on Good Guy Greg’s good…
Back in April, dancer Tara Rynders produced You & Me, a two-day, multi-artist performance piece that took place in and around her Denver home. As the final part in the completion of her MFA in dance and video performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Rynders set up the…
Face it, we never really get rid of our toys after we grow up. They morph and change shape a little bit, but they’re still toys, though perhaps imbued with a different, more complex meaning. As kids, we play because it helps us learn to navigate the world. As adults,…
British actor Mark Rylance won the best actor Tony Award on Sunday night for his role in Jersualem — watch here as he trolls the audience (and everyone watching at home on TV) with this acceptance speech wherein he expounds on the finer points of walking through walls. We knew…
Films based on comic books can really suck. But every once in a while, the stars align and the movies manage to translate a graphic novel into a film that actually works on its own. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is one of those successes, an adaptation of Bryan Lee…
World renowned press conference showman LeBron James — or LeBenedict James, as he is known in Ohio — played in the final game of the NBA Championships two nights ago, while all of Cleveland, including his former teammates on the Cavaliers who weren’t busy with their day jobs as fry…
The Upper Larimer area may be hot today, but for pure aesthetics, it’s hard to beat a time in the ’80s when the area at 31st and Larimer streets was home to CORE New Art Space, the Sullivan-Bisenius Gallery and, right upstairs, three studios occupied by Dinnie Sherman, longtime Westword…
