When people think of Colorado Springs these days, right-wing Christian fundamentalist politics come to mind more than art does. But for much of the twentieth century, the city at the base of Pikes Peak was the unrivaled center of the state’s art world. The best evidence of this is the…
This coming Sunday, several very fast cars will drive around in a circle 200 times for a total distance of 500 miles, an annual tradition that has now been going on for exactly a century. Yes, it’s the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500, one of the premier events in…
Denver PrideFest has announced the theme of this year’s festival: “These Colors Don’t Run: Honoring our LGBT Servicemembers and Veterans.” Organizers were inspired by Congress’s vote to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which would allow openly gay men and women to serve in the military. “We wanted to celebrate what…
Denver painter Karen Bozik first learned of the 100 Days Project, an annual collaborative online project for which a network of people working in interdisciplinary art create a work per day for 100 days and share the process through blog pages, from Sabin Aell, whose Hinterland gallery is currently showing…
The Ladies Fancywork Society, Denver’s ragtag gang of street knitters, has made the big time — as in the Gray Lady. Yesterday, the New York Times published a big story on the trend of yard bombing, a process that the paper said “takes that most matronly craft (knitting) and that…
The last leg of Create Denver Week was by no means an afterthought: Rather, Your Sunday Best, for which Fashion Denver’s Sprout spring market and the Denver Handmade Alliance’s Crafty Ballyhoo shared quarters at the Grant-Humphreys mansion, was rife with good vibes, in spite of the cloudy weather. And, typically…
Advertising is like a cultural mirror, which shapes the way we think of ourselves and others. But are our commercials reflections of us or are we reflections of our commercials? This question of advertising’s power to shape our culture comes to mind when watching this new spot for Google Chrome,…
Earlier this year, Robin Rule made the surprise announcement that she was relocating her swank-looking Broadway gallery to a much smaller space immediately adjacent to Ice Cube in the RiNo neighborhood. A couple of weeks ago, she opened the doors to this latest iteration of the Rule Gallery (3340 Walnut…
It was a lovely, cool evening on Friday night, as the sun went down and people began to gather in the shadow of the Spire at 14th and Champa streets in the Denver Theatre District. The second night of Create Denver Week 2011 held the promise of what would perhaps…
O, glory day for all Trekkies! Today marks the thirteenth 23rd year since the original air date of “The Neutral Zone,” the one and only episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that has had humans everywhere imagining themselves on the Enterprise. It was on this momentous day that the…
Rob Bell and John McCaskill of Derailed Ink, a small local t-shirt screen-printing business that’s had a fair amount of success with its sports-related tees, don’t have a problem with being small. It’s the pressure of big business that they don’t like. “We got tired of corporate entities dictating what…
It doesn’t take much evidence beyond his most famous paintings to suspect that Salvador Dalí was a weird dude: The persistence of crazy, distended forms, melting clocks, blood, rot and genitals is probably enough to draw that conclusion. But Dalí’s weirdness went far beyond its expression in his paintings; From…
The streamlined forms, the emphasis on planes and lines, the form-follows-function mentality: all tenets of architectural modernism. At the same time, though, it’s not so easy to define what is modernism and what isn’t — a lot of schools of architecture could fall under the broad umbrella of modernism, and…
Abstract paintings and sculptures continue to be popular draws at Denver galleries, and there are several shows on display right now, but abstraction — which I’ll get to in a moment — is also in the news. First up in the abstract realm is Galileo’s Garden, made up of mixed-media…
What do violin music, blacksmiths, preserving a family name and claims of undying love all have in common? They’re all things of the past; all things culture has decided we can happily live without. But the Dodge Charger is a thing outside of time; a constant beacon of badass in…
Though the decision is not set in stone, there was a community meeting last week regarding the possibility of a SuperTarget being put into the Tamarac Square mall on Hampden in Southeast Denver. After The Gap, one of the remaining draws for the shopping center, closed over a half-decade ago…
With blue skies predicted for the next few days, there ain’t no way First Friday won’t be sprouting artwalkers like dandelions. Spring is here, the art is good and the art districts are alive with the breath of things to come. Here are a few of our First Friday picks…
Free Comic Book Day is going down this Saturday, and for many people around town, that means venturing into a comic book store for the first time. We understand that can be a terrifying experience, but don’t worry, we’ve got you covered: If you happen to run into a trademark…
Denver Broncos Running Back Lance Ball held court (field?) at St. Elizabeth’s School yesterday for a charity event that happened to coincide with Teacher’s Appreciation Day. The children slithered all over him in that adorable, no-boundary-having way that kids do, and he absolutely loved it…
A little over four years ago, Frank Bingham’s entire family was killed at the corner of 15th and Arapahoe streets downtown when he, his wife and two children were struck by a drunk driver while crossing the street. Only Bingham survived. At the time, Bingham was the director of the…
Facebook is starting to make me itch, what with its infestation of high heels and sneaker spam, not to mention the scantily clad women advertising scattered-ass to and fro across the home page. Rather than your favorite social media hangout, it’s turning into the easiest place to catch a digitally…
Last August, Denver International Airport unveiled its ambitious plans for a hotel, an RTD commuter rail station and an RTD bridge (pictured) over Peña Boulevard. All had been envisioned as a coherent, interconnected and singular group of structures by architectural superstar Santiago Calatrava (whom I wrote about on August 5,…
