In the intimate and inviting Viewing Room in the back of the Robischon Gallery (1740 Wazee Street, 303-298-7788) is a wonderful show, Trine Bumiller: new paintings. The elegant Bumillers provide the perfect visual chaser to Judy Pfaff, which is on display up front (see review). True, the space in the…
For a while back in the ’80s and early ’90s, it looked like formalism — essentially non-objective abstraction — was on the ropes. Then about five years ago, it rose, Phoenix-like, from the ashes of neo-expressionism, on the one hand, and annoyingly personal conceptualism on the other, re-establishing itself as…
Surplus, at Studio Aiello (3563 Walnut Street, 303-297-8166), is the big-tent title connecting three unrelated solos — but just for good measure, each also has its own title. The show starts with Clare Cornell’s Dress Formal, which combines photo-based pieces and sculptures. The sculptures from Cornell’s “Lingual Discharge” series are…
Surely among the mega-art trends of the early 21st century is art based on popular culture — which makes quite a bit of sense, because it was also a mega-trend of the late twentieth. It seems that everywhere, there are shows highlighting the different approaches being embraced by artists who…
There’s a remarkable show, Shock/Awe, currently in the back room at the Spark Gallery, 1535 Platte Street, 303-455-4435. This sophisticated exhibit features photos of television coverage of the Iraq war taken by Annalee Schorr, who’s renowned for this kind of work. Though Schorr is serious in her negative appraisal of…
It’s hard to believe, especially considering the budget shortfalls the city is facing, that the Webb administration just committed $3 million to demolish Skyline Park and replace it with…another park! What makes this situation so incredible is it’s happening at the same time that city-employee furloughs and layoffs are being…
In the front room at Pirate: A Contemporary Art Oasis (3659 Navajo Street, 303-458-6058), Shovels, Brooms, Ladders And Rakes… features found-object installations created — or would that be assembled? — by Phil Bender. The literal personification of Denver’s alternative scene, Bender was one of Pirate’s founders, way back in the…
The signs of spring are everywhere: Flowers are blooming; the leaves are coming out on the trees, and the 2002-2003 art season is officially over. That means we now find ourselves plunged neck deep into the off-season. But don’t be misled by that designation; worthwhile exhibits will continue all the…
It was just last month, for the first time since it was founded in 1996, that the Vance Kirkland Museum formally opened its doors to the public. True, the hours are quite limited (Wednesday through Friday, from 1 to 5 p.m.), but it’s still a big improvement over the previous…
At approximately this time every year since the 1970s, the Foothills Art Center (809 15th Street, Golden, 303-279-3922) has presented the area’s most important ceramics group show. No surprise, then, that the current version, Colorado Clay Exhibition, 2003, is really great. The annual show is juried, and this year’s celebrity…
Spring is the traditional season opener for yardwork, since it’s the best time for planting trees, shrubs, flowers, vegetables and, of course, grass. But not this year, at least not in Denver. The drought and that unbelievable March blizzard has left most landscape enthusiasts not planting — not yet –…
The Orwellian times that we live in have piqued the interest of the Colorado art collective iMiNiMi, which is made up of Roger Rapp, Kent Smith, Rick Visser and the artist known as Bug. For the exhibit Panopticon 21: You Are Being Watched, now at the Cordell Taylor gallery (2350…
The morning of April 9 was absolutely flawless here in Denver, with the temperature hovering in the mid-sixties under a stunningly clear blue Colorado-brand sky. On that perfect day, several hundred people had gathered in the former parking lot at 13th Avenue and Acoma Street to witness a celebration of…
Further evidence of the widespread representational painting craze that is all the rage right now is The Price of Illusion, a duet that features works by Denver painter Wes Magyar and those of nationally known Arizona painter Beverly McIver. The exhibit is the main attraction at the enormous Judish Fine…
Surely the most persistent current in painting is the representation of recognizable things, particularly the figure. In one form or another, representational painting has been around for about 15,000 years, ever since the cave paintings in France and Spain were created. Things went along fine after that, with countless landscapes,…
Artists often encounter difficulties when they address politics in their work. Remember those severed ceramic penises that were stolen from a show at the Boulder Public Library last year? Their ostensible theme was violence against women, but those dismembered members didn’t actually say anything about that; they just illustrated the…
Contemporary art seems to be relentlessly rocked by fads. A craze for some novel thing usually starts in the art magazines, and then suddenly it seems like everyone is doing it. Remember when renditions of little archetypal houses were everywhere eight to ten years ago? Where are they now? Even…
The current exhibit in the main space at Pirate: A Contemporary Art Oasis (3659 Navajo Street, 303-458-6058) has the somewhat poetic and thoroughly pretentious title of Precious Beyond. The show pairs well-known Denver painters Irene Delka McCray and Paul Gillis. McCray’s subjects — aging, sacrifice, suffering, angst and death –…
Periodically in fancy women’s clothing stores, like those in the Cherry Creek area, there are special events called “trunk shows.” They are advertised in the papers, and attendees often appear later in the society pages. In these shows, a representative of some haute designer or maker brings in trunks full…
Last year, the Andenken Gallery (2110 Market Street, 303-332-5582) had a short-lived branch called the Andenken Annex. Situated in the swanky SteelBridge Lofts, the little spot specialized in the work of young artists. Despite its brief run, it cast a long shadow, and though gone, it lives on in Annex…
Daniel Libeskind, an architect with a Denver connection, made a worldwide stir a couple of weeks ago when he was chosen to design the replacement for New York’s World Trade Center. And you saw it predicted here first, weeks before the decision was made — and without the use of…
Robin Schaefer, at Ironton Studios & Gallery (3636 Chestnut Place, 303-297-8626), is an intriguing show spotlighting a group of crisply rendered portraits. Schaefer, who maintains a studio at Ironton, has taken grade-school photos and translated them into oils on canvas. The resulting paintings, which are done in muted colors verging…
