Visual Arts

Michael Singer created “Interior Garden” 22 years ago. Now Denver International Airport wants to get rid of it, a request he discusses in this Q&A.

Michael Singer’s “Interior Garden,” which Denver International Airport wants to deaccession so it an save money and gain space, got a reprieve from the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs.

Exercise can be tough, and sometimes it takes a bit of extra effort to get off the couch and get moving. As it turns out, the best form of motivation often comes in the form of a beer at the end of an especially hard workout.

Tyler Clementi was eighteen years old when he jumped off the George Washington Bridge. His roommate had videotaped him having sexual relations with another man and broadcast the video on the internet.  Clementi became a symbol of the perils of online bullying – and an inspiration behind Tyler’s Suite, a nine-piece choral movement that will be performed by Harmony: A Colorado Chorale.

In Dmitri Obergfell’s solo at Gildar Gallery, Man Is a Bubble/Time Is a Place, the artist offers ” meditations on long arcs of time, informed by different sources,” the artist says.

Before a composer can successfully shape sound, he must learn to listen. In the case of Nathan Hall’s compositions, the audience must listen successfully in order to find the music’s shape.

Patrick Mueller’s dance company Control Group Productions has never been known for being easy, and its audiences can never take anything for granted when they sit down for a Control Group performance.

While Denver is a world-class city with a thriving arts and culture scene, it’s more importantly a place where sometimes you can see an alpaca, perhaps even several alpacas if you’re lucky.

On Thursday, April 27, Westword reported on why the Museum of Nature and Science opted not to have a presence at the Denver March for Science, part of a national challenge to the Republican administration’s attempts to undo environmental protections.

Roseanna Frechette, a poet and spoken-word artist, has lived in Denver since 1976, most of that time considering the city a choice, affordable place to work. In recent years, the city’s art scene has exploded, a phenomenon she says she welcomes. Alongside the creative communities’ recent boom development has also exploded, cranes litter the skyline and Denver is growing. Now, says Frechette, artists – who have long depended on the city’s affordability – and their homes and studios are endangered.

Since the Denver Architectural Foundation took over the task of fine-tuning Doors Open Denver from the city in 2014, the massive event celebrating Denver’s great architecture has blossomed.

Monet. Degas. Renoir. Manet. Toulouse-Lautrec. They’re some of the best known impressionists. They’re also all men. Women artists in nineteenth century Paris faced an uphill battle in pursuing their craft.

Denver letterpress printer Tom Parson has been practicing his hands-on and decidedly analog trade as Now It’s Up To You Publications since the early ’80s, after becoming interested in printing, as a poet and booster of small-press publications in Seattle.

When thousands of protesters, including prominent scientists and politicians, hit the streets of Denver as part of the national March for Science on April 22, some demonstrators took note of which groups were there and which were missing. One institution that was notably absent: the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

At the April 4 meeting of the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs, commissioners received a Request for Deaccession report from Denver International Airport that proposed removing three of DIA’s original pieces, part of a $15 million-plus art collection made possible by Denver’s policy that sets 1 percent of every major construction budget aside for art. “SkyDance” never really worked, and the floor in the Great Hall is apparently doomed by big expansion plans. But why get rid of Michael Singer’s “Hidden Garden”?

The Robischon Gallery has a talent for assembling separate shows that seamlessly interact with one another, and that’s definitely the case with a trio of exhibits on display now. They’re connected by both a goth mood and the enigmatic quality of the included works.

To Eric Shumake, art and activism are one and the same, especially when it comes to the plight of Denver’s homeless population.

Square Product Theatre artistic director Emily K. Harrison isn’t afraid to shake things up or try new things.

Denver gets ribbed for its fixation on blue public art — the curious blue bear that welcome visitors at the convention center and the demonic rearing horse at the airport both evoke controversy, each in its own way. But for Konstantin Dimopoulos, who arrived in Denver last week to begin painting trees blue in the Denver Theatre District, blue public art is no joke.

The Denver arts community is so populated with self-starting creatives that even the most penny-pinching locals have ample opportunities to enjoy free entertainment.

If you devoted the past week to spring cleaning and turning in your taxes, you missed some great events around town. Catch up on all the action in these slide shows.

Are you interested in collecting art but afraid to get your toes wet because of the cost? Quality artworks can be had at affordable prices, if you know where to look and what to look for.