My primary interests when writing reviews lie in contemporary art and, to a lesser extent, historic modern art. But this sensibility means I don’t always get a chance to focus on traditional art from the past, which is much more popular with the general public. As a result, I have…
The art world is driven by trends, and some artists spend their careers following one after another. Others develop their own point of view and carry on with it for decades, completely oblivious to anything else. This latter type is exemplified by longtime Denver painter Sandra Wittow. She has definitely…
As regular readers of this column know, I have a special place in my heart for the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Sure, it’s far away and in the heart of a town known for its right-wing religious zealots. But there’s so much art history associated with Colorado Springs that…
Michele Mosko grew up in Denver but spent most of her adult life in New York working as an art dealer. A few years ago, she moved back and opened a tiny gallery just steps from the Denver Art Museum’s Martin Plaza, in front of the Hamilton Building. Michele Mosko…
The so-called green movement posits the idea that humanity could and should limit its impact on the planet. Oh, sure, a lot of it is little more than marketing hype; tract-house developers, for example, who have focused on paving the countryside can claim to be earth-friendly simply because the houses…
Light and Time, in the front of Rule Gallery (227 Broadway, 303-777-9473, www.rulegallery.com) consists of small, wet-plate Collodion print photographs by Mark Sink and Kristen Hatgi that have been propped against the walls. The Collodion process is an early photographic method used by Civil War documentarian Matthew Brady. In a…
Because the Project Gallery on the second floor of MCA Denver regularly showcases Colorado artists, it has emerged as one of the most interesting spaces at the museum. This is an important part of the MCA’s mandate, since one reason the institution was founded was to provide an opportunity for…
Bobbi Walker, the owner and gallery director of Walker Fine Art (300 West 11th Avenue, #A, 303-355-8955), typically has one show in the front of her space featuring two or three participants, then fills the back with the work of artists from her stable. But with The Man Show, both…
Colorado — and its prominent place in romantic notions about the Old West — has achieved celebrity status. It’s one of the reasons we’re invaded year-round by armies of scenic paparazzi seeking to hunt down picturesque landscapes and take candid photos of them. It might be an embarrassment to some,…
Earlier this summer, a project that was dedicated as “finished” in 2006 was finally completed. It’s the 16th Street Pedestrian Bridge, by Carter & Burgess, that crosses I-25 and connects the trendy Highland neighborhood to the ultra-trendy Platte Valley. The white-painted steel bridge is handsome enough, even if it’s hardly…
It sounds like a preposterous moment in a cheesy and sentimental Western: A couple of artists out of New York City head from Denver to Mexico by wagon, break down and start an art colony that goes on strong for the next sixty years. It really does seem made up,…
There have been some big changes recently at the Denver Art Museum’s Petrie Institute of Western American Art. Last month, longtime associate curator Ann Daley stepped down after more than twenty years (Artbeat, October 9). And now, Petrie director Peter Hassrick (pictured) has announced his retirement effective next April. Hassrick…
The art tidal wave that’s hit Denver in the past few years hasn’t just led to a museum-building boom. It has also led to an explosion of galleries. I haven’t sat down to count all the commercial art venues in town, but I know it numbers more than a hundred…
Performance art, which has been around since the early twentieth century, is pointedly non-commercial because it’s so ephemeral. It literally comes and goes with little remaining but memories — and a few photos and props. It’s the opposite of object-based art and has as much or more to do with…
Laura Merage is an accomplished photo-based artist whose work I’ve reviewed a few times during the past decade. Her photos and photo-based pieces are supremely elegant and extremely sophisticated, as is she. More relevant to my story this week, however, is her other career, as a generous philanthropist with a…
When Sandy Carson, a fixture in Denver’s contemporary art world, announced earlier this year that she had sold her namesake gallery, even insiders were shocked. Carson has been on the scene since the beginning of time, which in Denver means the 1970s. The buyers were Bill and Jan van Straaten,…
There has never been an election cycle during which Colorado has been as much in the spotlight as it has this time around. It’s been so exciting. Not only was Denver the site of the Democratic National Convention — when Barack Obama addressed the world from a photogenic neo-mod ern…
There are basically two parallel art worlds out there: the contemporary scene and the traditional one. Some artists, however, are able to work in both realms at once, like the painter being feted in the impressive Daniel Sprick: The Living and the Dead at Gallery 1261 (1261 Delaware Street, 303-571-1261,…
Hugh Grant, director of the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, has relentlessly carried the torch for Colorado’s art history, doing more to promote awareness of this important legacy than anyone ever has. He began his promotion with the work of Vance Kirkland, for whom the museum has been…
In the front gallery at Walker Fine Art (300 West 11th Avenue, 303-355-8955, www.walkerfineart.com), owner Bobbi Walker has paired up painter Don Quade and sculptor James Dixon, both from Denver, for the exhibit Natural Abstractions. The show’s title is somewhat general in its implications, if not quite a catch-all, because…
You’d have to be living under a rock — or have absolutely no interest in contemporary art — not to know that Damien Hirst is a superstar. For more than a decade he’s been one of the top artists in the world, and just about everything he makes is worth…
When I went to the MCA/Denver (1485 Delgany Street, 303-298-7554, www.mcadenver.org) last week to preview Damien Hirst, the place was a beehive of activity. In addition to the Hirst display going up in the Large Works Gallery, another exhibit was being installed around the corner, in the Promenade Space. Called…
