Art Beat

Michael Paglia's brief sketches of what's happening in the Denver art scene.

Comments (0) By Michael Paglia Thursday, Feb 3 2000

Inflections of Style, at the Market Street Gallery at Guiry's, is a display of small three-dimensional objects created by a wide array of artists, most from around town, a few from across the country, and even a couple from Europe. But it's primarily a local show -- and a very good one.

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The recipient of a grant from the Goldfarb Foundation, the exhibit was put together by an enigmatic group with an enigmatic name: The Invisible Museum. Those who hope to learn about the phantom institution by attending the show, however, will most likely come away with more questions than answers.

A major force behind the Invisible Museum is Marina Graves, an advocate for the arts, a consultant and a well-known figure on the local art scene. She's had a long association with the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, where she's still a staffer, and she organized this show with help from artist Myron Melnick.

Somehow, Graves was able to get most of the city's elite galleries and many of the biggest names in local art to cooperate for the show, which is the first of three Invisible Museum exhibits planned at Guiry's in the next six months. Established talents Bob Mangold, Chuck Parson, Martha Daniels, Roland Bernier and Jeff Wenzel are represented here, as are several emerging artists, including Stephane Gonzalez, Melanie Hoshiko and Bryan Andrews, whose sculptural group, "The Ill-Fated Weekend of No-Eye," is seen above.

Inflections, which runs through February 26, is extremely well-done, and since everything is small, it allows visitors to view the work of many artists together. But the show reveals more than the breadth of the contemporary sculpture scene; it also reveals Graves to be a first-rate exhibition organizer.