Mile High Fires

Perisho has chosen two artists for presentations of their own at the center, giving each an entire room. In the window space, there are three black expressionist vessels by Richard DeVore. Each gracefully billows into a trumpet shape, and each has an intentional hole in the bottom.

In the adjacent space, local legend Maynard Tischler is represented by a group of sculptures based on trucks, including a flatbed with cargo that serves as a tea set. Also, leaning against the wall is a fragment of the mammoth tile mural being created for the new Ritchie Center at the University of Denver.

Volume, at Ron Judish Fine Arts (also in lower downtown), is another kind of group show, putting together ceramic artists with a painter and a sculptor. Up front are the sublime glazed ceramic bowls by Michael Brohman and the expressionistic stained and gilded monumental chalices by Barbara Sorensen, which have been unexpectedly joined with the neo-minimal plywood sculptures by Jeff Richards. In the middle room, Jeff Wenzel's small clay sculptures, some with geometric decorations, are placed on shelves opposite a few recent geometric paintings, including a free standing pair by Bruce Price.

At the Market Street Gallery at Guiry's are two solos featuring work in ceramics and mixed media: Strands Pathways Gravity, made up of recent work by Martha Russo, and Sparks, a group of installations by Nancy Blum.

In the wilds of the western suburbs are several shows also on the must-see list. First and foremost is the densely installed Time in Tandem: James and Nan McKinnell Retrospective at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, which takes a close look at the individual and collaborative work of the McKinnells beginning in the 1940s. From the show, Nan may be seen to have been influenced throughout her career by industrial design, whereas Jim remained Japanesque in the tradition of British potter, Bernard Leach, one of his many mentors. Globetrotters who have lived in England, France and Japan, the McKinnells finally settled in Colorado in 1970 and have remained here ever since.

The Arvada Center is also featuring a pair of official NCECA shows, the fairly impressive NCECA Regional Student Juried Exhibition upstairs and the conference's invitational, A Glimpse of the Invisible: Exploring the Spiritual in Art, downstairs.

Glimpse has a nonsensical quality, and there seem to be a number of different, unreconciled currents in the show. Particularly annoying is the inclusion in a contemporary show of the work of the long-deceased Maria Martinez -- as exquisite as it is -- which seems opportunistic or maybe even patronizing.

Despite this drawback, there are some things worth seeing. The Ruth Duckworth vessels are sublime, as are the DeVores. Blum's steel cable, hardware, Pyrex and glazed ceramic wall installation "White Work" is fabulous. Among the best of the abstract sculptures is the neo-minimal Jeffrey Mongrain's "Falling Black Water," a hard-edged slab of steel that has been covered in clay and wax. Another notable piece is Robert Brady's "Lahn," a hollow, pod-like sculpture finished in a fantastic yellow glaze.

In Golden, the Foothills Art Center is showcasing Colorado Clay 2000. Presented annually since the 1970s, this is ordinarily the only major ceramics show mounted in the region during a typical year. It would be a real shame, then, to ignore it in the tidal wave of ceramics show this year. The 2000 edition is being done a little differently than it has been in the past: In addition to the expected juried section, there are individual salutes to local artist educators, including Woodman, Holt, Lang, the McKinnells, Ed Oshier, Tom Potter and Mark Zamantakis.

These shows, all of them celebrating the NCECA, are just some of the best bets. There are a score of other exhibits around that are likewise intriguing, but trying to see them all would surely make one's eyes glaze over.