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.
"Abandoned Vestige," by Rodger Lang.
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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.
