Artbeat

Here's some sad if not unexpected news: It will soon be time to bid adieu to the wonderful little Andenken Annex (1449 Wynkoop Street, 303-758-2290) in LoDo. Since June, the Annex has been ensconced in the first-floor space of the SteelBridge loft complex, which has a great, high-profile location. Now that desirable space has been sold, and so, inevitably, it's curtains for the Annex.

Although a spinoff of the Andenken Gallery, which is located some blocks away, near Coors Field, the Annex is independently managed. Its two young co-directors, Jason Miracle and Jason Patz, originally came to the Annex as featured artists in last summer's smash Jason and Jason show. At that time, founding director Warren Kelly returned home to Taos, and Miracle and Patz were immediately drafted into running the place, despite the fact that they lacked any practical experience in the field. And no question about it; they did a really good job, booking the Annex with one neat show after another, all highlighting emerging, untested talent.

"It's been a great experience," Patz muses. "In a very short time, the Annex got quite a bit of notoriety, and a lot of people liked what we were doing." Patz is predictably disappointed about the impending closure, but he's also philosophical about it. "We knew it was something that was going to happen," he says. "I only wish it had been six months from now. We had shows that were planned all the way through June, and I know all the artists are disappointed." As are the rest of us, I might add.

Fortunately, there's one Annex offering left before Miracle and Patz fold up the tent for good: Wriggle and Writhe, which opens this Friday, December 6. The exhibit includes new installation work by budding artists Carla Miranda and Michael Ulrich. Miranda creates near-invisible pieces using multicolored thread, while Ulrich makes paintings in which the paint flows off the canvas and onto the walls -- or even around the corners, as in the elegant and hip "Go Brazil" (above).

Wriggle and Writhe is installed in the much smaller space next to the Annex and will remain up until December 29, when, like it or not, the whole wonderful thing becomes part of Denver's past.