Artbeat

With so much attention directed at all the major exhibits around, many modest but equally worthwhile offerings get lost in the shuffle. Hopefully, that won't be the fate of a quartet of interesting solos in two of the city's co-ops.

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• Judith Cohn
• Annalee Schorr
• Jennifer Lynch
• Galia Shapira

In the front space at Spark Gallery (1535 Platte Street, 303-455-4435) is Judith Cohn's Loops. For this contemplative show, Cohn made dozens of low bowls -- not unlike Japanese ikebana vessels -- and stacked them in tallish, precarious-looking piles. The essentially flat-sided bowls are expressively glazed, with the rims being picked out in glazes. But instead of the colors staying in place, they've been allowed to run down the sides -- a wonderful effect.

A very different mood is conjured in Annalee Schorr's Object, in Spark's back space. The exhibit's title refers to everyday objects -- keys, CDs, a hammer -- that Schorr photocopied "live." The enlargements are the most effective of these pieces. Object is the latest in a series of Schorr exhibits presented over the last decade in which images of ordinary things are used as social commentary.

Social issues take center stage at yet another small but choice offering just a hop, skip and a car ride away at Pirate (3659 Navajo Street, 303-458-6058). In the Associates' space, Galia Shapira presents three photo-based installations in WELCOME TO THE MACHINE. The most ambitious of the trio is "the obvious degradation of being" (detailed above), which is tremendous. Images of young men are suspended from the ceiling with cables, and the whole thing is backlit with fluorescents.

While you're at Pirate, be sure to check out Jennifer Lynch's Fractal Series, in the ILK @ Pirate space. Lynch, who is a big-time printmaker living in Ranchos de Taos, is doing a guest turn at ILK. This handsome presentation features a good number of her solar-plate prints, a technique that uses the sun to inscribe etching plates. The colors she chooses are sensational, especially the burnt-orange tones and deep purple-blues.

All four of these shows close on December 22, leaving just a few short days to catch them.