Artbeat

Brief sketches of what's happening in the Denver art scene.

A A A Comments By Michael Paglia Thursday, Apr 21 2005

The young artist with the epic name of Jared David Paul Anderson is a one-man art movement. Not only is he a serious painter, as he demonstrates in Red, White and Black, now at the Assembly (766 Santa Fe Drive, 303-573-5501), but he's also the founder of an artists' collective, the members of which have studios on the Assembly's premises. And that's not all: He's also established a nearby branch of his gallery, called the Annex, on Eighth Avenue. The Annex is accessed through the back of the Assembly via yet another Anderson project: the Ghetto Garden.

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This last project, located behind the Assembly, is walled off from the alley by a sculpture made of doors that briefly became a zoning cause célèbre when city officials sought to remove it, noting that doors are an illegal material for fence-building in Denver. Happily, the visually intriguing piece is now safe, having been officially declared a work of art.

Anderson -- who is inexplicably going by the name "Jared David Paul" for this show -- does neo-abstract-expressionist paintings on paper and board, using red on red and black on white. He has written that these paintings grew out of his interest in and study of Australian aboriginal and traditional Chinese art, but they look like they have a lot of New York School in them, too, as is evident in "pathless land".

In addition to his paintings, Anderson has created a group of simple but sometimes effective sculptures. These are made of found objects -- mostly tree logs -- that are painted black and mounted on straightforward stands.

Outside of First Fridays or other special times, you'll need to ask whoever's sitting the Assembly to let you in to the Annex. Right now there's an interesting show there called Mark Logan, which is made up of dozens of informally presented oil-stick drawings on paper. Logan is one of the acknowledged stars of the Assembly collective, and though there's a halfhearted look to this particular outing, many of the neo-abstract-expressionist drawings in it are very well done.

Both Red, White and Black and Mark Logan are set to close on April 30.

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