Colorado Classic Architects, et al. Many of the finest buildings in town were done by firms with offices right here in the Mile High City, and they're the subject of Colorado Classic Architects, a handsome and informative exhibit in the Western Art Gallery on the fifth floor of the Denver Central Library. With plans, drawings, sketchbooks, memorabilia and photos from the library's collection, the show zeroes in on architects whose careers span the last century and represent a range of aesthetic visions -- from historical revival style to doctrinaire modernism. Some pieces are unforgettable: the very arty nighttime view of the Denver Gas and Electric Company Building, by H. W. J. Edbrooke; the sublime interior shot of the long-gone Burnham Hoyt's Albany Hotel; and a meticulous drawing of Eugene Sternberg's 1960s Denver General Hospital before its character was lost through insensitive additions. On the first floor, as an added bonus for architecture buffs, Michael Graves and the Denver Public Library includes the original model that won the architectural competition. Both shows run through December 31 at the Denver Central Library, 10 West 14th Avenue Parkway, 720-865-1111.
ERIKA BLUMENFELD. Rule Gallery, owned by Robin Rule, includes minimalism and its stylistic progenies among its specialties, as exemplified by ERIKA BLUMENFELD: Enduring Light. This is Blumenfeld's first solo show at Rule -- she was previously in a group outing at the gallery -- as well as her first one in Denver. Blumenfeld currently lives in Santa Fe, where she's been for a dozen years. Beginning in 1998, she began to experiment with reducing photography to its essentials: light and photo-sensitive surfaces. Without using a camera -- though she does employ some special equipment of her own invention -- Blumenfeld exposes film, paper or digital media to the sun or moon in order to record the light they emit. The process produces unbelievably subtle graduations of light against dark grounds. She often lines up a series of prints that record a process of some sort, like light streaking across the sky or coming and going. The show is extremely elegant and looks great in Rule's newish digs, a crisply finished long, narrow space. Through December 9 at Rule Gallery, 227 Broadway, 303-777-9473. Reviewed November 30.
Marilyn Monroe. Legendary movie star Marilyn Monroe was the definition of photogenic, and several photographers built their careers on memorable photos of her. Camera Obscura Gallery, right across the street from the Denver Art Museum, is hosting an interesting duet titled Marilyn Monroe: Beginning and End that looks at glamour shots by Andre de Dienes done between 1945, when he hired Monroe as a model, and 1953, when their romantic relationship ended, just as her film career began to soar. Many consider de Dienes's photos to be the best images of Marilyn Monroe ever done, which is really saying something. The shots by de Dienes are paired with those by George Barris, whose photos were done in 1962, shortly before the actress's death. Barris was a photojournalist who had been assigned to do a feature on Monroe, and he first met her on the set of her last film, the unfinished Something's Got to Give. Barris is believed to have taken the last photos of the star, but he refused to publish them until long after her death. Through December 31 at Camera Obscura Gallery, 1309 Bannock Street, 303-623-4059. Reviewed November 30.
Mile High Steel. This compelling exhibit was organized by Dennis Walla, who sifted through the photographic archives of Otto Roach, a mid-twentieth-century commercial photographer who founded Roach Studios (now Roach Photos Inc.) in the 1930s. "I wanted to do something on industrial photography," says Walla, who is a co-owner of Gallery Roach. "And as I was going through the archives, I discovered that most of it was from the early '40s, and the photos were of Denver companies doing work for the war effort." Ultimately, Walla selected more than three dozen images related to eleven different metal fabricators, a number of them in what is now the River North area, for Mile High Steel: Denver's Steel Fabrication Industry during World War II. Roach was hired by these local companies to produce photos that would help them get government contracts, and they did. Despite the original intent of the photos, which are created from vintage 8x10-inch negatives, Roach brought a tremendous sense of artistry to them, and his talent for capturing a wonderfully dynamic composition was apparently boundless. Through January 31 at Gallery Roach, 860 Broadway, 303-839-5202. Reviewed November 30.
Under the Radar. Among the treasure trove of art shows now in the area, UNDER THE RADAR: Chinese Contemporary Art at Robischon is clearly one of the best. The exhibit was put together by gallery co-director Jennifer Doran; its title is a play on Radar: Selections from the Collection of Vicki & Kent Logan, currently in the Anschutz Gallery on the second level of the DAM's Hamilton building. The Logans also loaned Robischon a pair of monumental works -- a sculpture of a pig by Chen Wenling and a triptych devoted to Buddha by Yen Lei -- that add pizzazz to the offering. Catching your eye while you're still out on the sidewalk is "Tang Lady," a fiberglass sculpture of a woman in traditional dress by Yu Fan. Another Fan, "Liu Hulan," is a genuine showstopper: Lying on the ground on a pool of plastic blood is a supine woman whose throat has been cut. (Hulan was a martyr for the Communist revolution.) Other artists in the show include Suo Tan, Liu Hong, Chen Liangjie and Zhang Dhali. Through December 30 at Robischon Gallery, 1740 Wazee Street, 303-298-7788. Reviewed November 16.
