Blind Justice

Foothills Art Center curator Michael Chavez has long been a fan of Colorado artist Wes Magyar and the surrealistic bent of his work. But because Foothills doesn't traditionally host solo shows, Chavez began to look at other local artists working in related styles. He eventually settled on twelve individuals, including Magyar, for REALationships: Works of Surreal Inspiration. That alone would make for a fascinating show, but Chavez saw further potential in the chosen lineup. He invited the artists to take part in an exercise in which they would blindly collaborate on a series of dadaist composites to be committed to etching plates and printed by Chavez and Mark Lunning of Open Press. The results would be revealed in a second exhibition, titled Exquisite Corpse.

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Nine of the participants bellied up to the project, and on display will be three sets of prints, each done by three artists; all nine worked on their joint plates without knowledge of what the others had drawn. "The correlations that happened by chance are really fun," Chavez says of the finished prints. "You really can see that the collective unconscious is out there working." Chavez and Lunning ran ten prints per image; each will be available for purchase at $200 apiece. "This is such a unique opportunity to get a unique piece of artwork worked on by three different artists," he notes. "It's a collector's dream."

REALationships and Exquisite Corpse open tonight from 5:30 to 8 p.m. along with Are You Exquisite?, a reception and potential audience-participation event. The shows will remain on view through March 11 at Foothills, 809 15th Street in Golden. For more information, call 303-279-3922 or visit www.foothillsartcenter.org.
Sat., June 16, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.