Arts & Entertainment

Three in One

Space Gallery presents abstract paintings and sculptures.

By Michael Paglia 

Art offerings along Santa Fe Drive are uneven, at best, but a few places always seem to have something worth looking at. There's the Sandy Carson Gallery, of course, the ArtDistrict's flagship. But there is also Space Gallery (765 Santa Fe Drive, 720-904-1088, www.spacegallery.org), directly across the street. Space ordinarily serves up an eclectic brew of conceptual realism alternating with abstraction. The latter is getting its turn right now, with three solos that have been combined into a single, coherent exhibit.

The Gallery's owner is feted first in Michael Burnett, on the left as you enter. I haven't followed every twist and turn of Burnett's style, but these recent paintings look very different from what I remember about his oeuvre. They are notably simpler and less heavily painted. They are also lighter in color, more boldly graphic and downright lyrical, all of which is seen in "SS3#1" (pictured).

Opposite the Burnetts is Lewis McInnis, featuring some choice geometric abstracts by this Fort Collins-based painter. McInnis is little known in Denver, and that's something that should be fixed. Paintings of this sort could tend toward the decorative, but McInnis introduces a tension between the hard edges and the soft colors that delivers a more complex character as opposed to simply looking pretty.

On the floor, in between the Burnett and McInnis displays, is Mark Castator, made up of steel sculptures in the form of spheres and towers. Castator, of Boulder, cuts steel tubes and pipes and welds the slices into assemblages. The spheres, which are reminiscent of Tyler Aiello's otherwise very different pieces, are extremely nice, but they are absolutely blown away by the much more interesting towers.

The three-in-one abstract feast at Space closes May 24.