Go West

Fresh City Life's Audrey Sprenger, the nomadic Kerouac scholar who's somehow found herself staying in one place long enough to share the programming saddle of the Denver Public Library's innovative free cultural series, just can't say enough about New York artist (and personal friend) Ed Adler, whose visual pantheon includes a rambunctious pop-mythology cowboy series tailor-made for Fresh City's current Wilde Wild West theme, inspired by Oscar Wilde's fabled visit to Colorado.

"When I started working on this series, Ed got very interested in Oscar Wilde — both of us like stories that might be true — and began a new series of paintings inspired by this project," Sprenger says, hardly able to contain her anticipation for Adler's show. Wilde, Horses and Cowboys: An Odyssey in Art, a collaboration between the library and the Denver Art Museum, opens today in the underground Morrison Concourse that connects the neighboring institutions and includes the wild Wilde works.

Adler, whom Sprenger praises to the moon as a fabulous speaker, will be on hand from 2 to 3:30 p.m. to give a talk on the new painting cycle (which, Sprenger adds, will have a real "Where's Oscar?" appeal for kids), accompanied by local band Halden Wofford and the Hi-Beams, plus a gaggle of cancan dancers. He'll speak again tomorrow at the same time, offering a rare glance at the paintings of Jack Kerouac. As with all Fresh City Life events, the entire weekend is free and open to the public.

Wilde, Horses and Cowboys continues through May 26; visit www.denverlibrary.org/fresh or call 720-865-1206 for information.
May 17-26, 2008