Marvelous contemporary shows fill RedLine and Edge

At the opposite end of the installation pole is the concept of insubstantiality, as in the light projection by Sterling Crispin and a series of framed letters to Wall Street crooks by Linda Campbell aptly called "Millennium Men." There are also visiting artist Clemens Weiss's sculptures of glass and white glue.

The odd artist out — given that she's the only one doing photographs — is Denver newcomer Jennifer Miller, who has created intriguing abstract images.

Variously titled sculptures by Laura Merage, mixed materials.

Details

Through November 14, RedLine, 2350 Arapahoe Street, 303-296-4448, www.redlineart.org.Through November 1, Edge Gallery, 3658 Navajo Street, 303-477-7173, www.edgeart.org.For a slide show of these exhibits, go to westword.com/slideshow.

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RedLine has the potential to one day be among the biggest players in the Denver art world and could easily eclipse most of the other venues in town. In some sense, it is the apotheosis of the local artist co-operatives, the only difference being the millions of dollars that have been spent setting it up.

Of course, the co-ops are still great places to catch up with some of the best artists in Denver. And that's certainly the case with the much more modest Edge Gallery right now, where the impressive Mark Brasuell: Vista is on view.

Brasuell has long been associated with Edge and has lived in Denver for the last twenty years. A graduate of the now defunct MFA program at the University of Denver, he's from Roscoe, Texas, which was originally called Vista, and that's partly why he's named the show as he has. The paintings don't depict the town or refer to it in any way, however, since they are completely abstract. In fact, these paintings mark a continuation of an aesthetic path that Brasuell has been following for years: complex compositions made up of dense jumbles of forms done with layer upon layer of color.

These paintings sport several interesting features. By using iridescent shades and metallic paints, Brasuell's colors appear to change depending on the viewer's perspective. Even more unusual for Brasuell is the incorporation of fanciful glyphs that have been created by his partner, Aidan Grey, who is a conlanger, or one who constructs made-up languages. These glyphs look something like a cross between Hebrew and Arabic and relate wonderfully to the lyrical forms that dominate the paintings.

I've long admired Brasuell's work, but this show might be his best effort ever. Taken together with the RedLine exhibit, it goes a long way toward proving that the Denver art scene is a vast reservoir of first-rate talent.