The latest shows at Ice Cube Gallery are a delight

Although it has only been a going concern for a few months, the upstart Ice Cube Gallery (3320 Walnut Street, 303-292-1822, www.icecubegallery.com) has surely become one of the most impressive exhibition spaces in town. It's not just how beautiful and spacious the facility is; it's also the high quality of the work displayed there.

Related Content

• Engaging new installations at Ice Cube and Ironton require your interaction
  September 29, 2011
• Oxytocin and Pendent Tendencies give Ice Cube Gallery an installation charge
  January 19, 2012
• Photos: On Fire by Regina Benson at Ice Cube Gallery
  September 28, 2011
• Now Showing
  October 6, 2011
• Slug from Atmosphere on the fictionalization of his lyrics and unwinding with some online chess
  August 18, 2011

More About

• Regina Benson
• Paintings Patrick Loehr
• Ice Cube (Rapper)
• Visual Arts
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

As usual, there are two solos on view, supplemented by a group show dedicated to the work of Ice Cube's members. The main gallery has been divided into two separate spaces. Ahead and to the right is Personal Landscapes: Textile Installations by Regina V. Benson, while Resolution: Paintings by Patrick Loehr is off to the left.

Benson, who lives in Golden, has been making textile art for nearly thirty years, but it's only been in the last five that she started exhibiting it. Her complicated process involves dying, staining, rusting, embossing and sewing. The results are abstractions in the form of wall reliefs and suspended installations, like the compelling "Amber Grove" (pictured). Benson is a native of Lithuania, and the reference to amber conveys not only the color of the piece — and of everything else in the show — but also her homeland, where amber artifacts are so highly prized that there's a major museum dedicated to them.

Loehr, of Denver, is represented by two distinct bodies of work. The older pieces, done last year, are from his "Exquisite Corpse" series and refer back to a drawing game invented by the surrealists. A piece of paper is folded into three parts, and three artists create unrelated drawings that are brought together as one when the paper is unfolded. Loehr scanned the drawings and sent them to an Internet-based company that produces "authentic oil paintings on demand." The results are very creepy.

The other series, from this year, is made up of simple figure drawings on monochrome grounds on which the artist has placed enigmatic quotes. Both kinds of work are done in a post-pop or neo-dada style.

A closing reception will be held July 10, with talks by the artists beginning at 3 p.m. The shows themselves will close at 5 p.m. that same day.