Heroes vs. Villains
Cooper & Dash, 1441 Wazee Street, Unit 103
June 14 through July 14
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 14, 6 to 8 p.m.
The LoDo gift shop Cooper & Dash is primarily a hip gift shop, but it also regularly gives over wall space to fun art exhibits that fit in with the rest of the retail mix in the store. Heroes vs. Villains is just that kind of show — a group outing focused on pop-culture media characters both good and evil. It’s a nice fit for Comic Con, and worth coming in out of the heat to see.
Sierra Montoya Barela's Not Much of a Writer, I Love You opens June 15 at Odessa Denver.
Sierra Montoya Barela
Odessa Denver, 430 Santa Fe Drive
June 15 through July 27
Opening Reception: Friday, June 15, 6 to 10 p.m.
Sierra Montoya Barela, a young artist with a bright future (and one of the first batch of Denver artists chosen to provide work for MCA Denver’s Octopus Initiative art-lending library project), gets a chance to shine in a solo show mounted by Odessa Denver at the Collective SML/k space on Santa Fe Drive. Humor, art-history jokes, odd juxtapositions and lush colors all intersect in her collage-like paintings and sculptures, making for an exhibit that will raise a million questions in your mind.
Real Shapes
Dateline, 3004 Larimer Street
June 15 through July 22
Opening Reception: Friday, June 15, 6 to 11 p.m.
Dateline gives up its walls for the next month to a neighbor, Aaron Mulligan of JuiceBox Gallery, who’s curated a group exhibit that toys with the idea of plasticity and malleability in art and life. He’s gathered a crew of artists working in plastic mediums to comment on what it means to be flexible. Hopefully the doors will also be open at JuiceBox, 3006A Larimer Street, where the group show A Harder Soft is currently on view through July 21.
RedLine showcases its Reach Studio program with the exhibit Human Condition(s).
Caroline Pooler
RedLine Contemporary Art Center, 2350 Arapahoe Street
June 15 through July 8
Opening Reception: Friday, June 15, 6 to 9 p.m.
RedLine’s Reach Studio, which provides studio space and a sense of collaboration and community to artists in need, pulls together a group exhibition once a year to bring the project full circle. Curated by former RedLine resident Sarah Rockett, Human Condition(s) investigates the interplay of morality and sticky human issues.
Tony Ortega
Eldorado Springs Art Center, 8 Chesebro Way, Eldorado Springs
June 15 through July 25
Opening Reception: Friday, June 15, 6 p.m. (music at 8 p.m.)
Admission: $15 in advance at Eventbrite, $18 at the door
The Eldorado Springs Art Center, a unique venue tucked away on a hillside in scenic Eldorado Springs, was created by sculptor Giuseppe Palumbo from the dilapidated remains of an auto repair shop. The space has evolved from live/work studios into an informal art center, complete with a courtyard and sculpture garden, where it will host Cuba in the Springs, an international art exhibit, in conjunction with the Boulder-Cuba Sister City Organization. The exhibit, which showcases a handful of Cuban artists and Denver painter and printmaker Tony Ortega, who recently visited Cuba with a camera in hand, opens with a celebration that includes world fusion music by Havana’s Pellejo Seco, with backup from Colorado soul band Let the Beat Speak.
Patrick Wilkins, Fun Isn’t Fun Anymore
Leon Gallery, 1112 East 17th Avenue
June 16 through July 28
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 16, 7 to 11 p.m.
Chicago-based painter Patrick Wilkins is a perfect fit for Leon, a nurturing gallery that encourages artists to experiment and produce work from the gut rather than the pocketbook. That’s not a stretch for Wilkins, whose raw, cartoony collage paintings echo the satirical grotesquerie of a James Ensor or George Grosz, though in completely 21st-century terms. This show is going to blow some minds.
Interested in having your event appear in this calendar? Send the details to [email protected]. For more events this weekend, see our 21 Best Things to Do in Denver.
