It’s high summer, the perfect time for the Art District on Santa Fe to experiment with closing off four blocks of the street to traffic —from Sixth to Tenth Avenue — during the August First Friday art walk. Here’s a taste of what you’ll encounter as you walk freely on the bustling thoroughfare — and more gallery openings and special events to enjoy in Denver this weekend.
Los Soldados of Santa Fe Drive
Chicano Humanities and Arts Council
August 7 through 31
Opening Reception: 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, August 7
Interactive Eco Workshop
Museo de las Americas
5 to 9 p.m. Friday, August 7
CHAC gives over its walls to a summery street vibe in August for Los Soldados of Santa Fe Drive, a group show where spray-painted work and more traditional paintings by Vincent Benavidez, Felipe Dominguez, Jay Jaramillo, Josiah Lee Lopez, Jerry Jesus Miera and Miguel Robledo hang side by side in the community-driven gallery.
Meanwhile, at the nearby Museo de las Americas, the doors will be open wide for the ongoing exhibit Gunther Gerzso: A Mexican Master and a hands-on workshop where you can help build a South American stilt house, or palafito, courtesy of Denver’s American Latino Eco Festival.
Rewind: Dateline 016
Dateline Gallery
August 7 through 28
Opening reception: 7 p.m. Friday, August 7
Dateline and the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design team up at the laid-back gallery in RiNo for Rewind, a four-person mixed-bag of a show from accomplished RMCAD graduates Helen Alexandra, Justin Beard, Christine Buchsbaum and Dmitri Obergfell. You might see anything here, from video and photography to sculptural and conceptual works, in a distillation of RMCAD’s influence on a new wave of artists working in Denver and beyond.
Zine Swap
Abecedarian Gallery
4 to 8 p.m. Saturday, August 8
We already have a dedicated zine library in Denver, but now the Denver Public Library and the University of Denver’s Penrose Library are getting into the act of preserving such ephemeral DIY literature. Alicia Bailey of Abecedarian Gallery, a local showcase for book art of all kinds, will be the middleman in helping these more formal venues add to their collections by hosting a zine swap with a twofold goal: You can come and simply swap your zines with others or you can also choose to donate some copies for posterity — and placement in a searchable research database.
Want more? See the Westword events listings for current gallery and art museum exhibitions and openings in the metro area.