Angela Beloian and Roger Hubbard.
For In Technicolor, her new exhibit at Walker Fine Art, Boulder artist Angela Beloian created a body of retro '60s and '70s paintings and screen prints based on "sketches" done using an iPhone. The works refer to minimalism, abstract surrealism and psychedelic art using just a couple of formal moves. Using flowing organic lines done with hard edges, Beloian orchestrates overlapping pictorial elements: the ground and, on top, overlapping color fields. As each of the fields crosses the other or the ground, a color shift occurs. When gray runs over lavender, for example, the two colors aren't blended, but rather stacked, with the intersection of the colored forms coming out blue. For Beloian, these shifts suggest light, shadow and the implication of three-dimensionality, with the results being incredibly fresh-looking. The Beloians have been paired with kinetic sculptures by Roger Hubbard from Arizona. These polished-steel contraptions move easily but need to be started with a push, and are too heavy to respond to the subtle movements of the air. Through September 6 at Walker Fine Art, 300 West 11th Avenue, #A, 303-355-8955, walkerfineart.com.Joseph Coniff (in parenthesis).
This is only the second presentation to open at the Rule Gallery since the untimely death of Robin Rule late last year. It was important to Rule that the gallery continue, so three longtime associates — Valerie Santerli, Rachel Beitz and Hilary Morris — are carrying on her vision. Rule might roll her eyes at the tumble-down character of the entry to the gallery, but she'd surely approve of the exhibition space where the Coniff show is installed. The work is from Coniff's recent "Delineation" series, made up of sublimely elegant post-minimal paintings. Coniff creates hard-edged works in which he stacks three horizontal bars. The bottom is broad and painted; the one in the center is covered in vellum adorned with a delicate graph pattern; and the one on top is a thinner bar of color. Despite the unnatural shades, it's clear that the works refer to landscapes. Also included is an irreverent sculpture made from an upended lamppost stuck in a bucket of concrete, done last year. It provides the perfect counterpoint to the cerebral paintings and works on paper. Through September 6 at Rule Gallery, 3254 Walnut Street, 303-800-6776, rulegallery.com.Outside in 303.
This summer feature at the Museo de las Amesricas is absolutely spectacular, with each of the included artists being given lots of space to stretch out. Conceived and organized by Museo director Maruca Salazar with help from the Denver Art Museum's Gwen Chanzit, the show looks at a generation of young Latino artists who began their careers as graffiti taggers. The group's mentor is Jack Avila, who is represented by an incredible wrap-around mural and installation in the large back gallery. Also doing standout work is Mario Zoots; known best for his collages, Zoots is also a painter, as evidenced here in his mural. Josiah Lopez has rendered full-figure studies of the people in the neighborhood, done in a traditional realist style on separate sheets of paper spread across the wall. Then there are some funny — and great — neo-pop portraits by Victoriano Rivera that relate well to the abstracted pop paintings by "Kans 89" (Josh Rogers). All of the works reflect the shared heritage of the artists, but none are more clearly Mexican than those by Javier Fidelis Flores and Gabriel Salazar. Through September 24 at the Museo de las Americas, 861 Santa Fe Drive, 303-571-4401, museo.org. Reviewed July 24.Takeover. The Gildar Gallery is hosting a guest curator, Charlie James, who organized the appropriately titled Takeover. James, a Los Angeles-based art dealer whose conceptual approach is similar to director Adam Gildar's, brought in a group of artists from his stable, as well as some locals. He picked those who create work dealing with power. One artist who pointedly takes on the idea is Daniela Comani, who switches the gender in titles of classic books — for example, "The Sisters Karamazov" and "Monsieur Bovary." Another artist who is direct about reflecting power in her work is Carol Selter, whose two photos of stuffed birds in nature are simultaneously beautiful and disturbing. Other works are less obviously related to a critique of power, such as the post-pop grid of small works based on baseball cards by Jim Thompson. The show's tour de force is "Torsos," by Adam Milner, another grid, though much larger, of the bare torsos of guys looking to hook up on m4m apps. Also doing grids, as he has for decades, is Phil Bender, with his piece made of Zig-Zag rolling-paper packages. Through August 14 at Gildar Gallery, 82 South Broadway, 303-993-4474, gildargallery.com. Reviewed July 31.
