Walker Fine Art is one of the largest galleries in Denver, which means it can accommodate a couple of solos and a group show and still have plenty of open space (not to mention the back room and the corridors).
Right now, the enormous front section houses the solos: Gather, featuring paintings by Brigan Gresh displayed on the walls, and Gentle Motion, made up of kinetic sculptures by Roger Hubbard that are arranged on the floor.
From across the room, Gresh's abstracts have an expressive quality and a loosely done feel. But as you get closer, you realize that rather than slapdash action painting, her techniques are actually carefully calculated, and the pieces are covered with delicate pencil lines. The waxy surface treatments are also remarkable, producing a dull glow that translates into a deep sheen. Meanwhile, the Hubbards — which move when touched — are mid-sized floor works made of shiny metal rods with matching panels and sheets. The different parts have been so carefully joined together that the resulting works reminded me of giant pieces of jewelry.
In the back gallery, works by artists from Walker's stable are put together for a group outing. There are the wonderfully retro hard-edged abstract paintings by Angela Beloian, which sport unexpectedly organic shapes instead of the expected rectilinear ones. Both the palettes and the compositions are extremely limited, but because of those shapes, the paintings, like "Halo" (pictured), aren't minimal, but rather post-minimal. Next up are collaborative works by the father-and-son team of Mark Castator and Canyon Castator. These pieces, printed on sheets of glass, are the results of images passed back and forth electronically and altered by both artists, and by the inevitable degradation of digital connections. Finally, there's a trio of Don Quade's signature earth-toned mixed-media abstract compositions, which combine painted passages with found objects. The forms of these elements, along with Quade's chosen colors, give his work an exotic edge, as though he's referring to some distant cultures very different from our own.
All of these shows run through May 31 at Walker Fine Art, 300 West 11th Avenue, #A, 303-355-8955, walkerfineart.com.
