Eight Arty Things to Do and See This Weekend

This weekend in Denver galleries, you’ll find a rich grab bag of shows: some at co-ops, some related to the ongoing Denver Month of Printmaking, some of them invitations to be one with the art, some traditional and others anything but. Whatever the case, you have no excuse to stay home. Here’s where things are happening:

(in) Particulate, new works by Mark Brasuell
Prints by Mary Mackey and Zack Zyskowski in the North Gallery
Spark Gallery, 900 Santa Fe Drive
March 8 through April 1
Opening Reception: Friday, March 9, 6 to 9 p.m.
Spark member Mark Brasuell takes over the main gallery in March with a series of large-scale abstract pastels blasted with color and a new outlook since his last show, Blood: New Work by Mark Brasuell. That show in particular addressed the aftermath of Brasuell’s liver transplant, and things are looking sunnier now. In the north gallery, veteran Mary Mackey and newcomer Zack Zyskowski pay homage to Mo’Print 2018 with print works both solo and collaborative. It’s a good month to check out Spark; DJ Ponk will provide beats at the opening. Come back from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on March 31 for a Sunday brunch talk with Mackey.

Making Art / Making Community
Vicki Myhren Gallery, 2121 East Asbury Avenue
March 8 through April 29
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 8, 5 to 8 p.m.
The Myhren Gallery turns to art that draws in and engages its audience through participation and collaboration for Making Art / Making Community, an eight-person show that covers a gamut of DIY social tactics the artists invented outside of the studio. For example, social practice artist and printmaker Emmy Bright will share her ongoing series More Stupids at a live tarot-card reading using a deck of her own invention on Wednesday, April 11, from noon to 5 p.m. Arrive feeling ready to take some responsibility in shaping your experience.

Julie Jablonski, The Legs on Which We Stand
Kat Nechleba, This World Is Strange and I Blame It on You
Pirate: Contemporary Art, 7130 West 16th Avenue, Lakewood
March 9 through 25
Opening Reception: Friday, March 9, 6 to 10 p.m.
Julie Jablonski comments on the pervasive nature of mass media and the overbearing realms of new technologies, while Kat Nechleba, a practicing psychotherapist, gets psychological while addressing a spread of archetypal concepts in mental health, both up-to-the-minute and centuries old. Both artists mix paintings and sculpture to make their individual statements.

From Her Perspective
Firehouse Art Center, 667 Fourth Avenue, Longmont
Through March 31
Opening reception: Friday, March 9, 6 to 9 p.m.
The Firehouse Art Center’s nod to Mo’Print 2018, curated by Jessica Kooiman Parker, doubles as a celebration of International Women’s Day by focusing on a scattered new wave of female printmakers, including members of the Wisconsin-based Spooky Boobs Collective, Coloradans Roberta Restraino and Kenzie Sitterud, and Iowan Melissa Vogley Woods. Colorado wunderkind Taylor Shea will provide tunes at the opening.

"The Little Chapel of Our Holy Motherboard"
Understudy, 890 C 14th Street
Through March 30
Opening Saturday, March 10, 5 to 8 p.m.
Space limited, RSVP requested
Denver Digerati and the mother-daughter team of Kendra and Heather Fleischman are holding down the Denver Theatre District’s Understudy artist incubator space in March with a mixed-media installation, “The Little Chapel of Our Holy Motherboard,” a kind of interactive technological Magic 8-Ball that uses QR codes to access digitally animated answers to quasi-religious questions. Try it out at the formal reception on March 10, or visit Understudy online for a schedule of visiting hours and special events.

Pink Progression Denver
Vida Ellison Gallery, Denver Central Library, 10 West 14th Avenue Parkway
Through June 29
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 10, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.
The multi-location exhibit Pink Progression’s second leg quietly opened on March 2 in the Denver Central Library’s seventh-floor Vida Ellison Gallery, but the official opening is this weekend, with a similar lineup of diverse artists musing on the color pink and new political solidarity among women. A highlight at the DPL is artist Libby Barbee’s thirty-foot-long installation of prints on wood panels, titled "Clint: Studies in Masculinity,” but there’s much more to see during the show’s run, including writing from local writers, collaborative artwork, artist lectures and a collection of photographs of the Women's 2017 March on Denver from the library's archive.

Lindsey Kustusch Solo Exhibition
Abend Gallery, 1412 Wazee Street
March 10 through 31
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 10, 6 to 9 p.m.
Abend juxtaposes the cityscapes and natural landscapes of painter Lindsey Kustusch, whose love for Colorado shines through in her March solo at the representational-art gallery in LoDo. The father-and-sons exhibit Beyond the Object: Dan, Danny and John McCaw opens on the same night at Gallery 1262 in the same complex.

Topophilia: Denver Cityscapes by Eric Matelski
The MacSpa, 1738 Wynkoop Street, Suite 103
Reception/Open House: Sunday, March 11, 1 to 4 p.m.
Artist (and curatorial friend to other local artists) Eric Matelski celebrates his birthday, his love for the family business, the MacSpa, and the city of Denver with a show of his own. For Topophilia: Denver Cityscapes, Matelski painted downtown landmarks, from depictions of Union Station to renderings of the restored 1901 landmark building that houses the MacSpa and was home to the first loft residence to grace what was not yet called LoDo, way back in 1980.