Trading Post
Leisure Gallery, 555 Santa Fe Drive
Pop-up Shop: 7 to 11 p.m. Friday, November 3
For artists Staci Helms and Izzy Jarvis, Trading Post is a fantasy retail space that’s here today, gone tomorrow — and loaded like a gallery with artwork, and like a country store with representations of flea-market treasure. In the midst of the installation, the artists will release a zine and catalogue publication. One night only — be there or be square.
Martha Russo, "lightness of being," 2017, (installation detail), porcelain slip, mixed media, metal, monofilament.
Goodwin Fine Art
Kimberlee Sullivan: Limnology
Goodwin Fine Art
November 3 through December 29
Opening Reception: Friday, November 3, 6 to 8 p.m.
Martha Russo’s wall-sized ceramic and porcelain-coated mixed-media oceanscapes teem with representations of underwater life; Kimberlee Sullivan’s paintings are momentary observations on the interrelations of weather and place. Together they’ll make walking into Goodwin Fine Art on Friday night a life-changing experience. Prepare to face your insignificance in relation to the universe while viewing this work from two Colorado artists.
Gamma & Graves Not So Super Show
Lowbrow Denver, 38 Broadway
7 to 10 p.m. Friday, November 3
On the lighter side, Lowbrow on Broadway will get a makeover in the form of a collaborative wall mural by local street artists Gamma Acosta and Mike Graves, who will also be exhibiting smaller individual works in a rare indoor gallery show. Walk in, grab a beer, and bathe yourself in a sunbeam of fresh popular culture.
Sharon Brown, Trumped!
Pattern Shop Studio, 3349 Blake Street
November 3 through December 22
Opening Reception: 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, November 3
Artist Sharon Brown has fun with Trump and the current administration in Trumped!, as she takes over her own in-house gallery to make a political statement with in-your-face portraits of despicable White House characters. While one could argue that we’ve already seen more than enough of the orange one and his minions, Brown’s series is a wake-up call to remain vigilant in opposing their regime. Also: dart board for an election-day soiree? Pattern Shop and Trumped! will be open for additional receptions on December 1 and 22 or by appointment at 303-297-9831.
The Tales of Any Every: Twin Art By Vincent Cheap Fasano and Charly Fasano
Bitfactory Gallery, 851 Santa Fe Drive
November 3 through 21
Opening Reception: 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, November 3
Third Friday Reception: 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, November 17
Identical twins and artists Charly and Vincent Cheap Fasano team up for a multimedia duet at Bitfactory, blending co-produced short films, music, poetry and paintings. A well-attuned peek inside the Fasano psyche, Tales of Any Every begins on November 3 with a formal reception and reconvenes for an 8 p.m. multimedia closing event with short-film screenings and a live poetry performance on Friday, November 17.
Ravi Zupa: The Place Where There Is No Darkness
November 3 through 24
Black Book Gallery, 304 Elati Street
Opening Reception: 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, November 3
A new solo from self-taught Denver artist Ravi Zupa is always a reason to celebrate. Zupa’s skilled cross-cultural image mash-ups both borrow from and break the boundaries of art history’s annals and world civilizations in a compelling and sometimes delightfully weird way.
Uncovered
Indyink/Abstract, 84 South Broadway
Reception: 6:30 to 11 p.m. Friday, November 3
Indyink hosts a show of works inspired by favorite book covers at its retail store Abstract in collaboration with the Ross-Broadway branch library. Seventeen local artists pitched in literary-minded artworks, which will be up for sale; while you’re there, you can can sign up for a library card — if, by chance, you don’t have one — at the Denver Public Library’s Wheelie the Book Bike, or make pinback buttons of your favorite artist’s work in the show.
Showed Up
Alto Gallery, 4345 West 41st Avenue
Opening Reception: 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, November 3
You don’t have to have a theme to hang a group show, but you do have to have talent to work with. Curator Joseph Martinez found plenty of that in selecting the lineup for Showed Up at Alto Gallery, which is split down the middle between a local and international selection of artists making the leap from the street to the gallery walls. From these parts, you’ll see new work from locals Pedro Barrios, Victor Escobedo, Anthony Garcia, Travis Hetman, Rafa Jenn, Jaime Molina, Strange Dirt, Ravi Zupa, Joseph Martinez and Max Kauffman, while the show’s jet-setters hail from New York, California and beyond.
Rene Farkass, The Lone Tree Art Project
Aurora Cultural Arts District Gallery
1400 Dallas Street, Aurora
November 3 through 10
Receptions: 5 p.m. November 3, 4 and 10
Longtime Aurora artist Rene Farkass now lives in L.A., but he isn’t above a return engagement at his old haunt in the ACAD Gallery. Farkass takes on a whole forest of individual trees in the show, which is up for only one week, with evening hours from 5 p.m. on November 3, 4 and 10.
Koko Bayer: Artifacts & Fragments
Megafauna, 3102 Blake Street
6 to 10 p.m. Friday, November 3
Koko Bayer’s familiar and iconographic wheat-pasted mirages of ghostly hands and eyes have turned up on empty walls all over town. Now, MegaFauna has given over its newly renovated office and showroom to Bayer, who works enigmatic design magic on the space, with help from curator Duncan Dash.
Scott Young, Gas Light Love Bomb
K Contemporary, 1412 Wazee Street
November 4 through December 2
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 4, 7 to 10 p.m.
SDK: #fourthworld
Leon, 1112 East 17th Avenue
November 4 through December 16
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 4, 7 to 10 p.m.
The First Friday fantastic spills over into Saturday this weekend, as it would be remiss not to mention at least a couple of Saturday openings. K Contemporary, a new art venue sharing space on Wazee Street in LoDo with Abend and 1261 galleries, makes a big, grand-opening splash with contemporary neon artist Scott Young, while Leon reopens for a new season with a rare show of found-object readymades and more from Denver artist Stephen Karpik. Saturday night’s all right!
See Westword’s calendar listings for more art events and openings.
