The fun of First Friday is in the variety: Choose your district and you choose the whole ambiance of your evening. And while we encourage you to support your local galleries no matter where they roost, here are a couple of suggestions about where to start tonight.
Photographer Hal Gould, a civic treasure in his own right, spends most of his days exposing the public to other great shooters from Colorado and around the world at his Camera Obscura Gallery. But, lucky for us, Gould gets his own time in the limelight every once in awhile.
Hal Gould: His Vision of the West, featuring sixty years' worth of his magnificent works, from classic Western landscapes to personal abstractions, go on display today just across the street from Camera Obscura at the Byers-Evans House Museum, 1310 Bannock Street, for a run through the end of March. The museum will host a reception tonight from 5 to 9 p.m.
After you've marveled at Gould's memorable prints, the rest of the Golden Triangle gallery community awaits your discerning eye for art. A companion show of works by Gould opens at RedLine later in the month (visit the website for details); for information about tonight's opening go to the Colorado Historical Society's website or call 303-620-4933.
Or for a more casual version of First Friday viewing, slouch right on over to the 37th and Navajo Arts District's alternative gallery haven, where Life is a side of MARMALADE, it's more than just jelly, a collaborative show by art-friends Matt Doubek and Sam Mobley (aka krap master's studio and Sam's Garage), hangs at Pirate: A Contemporary Art Oasis, 3655 Navajo Street. This wild and woolly underground show, which fills the walls with mixed media collages and screen prints on wood, promises to be overflowing with life and a fast-moving peek into the future of pop art. MARMALADE will be fêted with a reception tonight from 6 to 10 p.m. and continues through February 15; don't forget to visit Next, Edge and Zip 37 while you're on the block. Log on to Pirate's site or call 303-456-6058.
For more ways to rock the night and kill the day, go to westword.com/calendar.