A Ramble Through the Art at the Ramble Hotel

The Ramble Hotel, the latest in Denver boutique stays with a wonderful collection of art, opened last month at 1280 25th Street, at the edge of RiNo. The art in the fifty-room hotel was curated by NINE dot ARTS, a Denver-based venture that placed over 250 works on the walls, many of them by local artists.

"We wanted to embrace the ethos of the word 'ramble,' which means to wander without destination," explains Danni Simon, an associate curator with NINE dot ARTS.  "It's less about exploration and more about collecting treasures and things along the journey."

That journey starts in the lobby, where guests can sip craft cocktails from Death & Co and marvel at the mesmerizing, gender-bending pieces by Deborah Oropallo that flank the host stand. A mysterious orb of resin by Natascha Seideneck that depicts a foggy sea is on one wall; tucked into a corner is Becca Tapert's teddy-bear-like grizzly, which appears to be waving.

The journey continues when you leave the ground floor and follow the "Curiosity Awaits" sign up the stairs, passing more than a dozen pieces, from prints to original works to found objects, all with a loose (very) sexual theme. To get the message, you need to really look at the images.

"The Absent Lovers Series," framed prints by Laura Shill, depict romance-novel covers with one of the players taken out. Framed matchbooks from different hotels all strike up sexual innuendos; there's a map with a road trip to a hot springs drawn in. And at the very top of the stairs, you'll find the "G" spot.

"We wanted to create a story of a romance or an affair," says Simon. "We also didn't want the art to be hetero-normal, so there's little bits of everything."

The public tour ends at the "G" spot. But if you've checked into the Ramble, you can check out many more pieces of art.

Heather Oelklaus's playful shadow puppets grace the hallways on both guest-room floors. Look closely and you'll see lightly raised bumps of Braille on each one — though since the works are under glass, it's impossible to read them properly.

Each room also has a cache of art, all in different configurations. Twelve main works circulate through the spaces, including prints by Kevin Sloan, Vin Zzep, William Morris and Hollie Chastain. Here are just some of the pieces you might see: