Building Outside the Box. With the Denver Art Museum's outlandish Hamilton Building by Daniel Libeskind taking shape at West 13th Avenue and Acoma Plaza, there's a lot going on outside the place. Inside the gorgeous Gio Ponti tower, it's a different story. Up until the opening of the Hamilton next fall, there will be one show on the main floor titled Building Outside the Box: Creating the New Denver Art Museum, which has been given the cutesy nickname of B.O.B. If the Hamilton Building itself is exciting, its explication put forward in this show is decidedly not; it's the kind of thing you'd expect to find in an airport or a shopping mall, but surely not at an art museum. This dog looks as if it were organized by a committee and not by a curator with some expertise -- like Craig Miller, the head of the DAM's architecture, design and graphics department. He always does such a good job, so he obviously had nothing to do with it. The shame is that with the existence of this dumbed-down feature, it's unlikely that a proper show on the topic will be done in the future. Through Fall 2006 at the Denver Art Museum, 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, 720-865-5000. Reviewed November 10.
Centennial of William Sanderson. This exhibit was co-curated by Michael Sanderson and Kirkland Museum director Hugh Grant and includes pieces from that institution's permanent collection, loans from various local collectors and from the artist's estate. Sanderson was one of the most prominent Denver artists in the late '40s and early '50s, and his signature style had a cartoonish quality that sometimes referenced cubism. By the '60s, Sanderson was all but forgotten, but in the 1980s, not long before he died, his career enjoyed a second boom. The interesting thing is that this revival didn't happen because Sanderson's work changed -- the art world did. The show was hung mostly chronologically and includes the kinds of things Sanderson is best remembered for, plus a few odd paintings out, which connect to the rest through his meticulous paint-application technique. This skill is something that reveals his astounding hand-to-eye coordination to even the most casual viewer. Through January 22 at the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, 1311 Pearl Street, 303-832-8576. Reviewed November 24.
Colorado: Then & Now II. In the late 1990s, internationally known photographer John Fielder came up with the idea of re-photographing old shots done by William Henry Jackson. This idea led to an exhibit at the Colorado History Museum in 1999, with this current show being the long anticipated sequel to that one. The CHM has a vast collection of Jackson's work, dating back to his first photos of the state done in 1873, when he was part of the federal Hayden Survey of the American West. In 1880, he opened a Denver studio, which he closed in 1896. As he did for that first Then & Now, Fielder went through the vast Jackson archives and selected the images he wanted to re-create and then revisited those locales. This time, however, he picked more views of buildings rather than depictions of the wilderness. During the show's run, the CHM gift shop will have Fielder's accompanying book, Colorado Then & Now II, for sale, as well as Volume I for those who missed it. Through April 5 at the Colorado History Museum, 1300 Broadway, 303-866-3678.
Early Colorado Contemporary Photography. Most of the photographers whose work appears in this show at Gallery Sink are fairly obscure, though one of them, Jim Milmoe, is well known. A photographer in the area for more than fifty years, Milmoe is also the primary force behind the exhibit. For the show, he includes his own work along with that of five of his contemporaries: Walter Chappell, Arnold Gassan, Syl Labrot, Nile Root and Winter Prather. This loosely affiliated group of kindred modernists worked in town in the '50s and '60s, and most of them participated in the workshops conducted in Denver by legendary photographer Minor White, who encouraged experimentation. All six explored vanguard ideas in fine-art photography. The reason the names are unfamiliar is because there is a lack of local institutional support for the topic; as a result, most of the pieces in the show are out of Milmoe's own collection. A few loans were used to beef things up, but the predictable idiosyncrasies of a personal trove are still clearly evident. Through February 12 at Gallery Sink, 2301 West 30th Avenue, 303-455-5601. Reviewed January 12.
Nowhere. Ten years ago, David Zimmer was one of the hottest young kids on Denver's alternative scene; he even got a piece into the Denver Art Museum. Today Zimmer is much less well known, though not exactly forgotten. He moved away late in 1998 and fell out of the local exhibition scene. It's been nine years since he had a solo here, which makes Nowhere a welcome reminder of just how good he is. Though all of the works are new, several touch on concerns from Zimmer's earlier pieces. There are the scientific-looking cabinets -- some with preserved insects in them -- that hark back to his Pirate days, as well as a wall-mounted installation of backlit photos in acrylic cylinders that relate to the piece shown at the DAM. The utter standouts, however, are not these self-referential retro pieces, but his newest efforts: miniature tabletop installations, some of which have tiny LCD monitors and soundtracks, sort of like a Bill Viola for the mantel. Through January 21 at Artyard Contemporary Sculpture, 1251 South Pearl Street, 303-777-3219. Reviewed January 5.
Revealing the Muse and Colorado Innovators. Hugh Grant, founder and director of the Kirkland Museum on Capitol Hill, curated both Revealing the Muse and Colorado Innovators at the Lakewood Heritage Center using pieces borrowed from his institution's permanent collection. The Kirkland Museum has an impressive assemblage that includes paintings by Kirkland himself, work by other Colorado artists and an extensive group of decorative arts. Colorado Innovators provides a survey of mid-twentieth-century artists working in Denver. Most of the objects included have either never been exhibited or haven't been seen in living memory. Revealing the Muse is a Vance Kirkland retrospective that begins with his work from the 1930s and ends with pieces done right before his death in 1981. I think it could be argued that surrealism was Kirkland's most important influence, and one of his most important innovations was the mixing of oil paint and water poured onto the surfaces of his pieces. Beginning in the 1950s, this mixture led to some of his greatest paintings ever. Through February 10 at the Radius Gallery, Lakewood Heritage Center, 801 South Yarrow Street, Lakewood, 303-987-7850. Reviewed September 8.
Wyoming Expeditions. Gallery Roach is named for the late Otto Roach, a prominent commercial photographer in mid-twentieth century Denver. His lab, Roach Photography, earned a fine reputation for photo finishing. Dutch Walla, who became Roach's associate more than fifty years ago, now owns both the gallery and the lab. Wyoming Expeditions features Roach's photos of Wyoming from the 1940s through the 1960s. They're done in black and white, with Roach capturing many famous scenes, including such remarkable Yellowstone National Park subjects as the surrealistic Jupiter Terrace and the majestic falls at Yellowstone's Grand Canyon. Roach repeatedly visited nearby Wyoming to take photos, so he was able to supplement the well-known Yellowstone attractions with shots of unknown backcountry views. Surely the standout is a gigantic mural measuring seven feet by ten feet. And if the tremendous size of the photomural were not enough of an accomplishment, the entire thing has been hand-tinted! Through January 27 at Gallery Roach, 860 Broadway, 303-839-5202. Reviewed December 8.
