You'll find an odd mixture of high and low culture in LoDo and its environs these days. Essentially, there are galleries and there are clubs, diametrically opposed venues with clienteles that rarely clink glasses, let alone even meet, other than to pass in the night once a month on a First Friday. It's a strange paradox for a gallery entrepreneur, notes Ivar Zeile of Cordell Taylor Gallery, so when he was offered a chance to spotlight his gallery's multimedia bent at Rock Island's monthly Red Reel film screening and art event, he saw it as an opportunity. "Denver has a burgeoning club scene, and it also has a healthy art scene, but the two never seem to really intertwine. The audience for one may not pay attention to the other," Zeile says. "We always want to expand our audience, so it seemed like a positive thing all the way around."
On the cusp of a January name change and merger with fellow friend of contemporary arts Ron Judish, the gallery (soon to be (+) Zeile/Judish) will trot out a little of everything at Rock Island, including an exhibit of small, affordable works by CT artists, experimental video works and music by local improvisational collective They Will Use Your Bones for Tools.
Because Cordell Taylor is one of the few art venues in town to tout video artists, Zeile is especially excited to project works by Atomic Ellroy, iMiNiMi, Valerie Brodar, Christopher Romero and Rick Visser on Rock Island's huge main-floor wall screen, simply because these videographers' works are so rarely viewed. His selections include a portion of Atomic Ellroy's epic I-25 Suite and iMiNiMi's contribution to Cordell Taylor's well-received Panopticon 21 show last spring. Even Zeile, who documents every event at the gallery on video, will contribute a short, experimental compilation of his visual diary.
Zeile is also proud to show off his stable of visual artists with an array of giftable artworks (he's especially keen on Colin Livingston's pop-art re-adaptation of Mayor Hickenlooper's campaign logo). It's all in fun, after all: "We're not bringing out any of our masterpieces," Zeile says. And that should suit Rock Island's fun-loving club crowd to a T.
Rock Island is at 1614 15th Street; the show starts at 8 p.m., and admission is $5 at the door. Call 303-572-ROCK. -- Susan Froyd
Remington's later works shine
SAT, 12/13
Every artist has his dark side. But for Frederic Remington, visual inventor of the heroic American West, it was purely stylistic, at least later in life (Remington died at the age of 48), when he painted his nocturnes, veiling his familiar subjects of Indian braves, cowboys, magnificent horses and cavalry officers in the lyrical shadows of nighttime. Twenty-four of the moonlight-bathed works go on display today at the Denver Art Museum, 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, when Frederic Remington: The Color of Night, an exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art and Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum, ends its three-city tour in Denver, a Western city that's truly well-versed in the Remington mystique.Until now, some of the works, painted in the first decade of the twentieth century, haven't been viewed publicly for nearly one hundred years, and that's a shame. Some think they display Remington at his best, exposing an innovative painterly skill that's often overshadowed by the bold content of his work.
The Color of Night continues at the DAM through March 14; a curators' talk, with Ann Morand of the Gilcrease Museum, Nancy Anderson of the National Gallery of Art and Joan Troccoli of the DAM, is set for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, December 17. Lecture admission is $5 to $10; for reservations, call 720-913-0178. For information, call 720-865-5000 or log on to www.denverartmuseum.org. --Susan Froyd
Corn as Life
THURS, 12/11
El Centro Su Teatro whips up a festive morsel with tonight's premiere of Las Nuevas Tamaleras.Written by Alicia Mena, Las Nuevas Tamaleras is the story of three contemporary Latinas who decide to revive the tradition of holiday tamale making. When they realize that they have no idea what they are doing, they seek guidance from the spirits of the cocina.
"In our culture, food is really the center of family life, and we all especially love tamales," says Su Teatro artistic director Anthony J. Garcia. "This play is about regaining tradition, about being connected to our indigenous roots."
Las Nuevas Tamaleras will be performed at 7:30 p.m. tonight in the King Center, 855 Lawrence Way on the Auraria campus, and will run through December 21. Tickets are $13 for general admission and $10 for students and seniors; tamales will be sold in the lobby.
"People should come prepared to laugh," says Garcia. "Remember, corn is a big part of our culture, and we're going to serve it up in a variety of ways."
For information, call 303-296-0219 or visit www.suteatro.org. -- Julie Dunn
Job Satisfaction
Pictures document workers who love their labor
FRI, 12/12
When photographer Christine Hauber set out from Denver in her motor home nearly three years ago to document American workers, she didn't know what to expect. The Colorado native says she had always possessed a "media-fed perception" of workers as inherently unhappy and was looking for people who were "living their own little dream.""I was surprised to find there were people who really enjoyed their work, regardless of pay," Hauber says. "I found independent workers, farmers and artists who loved their jobs."
Hauber has made many surprising discoveries over the past two and a half years and says she expects many more as she visits five more states before her project is complete. For now, though, she's stopping long enough to display Working in the USA at the Den Gallery, 774 Santa Fe Drive, a show comprising twenty of the nearly 400 photographs she has snapped thus far.
Never using the same profession twice -- she believes doubling up inevitably leads to stereotyping -- Hauber shoots the first subject she comes across, no matter what race, sex or age. The result is an eclectic assemblage of types from all over America. "This experience has really opened my eyes to the diversity of our country," she says.
Working in the USA opens today and runs Thursdays through Saturdays through December 27. Call 303-877-7611. -- Adam Cayton-Holland
