Three for the Road

A new collaboration will take three Denver artists far from Tank, the south Denver studio they share with several others, for a two-part exhibit that opens tonight at Longmont’s Firehouse Art Center and the Boulder mixed venue Madelife. When Joel Swanson, just coming off the high point of a solo at MCA Denver, was invited to put together A Recognizable Disguise, he asked studio-mates Adam Milner and Laura Shill to join him. The resulting double-venue spree includes both thematically related individual works by each of the artists (at Firehouse) and more of the same, with a collaborative, exquisite-corpse-style installation by all three (at Madelife).

“In some way, we’re all working with issues of identity and anonymity,” Milner says of the stylistic mix. “So it’s kind of a happy coincidence that these ideas could all come together.” The three began planning for their collaboration with a round of personal research and group discussion, but completing the project proved to be an experiment.

“We’re trying to let go and let each other’s practices and ideas influence one another,” Milner explains. “There’s almost an element of curating each other’s work. Working that way together is nice, when artists can come together and create an exhibition with their own ideas, because you often see a curator put on a show. This is a different perspective, which is refreshing.”

Both parts of A Recognizable Disguise will open with free receptions from 5 to 10 p.m. tonight; the complete show runs through June 13. The artists will be present from 6 to 7 p.m. at Firehouse, 667 Fourth Avenue in Longmont, and from 8 to 9 p.m. at Madelife, 2000 21st Street in Boulder. For more information, visit firehouseart.com or the Facebook event page.

Fri., May 9, 5-10 p.m.; Wednesdays-Sundays. Starts: May 9. Continues through June 13, 2014