Art Attack: Cities Summit Brings Satellite Shows, and More Art Openings in Denver

With the inaugural Cities Summit of the Americas in town, a few local art purveyors are stepping up with satellite shows (find information on other arty aspects of the inter-American meeting here). The weekend is also full of studio tours, art benefits, one-offs and a new reveal at PlatteForum, among other distractions.

Dive into the Cities Summit cultural sideshow, Fábrica de Arte Américas, or try to do it all. Here’s the lineup:

Taking Up Space
K Contemporary, 1412 Wazee Street
Through Saturday, April 29
K Contemporary is one of the few art outposts in Denver to run with a Latin-American theme during the inaugural Cities Summit of the Americas, joining the hoopla with a pan-American pop-up exhibition, Taking Up Space, which is open now and continues through Saturday, April 29. The show’s centerpiece, “Ikebana,” overwhelms the main gallery with a monumental organic inflatable sculpture by Cuban artist Angel Ricardo Ricardo Rios, who is now based in Mexico City. Beyond its amorphous shapes is a group of gallery artists with Latin roots, including Denver collagist Mario Zoots.

Guilty: 2023 CU Denver Student Show
Emmanuel Gallery, 1205 10th Street Plaza, Auraria Campus
Through May 4
CU Denver art students invite art lovers to take stock of their work after a full year of hard work and study in campus studios. The short 2023 CU Denver Student Show at Emmanuel Gallery covers a gamut of mediums, styles and techniques students have perfected, instilling viewers with a little bit of hope for the future of art in Denver.

Out of Many, More: Voices of the Americas
CU Denver Experience Gallery, Denver Performing Arts Complex
Thursday, April 27, through May 4
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 27, 4 to 6 p.m.
CU Denver’s Experience Gallery, tucked into a niche in the Denver Performing Arts complex, is another rare space hosting a show specific to the Cities Summit of the Americas. Co-curated by CU Denver students, Out of Many, More: Voices of the Americas offers another gamut of works, in this case by artists of Indigenous and Latino roots.

Elaine Ricklin, Quiet Places
Spark Members, Filling the Gap
Lydia Brokaw, Love Every Day, in the North Gallery
Spark Gallery, 900 Santa Fe Drive
Thursday, April 27, through May 21
Artist Reception: Saturday, April 29, noon to 5 p.m.
Last Look: Sunday, May 21, 1 to 4 p.m.
Spark’s newest member shows include Quiet Places, a solo by photographer Elaine Ricklin, whose present images were shot in the United States and Nicaragua, and a group member exhibition created to fill an unexpected empty space in the schedule. Ricklin hung her exhibition in hopes of providing viewers with a few moments of calming natural beauty. Lydia Brokaw chimes in with a body of work inspired by the best things in life.

Kenzie Sitterud, with ArtLab Youth, To Dusk
PlatteForum Annex Gallery, 3575 Ringsby Court
Friday, April 28, through May 27
Opening Reception: Friday, April 28, 6 to 8 p.m.
Former RedLine resident Kenzie Sitterud has been working with ArtLab student interns since February on a major installation titled To Dusk, a multimedia work tied up in Sitterud’s autobiography of a life growing up queer in the Mormon culture of the Utah desert. Metaphors run deep in this installation, in tangents linking expansionism and exploitation of natural resources in the American West with the human touch of close community as exemplified by quilt-making.

Untitled: Artist Takeover, with Franklin Cruz and Sammy Lee
Denver Art Museum, 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway
Friday, April 28, 6 to 10 p.m.
Museum Admission: free to $15; register here
Untitled’s theme of “Projection” will unfold in a funhouse of ideas on Friday night at the DAM, with activities inspired by the museum’s current exhibitions, Speaking With Light: Contemporary Indigenous Photography and Near East to Far West: Fictions of French and American Colonialism. With help from queer Latino poet Franklin Cruz and Korean visual artist Sammy Lee – and a coterie of creatives in a grab bag of disciplines – guests will discover something new at every turn: Aztec dancers, offbeat art tours of connected shows, Indigenous mask-making with Victor Escobedo, an opportunity to serve meals to your imaginary family members over Lee’s molded-paper Korean table installation and enjoy some of the best dumplings in town from Penelope Wong of the Yuan Wonton Food Truck (soon to be a brick-and-mortar eatery).

Roger Rapp, Platte River Distraction
Gallery 931, 931 Santa Fe Drive
Friday, April 28, through May 28
Opening Reception: Friday, April 28, 5 to 9 p.m.
Painter Roger Rapp’s new show at 931 Gallery consists of his abstracted landscapes – in this case, works focusing on impressions of the South Platte River. But Rapp, seeking a distraction during a pandemic-driven dead spot in his studio, was looking to create work based on the use of rotational symmetry, a style of painting he’d recognized in a Van Gogh work at the art museum. Hence, the paintings in Platte River Distraction can be viewed as a whole picture at every 180-degree turn. Denise Demby shows work in the back room.

EBCA Spring Studio Tours
27 locations throughout Longmont, Lafayette, Louisville and Niwot
Saturday, April 29, and Sunday, April 30, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
East Boulder County Artists, a community of artists spread out through Longmont, Lafayette, Louisville and Niwot, are ready and waiting this weekend for an onslaught of visiting art-seekers. That’s the purpose of EBCA’s Spring Studio Tour and Sale, this year offering a spread of fifty artists who paint, draw, sculpt and make pottery and jewelry in 27 Boulder County locations. The tour is free; find links to a tour map and artist information at the EBCA website.

Art for Hope
1421 Pearl Street, Boulder
Saturday, April 29, through May 24
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 29, 6 to 9 p.m.
Boulder artist incubator Madelife partnered with other local organizations on Art for Hope, an exhibition and silent auction installed at the former Boulder Arts and Crafts Gallery space, to raise awareness of substance-abuse disorders and offer support for those in need. Painter William Stoehr, who paints immense, roughly rendered portraits of people whose lives have been affected by substance abuse, turned out to be the perfect showcase artist for show. Work by other local artists will accompany Stoehr’s; the event will also host live music, films and speakers throughout the exhibition (details TBA; visit the website for news).

Daniel Granitto: Familiar Unknown, Unknown Familiar
Canyons Gallery, Frasier Retirement Community, 350 Ponca Place, Boulder
Through August 6
Artist Talk and Reception: Monday, May 1, 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art’s satellite location at the Canyons Gallery, Frasier Retirement Community, isn’t always accessible to the public, but a chance to see a beautiful show by Lakewood painter Daniel Granitto is imminent on May 1, when the doors open for an artist talk and reception. Granitto, who works wonders with elegiac elements of color and light that transform his everyday subject matter of suburban imagery into shimmering memories, is a magical visual storyteller, well suited to the task of bringing enjoyment to the residents at Frasier and just about anyone of any age.

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