Visual Arts

Stop Motion, Massive Rainbows and Joy: Art Events Around Denver This Weekend

Explore the boundary between truth and artifice in photography in Anthony Porcaro's Observer Effect.
A photograph of an eye looking through a window
"Sky Box" by Anthony Porcaro in Observer Effect at Edge Gallery.

Anthony Porcaro

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Several art shows are opening this weekend around Denver, from Denver printmaker and animator Jessie Rodriguez’s stop-motion film-themed art show at Edge Gallery to Kaitlyn Tucek’s Rainbow (Desperate), which centers on an 18-foot inflatable rainbow, surrounded by paintings and ceramic works at Understudy.

Use this list to catch up on new exhibitions to attend and catch ongoing shows before they leave.

In Denver Arts News

  • June First Friday Vendor Registration Is Open: Several spots are open for June First Friday in the Art District on Santa Fe, which is June 5. June, July, and September registration is $50 for regular spots (assigned randomly), and $75 for corner spots. August First Friday pricing is TBA. Register on the ADSF website.
  • PlatteForum Is Moving: After five years in the ArtLab in Curtis Park and a studio/gallery in RiNo, PlatteForum has announced that it will be moving into the historic Smith’s Chapel, known to many as the longtime home of Inner City Parish, in the heart of the Art District on Santa Fe. PlatteForum will move to its new program space on May 5 and its doors at 910 Galapago Street will officially open on June 5 for a First Friday Grand Opening Event.
  • ReCreative Denver Seeks Artwork for RePost Event: RePost is an anonymous art sale and benefit for ReCreative Denver. Artists donate postcard-sized works of art (four by six inches) in a medium of their choice. The artworks are hung in the store’s second-floor gallery and sold the night of the event for $25 each. Proceeds from the event support the mission and operations of ReCreative, an art supplies thrift store. Donations of artwork will be accepted through May 29, and can be dropped off or mailed to ReCreative Denver, 765 Santa Fe Drive, Denver Colorado, 80206. RePost will be from 7 to 10 p.m. on June 6.

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Editor's Picks

Art Shows Opening Around Denver

An ink drawing of a cat
“Good Morning” by Han Zhang in The Cat and Dog Show at Core Art Space.

Han Zhang

The Cat and Dog Show
Opening reception: Friday, May 8, 5 to 9 p.m.; on display through May 24
Core Art Space, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood

In this juried exhibition of artists from the Front Range and across the country, artists celebrate cats and dogs through painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, mixed media, ceramics, fiber and sculpture.

art of a bird
Art from Jessie Rodriguez’s Flight Risks: Birds In Peril at Edge Gallery.

Jessie Rodriguez

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Flight Risks: Birds In Peril
Opening reception: Friday, May 8, 6 to 9 p.m.; on display through May 24
Edge Gallery, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood

Denver printmaker and animator Jessie Rodriguez will have a stop-motion film-themed art show at Edge Gallery in Lakewood. Flight Risks is a celebration of Rodriguez’s stop motion films in which she consistently places her bird characters in dangerously humorous and often depressing situations to drive plot and narrative. Her stop motion animations are created from linocut prints. Characters, background and text are made by hand by carving each piece out of linoleum, hand printing it onto paper and photographing them frame by frame.

Observer Effect
Opening reception: Friday, May 8, 6 to 9 p.m.; on display through May 24
Edge Gallery, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood

In Anthony Porcaro’s debut solo show, Observer Effect, explores the boundary between truth and artifice in photography. “The work bridges the gap between the ‘artifice’ of contemporary photography and the ‘authenticity’ of 19th-century chemical processes,” Porcaro explains. “By using the Wet Plate Collodion process to capture meticulously staged miniature sets and digital composites, I am creating what I call contradictory objects. These works present an obvious fiction, yet they are validated by the organic textures of silver deposits—the historical markers of a truthful photograph.” Porcaro is an art educator at Arvada West High School and a member at Edge Gallery.

Western Federation of Watercolor Societies’ 51st Annual Exhibition
Meditation morning: Saturday, May 9, 9 to 10 a.m.; opening reception: Saturday, May 9, 6-8 p.m.; on display through June 27
Curtis Center for the Arts, 2349 East Orchard Road, Greenwood Village

Master watercolorists from the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies, which includes groups in several states including Colorado, will show off their work in this exhibit. Sign up for the Meditation event here.

A paper art of a crow wearing a red crown
“Crow in a Crown” by Michele Messenger in A Room Happy.

Michele Messenger

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A Room Happy
Opening reception: Saturday, May 9, 4 to 8 p.m.; on display through May 31
NKollectiv, 3485 South Broadway, Englewood

Artworks by Mary Lynn Baird and Michele Messenger mirror the delight they each find in the creative process as this exhibition puts a premium on highlighting their most smile-inducing, energetic works. Baird’s focus is printmaking, and Messenger specializes in encaustic, but they will also display the results of dabbling in one another’s medium, as well as a small gathering of papier-mâché animals to further infuse the space with happiness.

Extinction Burst
Opening reception: Saturday, May 9, 5 to 8:30 p.m.; on display through May 31
Valkarie Gallery, 445 South Saulsbury Street, Lakewood

Featuring the work of Cody Kuehl and Zachary Reece, Extinction Burst is a unique adventure
and collaboration. Kuehl’s sought-after paintings of new western visions are a feast for the imagination, while Reece’s work is highly detailed. Reece is a pointillist, composing geometric patterns over his subject, alternating stipples and circles, then using a stylus to build the image molecularly, one circle and dot at a time.

An artist sits on the floor with her work
Kaitlyn Tucek and her work.

Kaitlyn Tucek

Rainbow (Desperate)
Opening reception: Saturday, May 9, 7 to 10 p.m.; on display through June 7
Understudy, 890 C 14th Street

In this solo show by Kaitlyn Tucek, Tucek creates a body of work that engages ideas of impermanence, fragility, and play, reflecting her ongoing interest in temporality and how meaning shifts through lived experience. The show centers on an 18-foot inflatable rainbow, surrounded by paintings and ceramic works that extend the artist’s visual language across scale and material.

Related

Ongoing Art Shows Worth a Visit

Ecosystems
Through May 15
DAVA, 1405 Florence Street, Aurora

In conjunction with Mo’Print, DAVA students ages 3 to 18, and guest artists Faith Williams Dyrsten, Virginia Diaz Saiki, Kristin Smith and Johanna Mueller represent animals, plants, and their ecosystems to raise awareness about the importance of biodiversity through a variety of printmaking techniques.

A drawing of cows
“71 Cool Day for a Longhorn” by Alonzo Clemens.

Alonzo Clemens

Paper Works
Through May 16
Access Gallery, 909 Santa Fe Drive
Paper Works features twenty works on paper by Access Gallery artists in celebration of the gallery’s twentieth year in the Art District on Santa Fe. The exhibition brings together drawings, prints, and other works on paper that show where ideas begin. For many artists, working on paper is a starting point, a place to explore, experiment, and develop their practice.

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An artist poses with young artists and their work
Felipe Dominguez with art students.

CHAC Galler

Flor y Canto Youth Art Show
Through May 17
Chicano Humanities & Arts Council, 7060 West 16th Avenue, Lakewood
This show featuring the artwork of local youth was curated by Felipe Dominguez, a CHAC Gallery member who works with art students around Denver. Come support the young artists as they celebrate Flor y Canto through their creative work.

“Drift” by Claire Ibarra in Mindscapes.

Claire Ibarra

Mindscapes: The Art of Discovery
Through May 17
D’art Gallery, 900 Santa Fe Drive

Mindscapes: The Art of Discovery is an imaginative exhibit featuring four artists: Daniel Bahn, Melanie Fischer, Claire Ibarra, and Betsy Kolt as they explore the “landscapes of the mind” through intuition and improvisation expressed in color, shape, and texture.

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An artist sits with her work
Nuestras Historias/Our Stories is Museo de las Americas’ first-ever youth-curated exhibition.

Museo De Las Americas

Nuestras Historias
Through May 17
Museo de las Americas, 861 Santa Fe Drive

Nuestras Historias/Our Stories is Museo de las Americas’ first-ever youth-curated exhibition, featuring work from young artists exploring themes of tradition, justice, identity and playfulness through embroidery, painting, drawing, ceramics, poetry and video.

YALLA and (UN)SEEN
Through May 17
RedLine Contemporary Art Center, 2350 Arapahoe Street
YALLA is a solo exhibition featuring photographs and ephemera from Brooklyn-based, Lebanese, Palestinian-American photographer Marwan Shousher, while (UN)SEEN challenges viewers to see Palestinians as complete individuals with a deep connection to their land, ancestors, and the traditions they carry, featuring photographs of Colorado Palestinian families taken by local artists.

New Work From Patricia Aaron, Michaele Keyes & Susan Rubin
Through May 19
Spark Gallery, 1200 Acoma Street

See Patricia Aaron’s Inspired, Michaele Keyes’s Joint Venture, and Susan Rubin’s Resilience at Spark Gallery. Aaron’s encaustic wax, inks, oils, acrylics, and textiles in Inspired trace an ongoing conversation between past and present — between ideas first imagined more than two decades ago, and those still unfolding. In Joint Venture, Keyes uses wood and other weathered materials gathered from forests, fields, stream beds, and alleys. Botanical artist Rubin’s Resilience explores the relentless persistence of the natural world as it provides a place to stand as we seek equilibrium in times of chaos.

Related

Colorful artwork of a neck
Artwork by Nikita Kulkarni Trajva in Threaded Narratives at Bus Stop Gallery in Boulder.

Nikita Kulkarni Trajva

Threaded Narratives: Weaving South Asian Identity in Colorado
Through May 23
Bus Stop Gallery, 4895 Broadway, Boulder

Threaded Narratives brings together artists from across Colorado whose work reflects a shared yet varied experience of identity. Through a range of practices, the exhibition highlights the presence and perspectives of South Asian artists within Colorado’s creative community.

We the People
Through May 24
The Gallery @ArtGym, 1460 Leyden Street

The journey of survival, resilience and triumph told through the eyes of immigrants from around the world comes to life through the lens of storyteller and photographer Walter Gallacher in We the People. What started as a podcast has evolved into an immersive exhibition that invites visitors to see the faces and hear the voices behind the powerful stories. The exhibition combines portraiture with audio.

A painting of a person looking into a sphere
Art by Stacey Steers in The Stars Watch From Long Ago at Robischon Gallery.

Stacey Steers/Robischon Gallery

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The Stars Watch From Long Ago
Through May 30
Robischon Gallery, 1740 Wazee Street

The Stars Watch From Long Ago features work in film, collage, objects and prints by Stacey Steers, who will have an artist talk event on Wednesday, May 6. RSVP to debra@robischongallery.com by Tuesday, May 6, to attend.

Colorful artwork
“Ecosystem” by Tom Ward.

Tom Ward

Energy, Form, Flow
Through May 30
Pulse Visual Art, 3256 Walnut Street

This solo show featuring the work of Tom Ward is an ongoing exploration of how energy travels through both the natural world and human experience. Growing up in Southern California, Ward was immersed in environments defined by motion: ocean currents, shifting light, and the quiet complexity of living systems. Early fascinations with biology, from studying insects to watching fish glide through water, continue to echo through his visual language today.

A colorful abstract painting
“Feminine Flame II” by Christy Cattin in Color as Light at Alto Gallery.

Christy Cattin

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Color as Light: A Restorative Experience
Through May 31
Alto Gallery, 1900 35th Street, Suite B
Color as Light explores color as light and energy through large-scale silk works from artist Christy Cattin’s Veils of Light series and introduces a guided color practice that invites visitors to engage with art through breath, intuition and visualization. Cattin is a Denver-based artist whose work explores color as energy, emotion and restoration.

Sculptures around a box
Katie Taft’s Prednisone Sounds Sculptures in Sculpting Sound.

Katie Taft

Sculpting Sound
Through June 6
Leon Gallery, 1112 East 17th Street

Sculpting Sound features multiple new sonic artworks by local visual and installation artists that will become an “orchestra” for a series of new musical commissions to be performed by the musicians in The Playground Ensemble. The artworks and composers’ scores will be on display at Leon Gallery through June 6. General admission is $20.

35th Annual Governor’s Art Show & Sale
Through June 6
Loveland Museum, 503 North Lincoln Avenue, Loveland

The Governor’s Art Show & Sale is a six-week exhibition known as one of the largest juried fine art shows featuring exclusively Colorado artists. This year’s show displays the work of 65 artists, including ten making their first appearance at the show. Artwork can be viewed in person and online throughout the exhibition. Opening night gala tickets are $100, while general admission is $7 for Loveland residents, $10 for non-residents and free for kids under 12.

Related

A painting of a woman singing
“Lauryn Hill” by Aqua One in CHAC Gallery’s members showcase.

Aqua One/CHAC Gallery

CHAC Gallery Members’ Showcase
Through June 20
CHAC Gallery, 834 Santa Fe Drive

This showcase is a multi-generational show bringing together CHAC artists ranging from emerging creatives to accomplished masters, highlighting pieces that are deeply connected to the essence of Denver. Each artist has chosen work that is the deepest expression of their voice.

Work by the artist SABO
Work by the artist SABO in The Right Kind of Rebels at VFW Post #1.

SABO

SABO / UNSAVORYAGENTS: The Right Kind of Rebels
Through July 1
VFW Post #1 Denver, 841 Santa Fe Drive

Art created by veterans and SABO, the artist responsible for the “KAMALAS ILLEGALS” and “MIGRANT HOOKERS $20” art placed around the Denver Capitol about a year ago will be on display in The Right Kind of Rebels at VFW Post #1. The collection on display comments on current politics, history and events that have helped shape the collective American psyche. SABO says this is his first show in the Denver area, and he’s curious to see the reception of the work. “I don’t do landscapes, and I believe that if art is not political, it’s wallpaper,” SABO says. “I hope this opportunity catches the eyes of some other galleries who are open to displaying my more edgy works.”

Related

The inside of a western exhibit
Beyond the Western Horizon at MOA.

Courtesy of MOA

Beyond the Western Horizon
Through July 31
Madden Gallery at Museum of Outdoor Arts, 6331 South Fiddlers Green Circle, Greenwood Village

Celebrate the “reimagined myth, memory, and the enduring spirit of the American West” with Beyond the Western Horizon, an exhibit featuring twenty artists and over fifty artworks depicting aspects of the American West, from people and animals to landscapes, through a variety of mediums. “We’re lucky to live in a state with stunning natural resources, strong light and Western lifestyles stimulating our many talented visual artists,” MOA founder and director Cynthia Madden Leitner says.

A poster from the '70s
Colorado State University showcases campus life, design and activism through archival posters from the ’70s at Morgan Library.

CSU

On the Walls at CSU: Posters from the 1970s
Through August 16
CSU Libraries – Morgan Library, 1201 Center Avenue Mall, Fort Collins

Colorado State University showcases campus life, design and activism through archival posters from the ’70s at Morgan Library. The exhibition features posters, exhibition panels and publications produced at CSU in the 1970s and preserved in the University Archives.

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