Art Attack: Welcome the First First Friday of 2023

The year is new, and so are the shows on First Friday. There are impressive displays at galleries and co-ops, with nods to the National Western Stock Show as well as more serious subjects. At the BRDG Project’s pop-up at Next Gallery, R. Matthew Bollinger offers political visions of social justice for the disappeared; Brady Dollyhigh and Cassandra Chalfant take on interesting projects at Bell Projects.

Here are more First Friday offerings:

BRDG Project presents R. Matthew Bollinger: Missing, Murdered, Remembered
Wednesday, January 4, through January 22
ArtSource Colorado, Courageous Creations
Elements
Friday, January 6, through January 22
Next Gallery, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
Opening Reception, both shows: Friday, January 6, 5 to 10 p.m.
It’s a busy start to the year at the Next Gallery co-op, which is sharing space with the homeless BRDG Project and hosting two member shows of its own. BRDG Project gets topical with R. Matthew Bollinger’s Missing, Murdered, Remembered, a series of complex mixed-media works providing restorative justice to victims of specific violent, race-related crimes, from the disappearance of countless young Indigenous women to anonymous murders of Black men displayed over social media. The German-born artist teaches art at the Diné College of the Navajo Nation. In addition, the collective Next Gallery member ArtSource Colorado, an organization for teaching artists, shares a group show, and the gallery is also hosting a group exhibition on the theme of elements, in every sense of the word.

Kirstie Connon, Jessica Mahan and John Gay
Public Offering Brewing Company, 1736 South Broadway
Thursday, January 5, through March 31
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 5, 6 to 9 p.m.
At Public Offering, there’s no time like the present to launch a new rotating local artist series, with shows changing every other month throughout the year. Works by the trio of Kirstie Connon, Jessica Mahan and John Gay will decorate the walls of the taproom and greet art lovers at a very Public opening. We’ll drink to that!

Brady Dollyhigh, See a Hunter Named Truth
Friday, January 6, through January 29
Cassandra Chalfant, A Light From the Back Room
Friday, January 6, through February 26
Bell Projects, 2822 East 17th Avenue
Opening Reception: Friday, January 6, 6 to 10 p.m.
Self-taught Denver painter Brady Dollyhigh explores the conflicting highs and lows of the artist’s life and the disappointment of the inner perfectionist in See a Hunter Named Truth, opening this week at Bell Projects. The visual allegory represents the symbolic cycle of chasing beauty, hunting her down and unleashing a sense of falling below one’s expectations. In the Living Room Gallery, Cassandra Chalfant debuts A Light From the Back Room, an exhibition of paintings of photographs, TV screens and other media suggesting the shorthand imagery of memories, essentially turning the gallery walls into a photo album.

Fantasy and Dreams
CHAC Gallery, 1560 Teller Street, Lakewood
Friday, January 6, through February 4
Opening Reception: Friday, January 6, 6 to 9 p.m.
CHAC members unleash fantastic dreams through art in the gallery’s January show curated by Damaris M. Santos, who is also a participant. Expect a mixture of carved alebrije creatures, the supernatural, cultural references and imaginary inner realms in a variety of mediums.

Cultural First Friday: Manifesting and Predicting 2023
Museo de las Americas, 861 Santa Fe Drive
Friday, January 6, 5 to 9 p.m.
What are your hopes and dreams for the new year? Explore the future with artist Cal Duran, who will spend First Friday at the Museo, facilitating a “limpia,” or flower cleanse, to clear any mental blocks, and then offering readings with oracle and crystal cards for a fee. Admission is free for the evening, so plan to take in the exhibition Luis Barragán: A Legacy and New Works Undressing the Mexican Soul if you haven’t already. Card readings are priced at $10 for fifteen minutes or $20 for thirty minutes.

Abby Gregg, Fluid Future
Stephanie Spindler, Paperface-Interface
Pirate: Contemporary Art, 7130 West 16th Avenue, Lakewood
Friday, January 6, through January 22
Opening Reception: Friday, January 6, 6 to 10 p.m.
Pirate gets back to business in a hurry with a couple of member shows. Abby Gregg shows bright, gloppy mixed-media and clay works depicting the world in abstracted swirls in the Main Gallery, while Stephanie Spindler brings performative paper works to the Associate Space. Art by Mel Sokolow occupies the Treasure Chest with figures and portraits painted on newspaper.

Coolfax on Colfax
Core New Art Space, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
Friday, January 6, through January 22
Opening Reception: Friday, January 6, 6 to 9 p.m.
Core members celebrate Colfax Avenue with Coolfax on Colfax, a visual paean to the “longest, wickedest street in America,” which also happens to be the core of the 40 West Arts District in Lakewood and Core’s address.

Edge: Past and Present
Edge Gallery, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
Friday, January 6, through January 22
Opening Reception: Friday, January 6, 6 to 9 p.m.
Edge Gallery also starts 2023 with a member show, this one a catch-all for new and old works, while the gallery prepares for new directions in the near future.

Once Upon a Time in the West
Through January 28
Memento Mori Gallery, 6451 West Colfax Avenue, Suite B, Lakewood
Opening Reception: Friday, January 6, 6 to 9 p.m.
Memento Mori, just off a holiday Krampus show, switches gears to a Western-themed group show with a tongue-in-cheek pop-art personality, including work by gallery owner Jesse Neumann.

January Olde Town Art Drop: Jade LaVarta
Olde Town Arvada, Olde Wadsworth Blvd. and West 57th Avenue, Arvada
Friday, January 6, 6 to 8 p.m.
In Olde Town Arvada, First Friday is all fun and games, with a monthly art-drop scavenger hunt kick-starting 2023. This month’s artist is Colorado wildlife artist Jade LaVarta, who sketches beautiful portraits of foxes, birds and other wild creatures, and paints on deer mandibles, to boot. See what’s new in LaVarta’s arsenal of nature art…but first you have to find it. Pieces have been hidden around Olde Town by the artist; get clues on your phone in the stories at @artdroparvada on Instagram, beginning at 6 p.m.

The Art Social: A Sorta Fairytale Open Art Night
Candidly Created, 910 Santa Fe Drive, Unit 1
Friday, January 6, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
RSVP at Eventbrite
The Art Social pops up in the Art District on Santa Fe at Candidly Created, where you’ll find a four-artist show of works in mixed media, Asian ink and wash by Grier Rhodes, Chan Yu Kuo, Raphael Maximo Sanchez and Roger Carver, along with wine and music.

Elena Gunderson, Daydreamer
Bardo Coffee House, 238 South Broadway
Saturday, January 7, through February 28
Casual Reception: Saturday, January 7, 3 to 7 p.m.
The anti-curators at Heads of Hydra are back at the Bardo Coffee House with a delightful show by Elena Gunderson, who’s known for flippant pop-surreal portraits framed in thrift-store rejects or swaddled with fake roses. Drop, have a cuppa and enjoy the art.

Thirtieth Annual Coors Western Art Exhibit and Sale
National Western Expo Hall, third floor, 4655 Humboldt Street
Saturday, January 7, through January 22
Fridays and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sundays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Included in grounds admission, free to $25
Not everyone goes to the Stock Show to see art, but the thirtieth annual Coors Western Art Exhibit is an impressive display, mixing Western-themed fine art with rodeo and the ubiquitous smell of manure. Seriously, this is the top of the crop in the genre, and it’s free to visit once you’ve paid the basic grounds fee.

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