Mike Maxwell
Audio By Carbonatix
Last month we published a piece by onetime Denverite Mike Maxwell, wondering what had happened to Chaesdegango, an artist who was once a fixture on the local scene. Maxwell had discovered Chaesdegango’s work in the early ’80s, colorful acrylic pieces hanging on the walls of the long-gone Muddy Waters coffeehouse “that put me in mind of my favorite moderns of Europe’s ‘whimsical school’ – Klee, Kandinsky and Miró – but infused with a decidedly contemporary air, Á la Keith Haring, say,” he recalled.
Maxwell collected many Chaesdegango pieces; a wall of his home in Montezuma County is dedicated to them. But over the few years, he’d lost track of the artist.
Maxwell need wonder no more: The artist, using his given name of Ron Chidester, has a new show, Birdwhistles, opening this weekend at the venerable West Side Books, 3434 West 32nd Avenue. There will be an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sunday, November 5.
Will the legendary Chaesdegango be there? Stay tuned.