Art Attack: Where to Find New Art in Denver After First Friday

First Friday was stacked in February, bringing new exhibits to galleries all over town – and down the road. The biannual Month of Printmaking nspired a few early efforts opening ahead of the event’s official month of March, and shows with Indigenous and Latino roots abound at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, Denver Art Museum and the Collection in Lafayette, where the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council has put down temporary stakes.

There’s something for everyone, again and again.

Traitor, Survivor, Icon: The Legacy of La Malinche
Denver Art Museum, 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway
Opens Sunday, February 6
Who is La Malinche? As the story goes, she was an indigenous slave who became a translator – and later the mother of his child – for the ruthless conquistador Hernán Cortés, who introduced colonization to the Americas in the 16th century. In lore, she is the symbol of Mexico’s mestizo roots. The Denver Art Museum’s new exhibition, The Legacy of La Malinche, comprises depictions and changing interpretations of the iconic figure in art through the centuries.

Red Delicious Press Member Show
Martin Luther King Junior Library, 9898 East Colfax Avenue, Aurora
Monday, February 7, through March 31
Hop on the Mo’Print train and see what happens everyday at Red Delicious in Aurora, one of the metro area’s fine printing presses, best-known for its Big Red Delicious Press, an oversized, four-foot-wide, red-enameled monster built from recycled parts. The co-op will host a member show at the nearby MLK Jr. Library, as part of the Month of Printmaking; the press itself will also have an open house on March 26 during Mo’Print’s Studio and Print Tour.

Opening Circle: “Community Intentions and Collective Visioning,” With Molina Speaks
Tin Shop, 117 East Washington Avenue, Breckenridge
Tuesday, February 8, 4 to 6 p.m.
Breckenridge Creative Arts tapped the multitalented Denver poet, artist, musician and activist Molina Speaks for a residency starting this week and running through March 22 in the mountain resort, where he’ll be hosting interdisciplinary experiential workshops leading up to the creation of a collective artwork. Learn more about Molina’s program and how to participate when he gives an introductory talk, and then check out the scheduled activities here.

Angela Faris Belt, Vestiges: Last Stand of Bristlecone Pine
Michael Warren Contemporary, 760 Santa Fe Drive
Through March 4
Photographer Angela Faris Belt’s four-year project Vestiges, a slow record of bristlecone pines surviving at tree line through the seasons, made with unreliable vintage Polaroid film, is a tribute to these bent and rugged trees’ survival against all odds.

Steven Branfman: New Ceramic Work
Plinth Gallery, 3520 Brighton Boulevard
Through March 26
Special Artist Reception: Saturday, February 19, 7 to 9 p.m.
Clay artist Steven Branfman, who specializes in Western Raku-fired works, is well-known in his chosen field and his works can be found in several major craft museum collections. But he’s also cornered another shot at fame as the subject of the documentary A Father’s Kaddish, a film following the artist’s 365-day Japanese tea-bowl project in memory of his son, who died of brain cancer at the age of 23. Plinth Gallery is hosting an exhibition of Branfman’s work in conjunction with a Sunday, February 20 screening of the film at the Denver Jewish Film Festival; as well as a second opening on Saturday, February 19, with the artist present.

Spark Member Show, Part Two
Katie White, Wanderings
Spark Gallery, 900 Santa Fe Drive
Through February 27
Last Look: Sunday, February 27, 1 to 4 p.m.
The second half of Spark’s two-part member show opens on First Friday weekend, with more diverse work from co-op artists, including Rhiannon Alpers, Judy Anderson, Alicia Bailey, Mike Herburger, Kimberly Putnam and Susan Rubin. It’s a wide-ranging show with an array of expert book art, pinhole photography, mixed media, painting and botanical illustration, together under one roof. Painter Katie White shares bright, minimal abstracts powered by memories.

Recent Fine Prints from Oehme Graphics
Space Gallery, 400 Santa Fe Drive
Through March 5
This early Month of Printmaking group exhibition shows off work made over the last two years at Oehme Graphics, the printmaking studio run by master printmaker Susan Oehme, whose own work is included. Fine artists flock to the studio from all over Colorado and beyond for residencies, studio time and to tap Oehme and her staff for their expert printmaking help. You’ll be amazed by the results.

Ometeotl: We Are One
The Collective, 201 North Public Road, Lafayette
Through April 3
Fifth Dimensional Healing Circle with Mavis Salazar: Saturday, February 19, 2 to 4 p.m.
The Chicano Humanities and Arts Council may not have a brick-and-mortar at this time, but gallery members are spearheading a robust revival at various satellite locations, from a Northside hair salon and the co-working space Converge in RiNo to more traditional spaces like Northglenn Arts. CHAC’s latest project – Ometeotl: We Are One – springs up at the Collective Community Arts Center in the town of Lafayette with a theme of healing through the arts and ancient rituals in a time when several key CHAC members and friends, including Stevon Lucero, Alicia Cardenas, Bob Luna, Jose Raul Esquibel and Daniel Lowenstein, have passed. Poet Elena Guerrero Townsend will read at the opening, while artists Cal Duran and Tara Seren will perform healing music. Come back on February 19, when Mayan Priest Mavis Salazar performs a healing flower ceremony. In addition, CHAC is hosting separate Ojo de Dios workshops in February. Space is limited; register in advance for all events.

Colorado Black Arts Festival Artist Showcase
Understudy, 890 C 14th Street
Through February 28
The Colorado Black Arts Festival has had a rough couple of years. In 2020, the entire fest went virtual, and this past summer, some events were scaled down. If all goes right, the CBAF will be back at full strength in City Park this July. That’s why CBAF and the Denver Theatre District’s Understudy art incubator are co-hosting a showcase of Black artists who will be presenting work at the fest in 2022. Get familiar with the talent at a prelude to the festival itself, through the end of February.

John Barnabas Lake, Mnemonic Symbols Scaffold Reality
Alto Gallery, RiNo ArtPark, 1900 38th Street, Suite B
Through February 26
John Barnabas Lake considers the mysteries of subjective memory and sensation in hazy photographs of fleeting temporal minutiae at Alto.

Kit Ramsey: Four Leaf Clovers
Dateline Gallery, 3004 Larimer Street
Feeling lucky? Visit Dateline for Four Leaf Clovers, Kit Ramsey’s show of feel-good photographs, lush and pleasing – the kind of photos that are lucky shots, and from Ramsey’s point of view, tinged brilliantly green. His views, evoking life in the Pennsylvania countryside, will put a smile on your snow-sick face. Ramsey will also drop a new zine on the same theme.

Eye of the Tiger: 7th annual Chinese New Year Invitational
Valkarie Gallery, 445 South Saulsbury Street, Lakewood
Through February 26
One of Valkarie’s liveliest recurring shows celebrates the Lunar New Year and the cycling animal symbols of the Chinese zodiac. This year it’s the tiger, as rendered on 8-by-8-inch wood panels by a bevy of invited artists who’ve all had their way with imagery of the ferocious and handsome beast. Images are listed online if you can’t get to the opening, and they’re going fast.

Denise Dundon and Chris Olejniczak, Light & Dark
Bell Projects, 2822 East 17th Avenue
Through February 20
Denise Dundon and Chris Olejniczak take opposite sides in this exhibition of contrasting dualities, beginning with the most obvious differentiation suggested by the show title, Light & Dark. Dundon chooses the “light” side, working with airy, fluid paint and alcohol inks or digital imagery, while Olejniczak explores the “dark” using similar materials, but with heavier additions like construction spackle and wood panels.

Real Thing
Lane Meyer Projects, 2528 Walnut Street
Through March 20
Real Thing, a group exhibition curated by Brooklyn-based artist Renee Delosh, binds together works by six artists that subjectify common imagery, such as products, logos, objects and other everyday bits and pieces encountered in the course of life.

Disaster Girl, Morphing Chaos
Union Hall Gallery, the Coloradan, 1750 Wewatta Street, Suite 144
Register here in advance
Disaster Girl, the performative side of video artist Kimberley Bianca, a participant in Union Hall’s current show, Perception Shift, will do her thing – a nonlinear interactive performance – in the gallery on First Friday. It ties into Bianca’s work in the show, but you’ll need to bring a small stone or personal treasure smaller than your palm in order to play with a projected image rigged to morph or make sounds when you manipulate the object via a sensor and microphone.

Beyond the Horizon: Reach Core Artist Exhibition
RedLine Contemporary Art Center, 2350 Arapahoe Street
Through February 27
RedLine’s Reach Program isn’t always in the spotlight, but the community engagement project designed for adults in recovery or experiencing homelessness to find positive purpose through art does a lot of heavy lifting in the background. Beyond the Horizon is the Reach Program’s turn to shine by showing off the personal narrative works created by folks learning to climb above an at-risk status. The exhibition was curated by current RedLine resident artists Rochelle Johnson and Taiko Chandler.

Noah Sodano, a few spaces in mixed resolution.
Amy Lee Solomon, My World-and Welcome to It.
Guest Artist Michelle Britton
Pirate: Contemporary Art, 7130 West 16th Avenue, Lakewood
Through February 20
Pirate greets February with member shows by Noah Sodano, who offers new sculpture and photographic works, and storytelling oil paintings by Amy Lee Solomon. Guest artist Michelle Britton makes it a trio with surreal and sometimes spooky pipe dreams from the natural world.

Light & Shadow
40 West Gallery, 1560 Teller Street, Lakewood
Through February 26
Just a block away from Pirate, 40 West hosts a group show based on the contrasts of light and shadow, a key fundamental of visual art and a jumping-off point for experimentation in drawing, painting, sculpture and installation.

Karly Stein: Exploration of Color
People’s Building, 9995 East Colfax Avenue, Aurora
Through February 20
Karly Stein, a proponent of pour-painting, isn’t out to change the world with her handsome, swirly gravity-assisted paintings, but she’s happy to share her techniques with others and even leads pour-painting workshops for all ages, materials included. But first have a look at the work itself: Stein will exhibit her paintings at the People’s Building in Downtown Aurora in February.

Textured
Foolproof Contemporary Art, 3240 Larimer Street
Through April 23
Foolproof’s newest group show lays it on thick – texture, that is – for a look at a wide variety of works and mediums that can dramatically change the nature of the flat surface. Remaining artwork from the previous exhibition Deep Space will also be on view in the back room, and the Partners in Crime lounge next door will offer a wine special for art-goers.

Kukuli Velarde: Corpus
Colorado Springs Center for the Arts at Colorado College, 30 West Dale Street, Colorado Springs
Through April 9
Peruvian-American artist Kukuli Velarde takes inspiration from pre-Columbian sculpture and the annual Corpus Christi festival in Cusco, Peru, where statues of fifteen Catholic religious figures are carried in the streets, drawing thousands of pilgrims from around the region. What began as deeply religious pageantry has now become a tourist attraction, something Velarde takes into consideration as a metaphor for the effects of colonization in her large, modernized ceramic interpretations of the saints. The figures themselves prove resilience as symbols of cultural sustainability. The exhibition’s opening celebration has been postponed to a later date. Check the website for updates.

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