The Best Shows to See in Denver on First Friday

The year is new, and galleries are filled with the promise of great things to come in 2025: a sampling of Denver’s Month of Photography biennial, new-year vision boards at the Museo de las Americas, and members’ shows galore.

Start your year with art. Here’s where to go:

Tomiko Jones: The Intimate Infinite
Center for Visual Art, Metro State University (CVA), 965 Santa Fe Drive
January 3 through March 22
Opening Reception: Friday, January 3, 6 to 8 p.m.
Artist Reception/Gallery Talk: Friday, January 17, 6 to 8 p.m.; RSVP here
Closing Reception: Friday, March 21, 6 to 7:30 p.m.; RSVP here
CVA gets a head start on Denver’s Month of Photography in March with Tomiko Jones: The Intimate Infinite, a superstar MoP entry and mid-career survey of her work exploring the natural world’s connection to the subjective. Soft-focus self-portraits in nature, cyanotype and visual journaling are just a few of Jones’s boundary-crossing techniques and subject matter, all contributing toward dreamy, inspirational and supernatural views. In addition to creating the exhibit, Jones will be in town for a month-long residency and a succession of public events at the gallery, including receptions, an artist talk, an open house and a cyanotype workshop.

Yazmin “Yazz” Atmore, Crossroads
Alto Gallery, 1900 35th Street, Suite B
January 3 through February 1
Opening Reception: Friday, January 3, 6 to 10 p.m.; RSVP here
In Crossroads, a new exhibition at Alto Gallery, Yazz Atmore visits the in-between world of trickster figures who inhabit the spaces connecting the spiritual and the physical in African lore. Atmore, a former RedLine resident artist, weaves personal stories of her journey toward self-discovery into bright mixed-media/collage works, guided by ancestral voices, spirituality and meetings with the rogue creatures who inhabit those intersectional crossroads.

CHAC Members Show
CHAC Gallery, 834 Santa Fe Drive
January 3 through January 31
Opening Reception: Friday, January 3, 5 to 9 p.m.
The Art District on Santa Fe enclave of CHAC Gallery starts the year with a member showcase, giving CHAC’s faithful the opportunity to show favorite personal works.

First Friday: Manifesting & Predicting 2025
Museo de las Americas, 861 Santa Fe Drive
Friday, January 3, 5 to 9 p.m.
Create a personal vision board when the Museo celebrates the first First Friday of 2025 with a free Manifesting & Predicting art station. Also in your future, if you choose: Admission is free on First Friday, offering a perfect opportunity to see Migrants: A Tale of Two Hearts before it closes on January 26.

15-Year Anniversary Celebration Show
Niza Knoll Gallery, 915 Santa Fe Drive
January 3 through February 23
Opening Reception: Friday, January 3, 5 to 8 p.m.
Anniversary Celebration: Friday, January 17, 5 to 8 p.m.
Niza Knoll Gallery celebrates fifteen years of art exhibitions on Santa Fe Drive, bringing back a notable group of artists who’ve had shows in the space over the last decade and a half. But the real party, which includes live music, happens on January 17, as part of the Santa Fe Art District’s Third Friday collectors’ night.

All Access Pass
Access Gallery, 909 Santa Fe Drive
January 3 through February 23
First Friday Receptions: Friday, January 3, and Friday, February 7, 6 to 9 p.m.
Meet the Artists: Friday, January 17, and Friday, February 21, 6 to 8 p.m.
RSVP links for events above at Eventbrite
All Access Pass is Access Gallery’s version of a member show, but the participants are more than members. For the most part, they are people with talent who happen to have disabilities; Access has given them the chance to unlock artistic ability, express themselves and learn how to build a business around their work. More than thirty young artists with disabilities have art on the wall for this exhibition, along with professional artists who mentor them in the studio. For viewers, the result is a well-rounded viewing experience, with everything from paintings and sculpture to fan and comic book art.

45th Anniversary Members’ Show
Pirate: Contemporary Art, 7130 West 16th Avenue, Lakewood
Through January 5
Closing Reception: Friday, January 3, 6 to 9 p.m.
Pirate’s anniversaries keep piling up as time goes on, with number 45 now on display. It may have been Pirate that started the annual tradition of member shows at the turn of the year among local co-ops; this weekend’s closing reception could be a poignant place to spend some time mingling within the gallery’s storied walls.

Art Inspired by Frida Kahlo: Visions of the Self
CHAC 40 West, 7060 West 16th Avenue, Lakewood
January 3 through February 14
Opening Reception: Friday, January 3, 5 to 9 p.m.
CHAC’s 40 West outpost in Lakewood has an opening of its own on First Friday to complement Westside CHAC’s members’ show. This one, Art Inspired by Frida Kahlo, is one of those beautiful CHAC themed exhibitions based on cultural heroes. Frida fanatics can get their fill of Kahlo’s unibrowed likeness, pet monkeys, traditional garb, activism and tempestuous life story.

Core on Coolfax, Part 3: A Core Art Space Members’ Show
Core Art Space, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
January 3 through January 19
Opening Reception: Friday, January 3, 5 to 10 p.m.
Core, only a hair younger than Pirate, also honors the member-show tradition this weekend in 40 West with a themed exhibition extolling the West Colfax vibe in an area that welcomed Core and other displaced Denver galleries when they were priced out of their old spaces.

Jennifer Pettus and Gail Wagner, All of the Above
Sara-Lou Klein, Bird Tales, and guest artist Zoa Ace
Edge Gallery, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
January 3 through January 19
Opening Reception: Friday, January 3, 6 to 9 p.m.
At Edge, the focus remains on solo member shows, with Jennifer Pettus and Gail Wagner sharing a theme inspired by these words from artist Ben Shahn: “I believe that if it were left to artists to choose their own labels, most would choose none.” No doubt these two artists do their own thing, each in her own way. Also on the docket: Sara-Lou Klein’s Bird Tales and new works from guest artist Zoa Ace, who is always in demand.

Member Show: Depth
Next Gallery, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
January 3 through January 19
Opening Reception: Friday, January 3, 5 to 9 p.m.
The Next Gallery co-op chimes in with Depth, another all-member show, but one that muses on what happens under the surface that moves artists to create. Meanwhile, Next’s 2025 Casa Bonita show is now open for futuristic submissions of art depicting the pink-stucco tourist attraction as it might appear in the year 2074. Entries are due by midnight, January 31, for the show opening in February on Valentine’s Day; find info here.

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