Kaitlyn Tucek: It's All Coming Apart
ATC DEN, 3420 Larimer Street
February 1 through March 31
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 1, 6 to 9 p.m.
Free, RSVP requested at Eventbrite
Laura Krudener turns over her RiNo gallery walls at ATC Den to a lush collection of painter Kaitlyn Tucek’s abstract paintings, heart drawings and installation work for the next couple of months. Based on the artist’s own personal experience of bouncing back from a low point while navigating motherhood and her role in life as a woman, It's All Coming Apart tells Tucek’s story of struggles and resilience in living color.
Mask(ed)
Art Gym Denver, 1460 Leyden Street
February 1 to February 24
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 1, 5 to 8 p.m.
Art Gym focuses on disguises we sometimes wear, both literally and psychologically, with Mask(ed), a new group exhibit of finely crafted masks by curator Kathleen Sherman and nine invited artists. Expect variety and multiculturalism, ranging from Sherman’s own whimsical creatures and Cal Duran’s beautiful culture-based, folkloric faces to Daniel Crosier’s demon costumes — and more. The opening will be a party, with live music and eats.
Pixel Palette II
Gazes: New Work by John Vogl
Helikon Gallery & Studios, 3675 Wynkoop Street
February 1 through March 3
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 1, 6 to 10 p.m.
Helikon Gallery revs up this weekend for its first shows in 2018: A group digital-painting showcase, Pixel Palette II, and Gazes, a solo by John Vogl (aka the Bungaloo), an artist who crosses the boundaries between commercial and fine-art works regularly. Vogl’s Gazes focuses on breezy, gestural portraiture in the form of prints that began as digital paintings, while Pixel Palette shows off the scope of affordable art being made on computer screens. If you miss the opening, there will be additional First Friday receptions on February 2 and March 2.
Wopo Holup: Endless Places, Present
Nathan Abels: History of the Future
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, 1750 13th Street, Boulder
February 1 through May 28
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 1, 6:30 to 9 p.m.
Artist Wopo Holup, who split her time between Lyons and New York until she passed away last fall, was a champion of public art whose work is installed in cities across the nation. That includes several works here in Colorado, at the RTD’s Orchard Street Station, the Westin Denver International Airport, and other locations. BMoCA pays tribute to her legacy with an exhibit of Holup’s topographical drawings, rendered from an aerial view to capture meandering waterways in simplified strokes. On other BMoCA walls, Colorado artist Nathan Abels, who is represented in Denver by Rule Gallery, explores the culture clash of ancient myths and modern technology with a new set of eerie, atmospheric canvases. Both shows are curated by Mandy Vink, the administrator of the Boulder Office of Arts + Culture’s public-art program.
Lumonics Mind Spa: Celebration of Electronic Music and Dance Party with Buddha Bomb
McNichols Building, 144 West Colfax Avenue
Opening Reception: Friday, February 2, 7:30 to 11 p.m.
Admission: $15 at Eventbrite
After a false start, Lumonics Mind Spa, a site-specific light-art installation by Dorothy Tanner (who turned 95 on January 30) is finally on view at the McNichols Building. To officially kick off the exhibition, Lumonics will host a dance party among the brightly lit sculptures with a historical pastiche of electronic-music spins by Buddha Bomb, who will further enhance his musical lecture with a multimedia presentation that segues into a consciousness workshop. It’s the kind of thing that usually only happens at Lumonics headquarters up north in Welby, so gird yourself for a trippy evening. Lumonics Mind Spa remains on view through May 27.
Arc Mystique: New Works From Katy Zimmerman
Lowbrow Denver, 38 Broadway
Opening Reception: Friday, February 2, 7 to 10 p.m.
Katy Zimmerman’s bailiwick as an artist migrates easily among the occult, the scientific and the natural worlds on an imaginary canvas the size of a galaxy, and the results are often glittery, arcane and mysterious portals into the void of space. She’s a perfect match for Lowbrow, an entire emporium of vinyl toys, coloring books and glittery things, where she’ll show off her starstruck work. And if you’re equally into kawaii merchandise, a distant cousin of Zimmerman’s oeuvre, Lowbrow is also hosting a one-night Wawe Studio Pop-up, with unethically cute enamel pins, stickers and other goodies.
Kevin Sloan, "Pressing On," detail.
Kevin Sloan
K Contemporary, 1412 Wazee Street
February 3 through 24
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 3, 6 to 10 p.m.
Oh, the places you’ll go with Kevin Sloan, whose idyllic scenes from the natural world cross over into the fantastic — a place where snowmen are sentient and civilization encroaches upon the pristine. “This group of paintings brings together two enduring themes in my work,” explains Sloan in a statement. “Metaphorically, a garden is a very specific place or state of mind which affords permanence, growth and creates abundance. The wanderer is the opposite, a concept which is defined by searching, impermanence, uncertainty, risk, loss and resilience.” Go both ways with Sloan at K Contemporary.
The Magazine Project
Understudy, 890 C 14th Street
February 3 through 16
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 3, 6 to 9 p.m.
The Denver Theatre District’s Understudy artist incubator continues its run of participatory residencies in February with artist Sarah Palmeri, who’s dressed the hole-in-the-wall studio space at the Colorado Convention Center in an installation of magazine collages and figurative light sculptures that comment on the feminine ideal, as portrayed in advertising and media. That’s where the participation part comes in: Palmeri will host open studio days from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on February 3, 8, 10 and 15, inviting visitors to try their own hand at magazine-collaging. The finished works will be collected for inclusion in Reassembled, a magazine displaying them in print. The publication is set for release in April; to order a copy, visit the Magazine Project online. A portion of every sale will benefit the Family Tree Women in Crisis Shelter in Denver.
