Gallery Sketches: Three New Art Shows and Events in Denver February 19-21

For a fast immersion in cutting-edge art, don't miss Artopia on Saturday night. But this weekend features other opportunities to further explore art: Local artists will rub elbows with national names at MCA Denver for a set of winter shows, while Niza Knoll Gallery looks at the digital frontier and the Center for Visual Art/MSU Denver  goes under the radar to explore alternative mediums.
MCA Denver Winter Exhibitions:
Brian Bress: Make Your Own Friends, through July 3 
Critical Focus: Lanny DeVuono, through June 5 
Laura Shill: Phantom Touch, through July 3 
Arne Svenson: The Neighbors, through June 5 
MCA Denver
Public reception: 7:30 to 10 p.m. Friday, February 19
Marilyn Minter has taken her flash and glitter and moved on from MCA, and in her place comes a clean quartet of winter exhibitions: the multimedia works of Brian Bess; a Critical Focus look at another Denverite, Lanny DeVuono; works by Denver artist Laura Shill, including a site-specific installation of plush noodles; and invasive photography by Arne Swenson (one image in the show was the subject of a right-to-privacy lawsuit that the artist won). The shows open with a party of a reception, featuring a DJ in the cafe on the rooftop, and down in the Open Shelf Library, a specialty Manhattan bar for those who prefer to sip while they view. RSVP in advance at Eventbrite for ten-cent admission at the door.

Motion Art and Motion Digital Storytelling
Niza Knoll Gallery 
February 19 through March 26
Opening reception: 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, February 19
A new juried exhibition at Niza Knoll Gallery in the Art District on Santa Fe explores ground-breaking and discipline-crossing work in the digital video medium. Juried by CSU electronic-art professor Cye Tornatzk, the show, displayed on flat screens installed throughout the gallery, focuses on themes encompassing expressionistic imagery, work made on mobile phones and cutting-edge uses of technology. Plug in.
Ground Work Artist Talk and Performance
Center for Visual Art/MSU Denver
6 p.m. Friday, February 19
Ground Work, currently on view in CVA’s student-run 965 Gallery, includes a street-wise collection of traffic-cone prints by Frank Kwiatkowski, works by Denver muralist team Hollis + Lana and graphic-novel collaborators Dan Landes and Noah Van Sciver. At the February 19 Third Friday reception, Landes will read from City of Whiskey and Fire (beautifully illustrated by Van Sciver) and Kwiatkowski will join Metro professor Peter Miles Bergman for a talk on alternative printmaking and the underground world of zines. Live music by DBUK ties the evening together.

Want more? See the Westword event listings for current gallery and art museum exhibitions and openings in the metro area.