Check the list below to learn about all this and more:
Charles Parson Drawing
RedLine Contemporary Art Center, 2350 Arapahoe Street
Through August 27
Opening Reception/Book Launch: Thursday, August 17, 5 to 8 p.m.
The patriarchal artist and educator Charles Parson is better known for his artworks concerned with the horizon line, from drawings to monumental sculptures that borrow from the expansive landscape, all wrought in geometric shapes, straight edges and the perception of distance. But Parson, who spends his best time at a family outpost in southern Colorado, also draws more traditionally, direct from nature, sometimes crowning his sight lines with mountainscapes or just sketching a tree.
The exhibition Charles Parson Drawing, curated by his son, Collin Parson, serves a couple of purposes in showcasing the artist’s work: for one, to tie together the relationships between those simple nature sketches and his more sophisticated work, and then to fill the pages of his new art book from Leaping Man. RedLine, where Parson formerly served as a Resource Artist Resident, is hosting the show, which focuses on his output in the past twenty years or so. Attend the opening and purchase a copy of Charles Parson Drawing. Books will be available for $140.
Pamela Gilmore Hake and Patricia Rucker, Layers of Light and Life
Sync Gallery, 931 Santa Fe Drive
Thursday, August 17, through September 10
Opening Reception: Friday, August 18, 6 to 9 p.m.
At Sync, abstract painters Pamela Gilmore Hake and Patricia Rucker reflect on light, shadow and mixed media for Layers of Light and Life.
Alicia Bailey, Diving In
Rhiannon Alpers, Mutualistic Musings
Westward Bound II, in the North Gallery
Spark Gallery, 900 Santa Fe Drive
Thursday, August 17, through September 10
Artists' Reception: Saturday, August 19, 3 to 5 p.m.
Last Look: Sunday, Sept 10, 1 to 4 p.m.
Alicia Bailey, a local book artist, curator and director of Abecedarian Books, heads up an all-book-artist slate this month at Spark, beginning with her own showcase, Diving In, inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words: “Everything teaches transition, transference, metamorphosis.... We dive and reappear in new places.” Rhiannon Alpers joins in with Mutualistic Musings, a study of the communion of women naturalists with the natural world they research. Lastly, in Spark’s North Gallery, you’ll find Westword Bound II, a group artist-book exhibition with a focus on the American West, curated by Bailey from selections made by Anna Bernhard of the Stanley G. Wold Resource Center and Library at CSU.
Colorado Women to Watch: Kim Dickey, Ana María Hernando, Maia Ruth Lee, Suchitra Mattai and Senga Nengudi
Center for Visual Art MSU Denver, 965 Santa Fe Drive
Friday, August 18, through October 21
Opening Reception: Friday, August 18, 6 to 8 p.m.
Conversation with Nora Abrams and Colorado Women to Watch Artists: Thursday, September 14, 6 p.m., free, RSVP at Eventbrite
The CVA digs in for the fall season with a beautiful mini-blockbuster, Colorado Women to Watch, with a close-up focus on artists Kim Dickey, Ana María Hernando, Maia Ruth Lee, Suchitra Mattai and Senga Nengudi, whose works hold up in the global art arena in terms of vision, consistency, variety and mastery of mediums. Some, like Hernando, Lee and Mattai, gain perspective from the personal and social histories that feed their works, while Dickey incorporates historical decorative techniques in ceramic towers, and Nengudi uses performative techniques by placing her own moving body into sculptural statements. All five artists were nominated by MCA Denver director Nora Burnett Abrams to represent Colorado in A New World: Women to Watch 2024, an exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. (Hernando will be included in the show, which opens next April.)
Fiberart International 2022
Museum of Art Fort Collins, 201 South College Avenue, Fort Collins
Friday, August 18, through October 15
Fiberart International, a champion of the wide-open medium, gives credence to the status of fiber works as fine art using sewing, quilting, needle point, macrame, weaving, felting, crocheting, knitting, embroidery, rug-making, basket weaving and other techniques borrowed from the craft world. Works for the exhibition were pulled by four jurors from an impressive 1,300 submissions by 545 artists from around the globe, offering a clear update on the state of fiber art this year.
Allyson McDuffie, Scrawl
Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut Street, Boulder
Thursday, August 17, through September 17
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 17, 5 to 8 p.m.
Allyson McDuffie, whose autobiographical works tap intersectional experiences and life navigation as a queer woman with a touch of humor (and chickens) in Scrawl, offers solace to those who seek answers in troubled times. The former corporate techie recently quit the rat race and returned to making art, an endeavor that seems to serve her well.
Gayedine Bujanda, Weaving Stories, Honoring Traditions Art
BuCu West, 4200 Morrison Road, Unit 3
Opening Reception: Friday, August 18, 5 to 7 p.m.
Jewelry, fiber art, assemblage, drawing, painting — they are all the same to Latinx Renaissance woman Gayedine Bujanda, who dabbles in them all. Bujanda will be featured at BuCu West this week, just in time to dovetail with the cross-cultural Saigon Azteca Night Market down the street at Rise Westwood, 3738 Morrison Road, and the Mikailhuitl 2023 festivities at D3 Arts, 3632 Morrison Road.
John Singer Sargent, “Portrait of Miss Elsie Palmer, or A Lady in White” (detail), 1889-1890, oil on canvas, way lined.
Courtesy Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 30 West Dale Street, Colorado Springs
Opening Celebration/Garden Party: Collections Transparency Project: Friday, August 18, 5 p.m.
August 18 through September 12: John Singer Sargent, “Portrait of Miss Elsie Palmer,” or “A Lady in White”
September 13 through September 28: Georgia O’Keeffe, “Dark Iris No.1”
October 2 through October 20: Textiles from the Southwest Collection
CSFAC is trying something different and behind-the-scenes this summer and fall, with a changing display, Agents of Care, focusing on works from the collection not currently in rotation. Learn about some of the museum’s hidden works, beginning with an Opening Celebration and Garden Party based on the painting “Portrait of Miss Elsie Palmer, or A Lady in White,” by John Singer Sargent, on view through September 12. Enjoy lawn games and refreshments at the opening; coming up later: "Dark Iris No.1," by Georgia O’Keeffe, beginning September 13, and textiles from the Southwest collection on October 2. August 18 is a free day at the museum; regular admission ranges from free to $10.
AI-Morphosis: Exploring the Fusion of Human and Machine in Visual Art
Niza Knoll Gallery, 915 Santa Fe Drive
Friday, August 18, through September 24
Opening Reception: Friday, August 18, 5 to 8 p.m.
Artist Panel Discussion: Sunday, September 3, 2:30 p.m.
AI, good or bad for artists? The argument is raging as AI programming goes live, and some professionals worry about copyright infringement and other injustices. Or is it an exciting creative catalyst? For better or worse, the Niza Knoll Gallery asked ten area artists to weigh in by transforming images through AI technology, and AI-Morphosis is the result. See a variety of outcomes by Rick Dallago, Howard Harris, Tyree Jones, Adrien Law, Charles Luna, Sista Luna, Aliki McCain, Ann Morgan, Andre Rodriquez and Topher Straus.
Rita Bhasin, "What Does Your Garden Grow?," oil and cold wax.
Rita Bhasin
NKollectiv, 960 Santa Fe Drive
Friday, August 18, through September 10
Opening Reception: Friday, August 18, 6 to 9 p.m.
It’s been a great year for gardeners, with early rain and, later, golden warmth sparking big blooms. But weeds are growing, too. It’s a good time to express garden joy or weedy distress in art, and that’s what What Does Your Garden Grow? is all about. Rita Bhasin and Kathy Friesz explore floral beauty and garden chaos in oils and wax.
Bruno D’Anna
Bitfactory Gallery, 851 Santa Fe Drive
Friday, August 18, through September 14
Opening Reception: Friday, August 18, 6 to 9 p.m.
Whether landscape or cityscape, Italian Bruno D’anna, who lives in Denver part-time, is on it, as evidenced by a new show following both themes, with street scenes, groves of trees, tall buildings and majestic mountains.
LFAC (Los Fantasmas Art Collective) Invitational Art Exhibit
ABC Custom Framing, 2550 South Colorado Boulevard
Saturday, August 19, 6 to 10 p.m.
Los Fantasmas Art Collective, now a nonprofit engaged in youth art programs and other community work, is throwing a group show to support members and emerging artists from underserved backgrounds and put their work on the map. The opening, located in the basement gallery created by Justin Maes at ABC Custom Framing, will include live music by Abe the Babe and Desert Shine, and open studios showcasing Akubis Designs, Bobby Aragon, Julian Christianson, Sacred Botanicals and Tony Diego.
Revenge of Summer! Art by Rene Farkass
3639½ York Street
Reception: Saturday, August 19, 7 to 10 p.m. or Sunday, August 20, 1 to 5 p.m.
It’s an art exhibit. It’s a house party. Either way, it’s a two-day chance to raise a glass and chat with artist Rene Farkass while viewing his artwork in the backyard and studio area of a friend. Fish shirts are promised. Find information and RSVP for a free ticket at Eventbrite.
Interested in having your event appear in this calendar? Send the details to [email protected].
