Want to run the gamut? Boulder Open Studios is on a roll for two more weekends, with 125 artists and 85 studios. Here we go!
A photograph of things left behind by migrants from the series El Cementerio by Monica Lozano.
© Monica Lozano, courtesy Museo de las Americas
Museo de las Americas, 861 Santa Fe Drive
Through January 26
Curator and Artists Tour, Migrants: A Tale of Two Hearts: Saturday, October 12, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; tickets are $10 at Eventbrite
The Museo caps Hispanic American Heritage Month with the opening of Migrants: A Tale of Two Hearts, an exhibition of work in a wide range of mediums by twelve artists who have lived or been touched by the migrant experience. Rocio Guerrero Mondoño curated the show at the behest of Denver-based migrant artists Jaime Belkind-Gerson and Sisel Lan, who sought to humanize people living through extreme hardship, fear and persecution to seek safety and more productive lives over the border. Ultimately, the work covers themes of forced displacement, constant movement as survival, the body as memory keeper and the feeling of having no home while on the road to personal transformation. For fuller insight, tour the show with Guerrero Mondoño and the artists on October 12.
Frank Zamora, "La Hambre."
Frank Zamora
BRDG Project, 3300 Tejon Street
October 11 through November 2
Opening Reception: October 11, 5 to 9 p.m.
Calaveras Masquerade Ball: Friday, October 25, 7 to 11 p.m.; tickets: $35 ($50 couple) at Eventbrite.
Just as they brought the spirit of co-op galleries and cultural meeting places back to the Northside last January for Roots of an Era, the artists of the BRDG Project, led by Chicana artist Artlette Lucero, are now also bringing a rousing Día de los Muertos art show and celebration back to the neighborhood, as first introduced by Pirate: Contemporary Art in the ’80s. Community altars and Día de los Muertos-themed art by Denver Chicano artists will fill gallery spaces; after the reception, the ticketed Calaveras Masquerade Ball, a modernized party with live music, food, drink, dancing and face painting follows. And there’s more: Salon, a group show with work by several Denver-area artists, also opens on October 11 in the East Gallery.
Form & Texture
William Havu Gallery, 1040 Cherokee Street
October 11 through November 30
Opening Reception: Friday, October 11, 5 to 8 p.m.
New at the William Havu Gallery is a regional group show, Form & Texture, which compares and contrasts abstract styles by painters Clay Johnson, Lola Montejo, Rebecca Rich and Laura Wait, as well as Sheryl Zachariah’s elegant modern clay sculpture blending geometrics and slab construction. For a closer look at all five artists before viewing the shows, check out Havu Gallery’s video studio visits on Instagram.
Theodore Waddell, “Snake River Paints #2,” 1993, oil on canvas.
Theodore Waddell, courtesy Visions West Contemporary
Visions West Contemporary, 2605 Walnut Street
October 11 through November 2
Opening Reception: Friday, October 11, 6 to 8 p.m.
Visions West shares a small treasury of Theodore Waddell’s painterly canvases dotting landscapes with herds of horses, cows, buffalo and other four-leggeds that convey the Western spirit au natural, with lots of grit and little glory other than nature’s beauty.
Monster Mash
Abend Gallery, 1261 Delaware Street
October 11 through November 12
Opening Reception/Costume Party: Friday, October 11, 6 to 9 p.m.
Representational artists from Abend Gallery bring Halloween art out of the spirit world for a month of ghouls, witchy gals, black cats, classic monsters and even cute creatures drinking tea. The opening is a costume party, as well.
Lost & Found: An Analog Forever Magazine Exhibition
Colorado Photographic Arts Center, 1200 Lincoln Street
October 11 through November 23
Opening Reception: Friday, October 11, 6 to 9 p.m.
Panel Discussion: “Why Analog?” on Saturday, October 12, 2 p.m., free
CPAC celebrates the joys of analog photography in conjunction with Analog Forever Magazine for Lost & Found, a deep, 35-artist dive into traditional techniques still being explored in the digital age. Curated by the periodical’s founder and publisher Michael Behlen and editor Michael Kirchoff, the exhibition offers a million reasons why analog isn’t over.
Boulder County Open Studios Tour
Saturdays and Sundays, October 12-13 and 19-20, Noon to 5 p.m.
Boulder’s Open Studios organization runs one of the largest events of its kind in Colorado, boasting a selection of 125 artists at 85 studio locations in 2024, and is more than its name implies. In addition to the annual free, three-weekend self-guided tour, it keeps the Boulder Plein Air Art Festival, POP! Gallery, EdLinks Art Education and a Mobile Art Lab under its wing, as well. This year’s series began last weekend, but there are still two more weekends to go. For the best information, look at the online 2024 Tour Guide Program, with artist introductions, tour maps and a viewing checklist, or pick up a hard copy for $7 at these locations.
Nemo Speciale, Humans Electromagnetic Spectrum
Naked Ray Gallery, 811 28th Street
October 11 through November 12
Opening Reception: Friday, October 11, 4 to 8 p.m.
The nameless, faceless artist who goes by Nemo Speciale ("Nobody Special" in Latin) and the IG handle @_artsucks_ debuts the exhibition Humans Electromagnetic Spectrum at the Naked Ray Gallery, a venue that seems to speak the same language. A variety of friends also participate; you'll have to be there to grok the total experience.
Celebrate Dia de los Muertos in Longmont with the Firehouse Art Center and the Longmont Museum.
Photo: David Berry
Firehouse Art Center, 667 Fourth Avenue, Longmont
October 12 through November 3
Dia de los Muertos Family Fiesta/Gigantes Procession: Saturday, October 12, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., procession at 2 p.m., Downtown Longmont at Fourth Avenue and Main Street, free
Catrina Ball 2024: Fiesta de Almas, Saturday, October 19, 4:30 to 8:30 p.m.; RSVP for free tickets here
Día de Muertos Exhibition
Longmont Museum, 400 Quail Road, Longmont
October 12 through November 5
Noche de Museo: Celebrating Day of the Dead: Saturday, November 2, 7 p.m.; admission: $15 to $18 here
El Día de los Muertos is a big deal in Longmont, with both the Longmont Museum and the Firehouse Art Center pitching in with art shows, altars and citywide performances and parties throughout the second half of October and the first week of November. Whatever is traditional for Day of the Dead celebrations that welcome beloved ancestors for a day, Longmont’s got it. Both venues begin with the basics: art shows laden with Día de Muertos imagery, from the bony Calavera Catrina in her fancy hat, as popularized by Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada, to candle-lit community ofrendas. And both also chip in for a Saturday family celebration in downtown Longmont, with music and dance, food, altars, sugar-skull decorating and Firehouse’s Gigantes Parade of huge papier-mâché skeleton figures. Finally, they each have elegant parties for the finale (Firehouse’s Catrina Ball includes an art auction). Follow the links above for schedules and information.
Maurice Sendak, “Where the Wild Things Are,” 1963, watercolor, ink and graphite on paper.
©The Maurice Sendak Foundation, courtesy Denver Art Museum
Hamilton Building, Level 2, Denver Art Museum, 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway
October 13 through February 17
Exhibition Tickets: Free to $30 here, includes regular museum admission
Absolutely everyone loves Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are and the sensibility of free creativity his best-known creation has inspired in people from one to 100 since the children’s picture book came out in 1963. But Sendak, who died in 2012, wrote and/or illustrated scores of children’s books (and some for adults) that are, along with the man himself, lesser known, though his style is instantly recognizable. Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak, opening Sunday at the Denver Art Museum, will cover Sendak the man: who he was, his style, his influences and illustrator muses, and how he put books together, page by page. Family-friendly and a delightful walk-through for all ages — just like those Wild Things themselves — the show is among this coming season’s not-to-miss exhibitions.
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