Art Attack: Thirteen Ways to See Art This Weekend

Galleries are rising to the occasion for First Friday during Denver Arts Week(end), with a strong itinerary of new shows that will get you excited about going out into the world to see art. Most art districts aren’t hyping First Friday events in deference to the uptick in COVID-19 cases, but 40 West in Lakewood is making a small blip in the silence by inviting light-spinners from Elemental Enchanters to pop up at the district gallery in their LED-light costumes and props. Learn more on Facebook.

And keep reading for how to see art — in person or online — this weekend:
Terrance Koh
LMP PDA, Lane Meyer Projects, 2528 Walnut Street
Through November 15
Beijing-born Canadian artist Terence Koh, known for arcane subject matter in his performance and installation pieces, is in the 24/7 LMP PDA window gallery at Lane Meyer Projects, where you can view a small scope of his big work from the sidewalk. All works in the window are available for purchase; Koh will donate 50 percent of all sales to the Colorado Wildlife Foundation.
Lantern-Lit Graveyard
View online indefinitely on Dateline Gallery’s website
Aaron Mulligan, the former Denver gallerist and curator at Juicebox Projects, tapped several of his Colorado pals to contribute to Lantern-Lit Graveyard, a Halloween-themed digital show that will remain on view on Dateline Gallery’s site long after the holiday has come and gone. Meanwhile, back in the physical gallery at 3004 Larimer Street, Max Kauffman’s show, Implements for Modern Farming, has been extended through the end of the month, with an extra reception scheduled from 6 to 11 p.m. for First Friday, in conjunction with Denver Arts Week(end).
Shark's Ink: The California Crew
BMoCA at Frasier, Frasier Meadows, 350 Ponca Place, Boulder
Through January 10
After Sherry Wiggins’s mother moved into Boulder’s Frasier Meadows retirement community, the artist endeavored, in collaboration with the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, to curate a show there of prints by fourteen notable California artists created at the renowned Shark’s Ink studio in Lyons. Sadly, because of COVID restrictions, the exhibition is currently closed to visitors, but you can have a look at the chosen works on Wiggins’s blog page until further notice.
Barbara Gal, Stitched Together: Paper Quilts
Jessie Morvay, Timeless Water
Dusk to Dawn
Next Gallery, Art Hub, 6851 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
Through November 15
Next Gallery member Barbara Gal stitches together photographs and keepsakes from her travels into paper memory quilts, while printmaker Jessie Morvay weighs in with prints and paintings based on photographs taken in the wild during the artist’s fly-fishing trips. Dusk to Dawn, a members' group exhibition, continues in the Community Gallery.
USPS Art Project
Art Gym Denver, 1460 Leyden Street
Through November 29
Receptions: Wednesday, November 11, 5 to 8 p.m.; Saturday, November 21, 3 to 6 p.m.
New York artist Christina Massey initiated the USPS Art Project, a national collaborative mail-art venture that helps artists connect from a distance while also supporting the ailing U.S. Post Office. Art Gym joined galleries in other cities by hosting an exhibit of artworks from the project that last went on display at Sunset Art Studios in Dallas, along with additional new works. See how artists shared ideas during the show’s run, or by appointment Monday through Friday. If it piques your interest, the project continues through mid-January; learn how to participate online.

Fray
Alto Gallery, 4345 West 41st Avenue
Through December 5
Rolling Artist Receptions:  Saturday, November 7, noon to 3 p.m. (artist presentations: Jenny West, Stephanie Hilvitz, Marsha Robinson); Sunday, November 8, noon to 3 p.m. (artist presentations: Matti Øverland Berglund, Lindsay Smith Gustave)
We Were Wild, the collaborative artist duo of Meredith Feniak and Risa Friedman, went deep to curate this diverse group show of textile-based work that focuses on the medium’s infinite degrees of texture and finish —hence the title, Fray. Three receptions will roll out over the weekend to enable better social distancing, each including presentations by a different group of participating artists.

Bug, Cyclops
Hardly Soft, False Deadlines
Pirate: Contemporary Art, 7130 West 16th Avenue, Lakewood
Through November 29
Pirate’s November member shows by the artist Bug and Hardly Soft, the duo of Amber Cobb and Mario Zoots, present different approaches to installation work. Bug is known for elaborate setups, sometimes with multimedia flourishes, to comment on the more chilling aspects of being human; Hardly Soft juxtaposes Zoots’s elegant collaged shapes and Cobb’s sensual ones, drenched in dripping plastic and resins, to reveal the eerie subconscious. You will want to spend some time wandering here.
MIX Co-op Annual Show
Niza Knoll Gallery, 915 Santa Fe Drive
Through January 2, 2021
First-Chance Viewing: Saturday, November 7, 1 to 5 p.m.; register for timed entry in advance
The MIX Co-op’s members are usually sequestered in the back room at Niza Knoll Gallery, but once a year, they come up front into the main gallery for a holiday-season group show. Work by the co-op’s eight members varies from Mark Friday’s familiar found-object constructions to interesting pieces by printmaker Jennifer Ghormley (not to mention new member Mark Stokesbury’s vengeful screen-printed rabbit wielding a chainsaw…).
John Domenico and Gwendolyn Yopollo
Plinth Gallery, 3520 Brighton Boulevard
Through December 1
Ceramics artist John Domenico makes clay sculpture and vessels cured in a wood-fire kiln, sometimes together in one piece; Gwendolyn Yopollo shapes graceful, organic bowls and other functional pieces finished in creamy matte glazes.
MSU Denver Student Exhibition
Center for Visual Art, 965 Santa Fe Drive
Through November 28
Fall 2020 Student Exhibition Online Artist Panel: Thursday, November 19, 6 to 7 p.m. (sign up for Happenings newsletter to receive link)
MSU Denver’s fall BFA exhibition showcases the school’s next crop of emerging artists, from the raw to the polished and everywhere in between. In back, the student-run 965 Gallery touts an even greener crop of artists from CVA’s Art + Action Summer Internship 2020. There will be no formal reception, but you can sign up to see an online panel of young artists on November 19.

Contemporary Native Group Exhibition
ARTAOS/FaraHNHeight Fine Art Gallery, 2822 East 17th Avenue
Through November 20
These enmeshed 17th Avenue galleries present a selection of modern Native American artworks in a variety of mediums for November.
Diego Rodriguez-Warner, Horror Vacui
Leon Gallery, 1112 East 17th Avenue
November 7 through January
Update: The opening reception, originally scheduled for Saturday, November 7, has been moved to November 14, 2 to 6 p.m.
Diego Rodriguez-Warner, an artist to watch, returns to Leon for his third show at the nonprofit gallery, which centers around one monumental panel, surrounded by about fifty individual small panel-paintings. Calling his hand-carved relief work “paintings” is a misnomer, as many of his images leap off the flat surface, even when rendered two-dimensionally.
Ken Gun Min, G.B.T.Y.C.
Francisco Souto, Poetics of Despair
K Contemporary, 1412 Wazee Street
November 7 through December 2
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 7, 6 to 11 p.m.
K Contemporary presents Korean painter Ken Gun Min, whose works for G.B.T.Y.C. (read as either “Good bye to your compulsion” or “Go back to your country”) collage mix cultural references in a mixture of paint, glue, beads and crystal. Also on view: Venezuelan draftsman and printmaker Francisco Souto, whose small-scale drawings in graphite, colored pencil and/or acrylic offer a layered response to increasing narcissism exercised in the public arena. Sign up for timed entry to attend the reception.