It’s a weekend of new galleries and old standbys, gorgeous traditional gallery shows, pop-ups and futuristic musings in the local art world. Take advantage of lovely spring weather and excellent art-viewing while the going’s good.
Mackenzie Browning, Polytopiary
Brad Smith, Recluse
Robin Whatley, A. Muse vs. B. Muse
Art Gym, 1460 Leyden Street
April 25 through May 17
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 25, 5 to 8 p.m.
Art Gym starts fresh for spring by loading up its galleries with new work by resident artists. In the main gallery, paper artist Mackenzie Browning’s installation Polytopiary lays out a manicured forest of meticulously folded, three-dimensional topiaries with hand-printed surfaces for a farewell show in Denver. In the Common Space Gallery, Brad Smith draws famous recluses in graphite and gouache, and Robin Whatley goes on a search for her muse. Come back on May 7, when Smith and Whatley will explain their work in an artist talk at 5 p.m.
Of Places and Spaces: Homare Ikeda, Sandy Kinnee and introducing Patrick Marold
William Havu Gallery, 1040 Cherokee Street
April 26 through June 8
Opening Reception: Friday, April 26, 6 to 9 p.m.
Havu Gallery pairs the natural, organic shapes of painters Homare Ikeda and Sandy Kinnee with sculptural pieces by gallery newcomer Patrick Marold, known for his monumental outdoor installation "Shadow Array" at Denver International Airport. On a smaller scale, Marold works three-dimensionally with natural materials like wood, or draws in rough markings created by rubbing charred wood across paper. Though Earth Day has passed, this show is a good place to contemplate our place in nature. Ikeda and Kinney also have work on display through June 8 on the third floor of the McNichols Building, 144 West Colfax Avenue.
Finding Place
Walker Fine Art, 300 West 11th Avenue
April 26 through May 25
Opening Reception: Friday, April 26, 5 to 9 p.m.
Across the street from William Havu, Walker Fine Art looks to the east for inspiration with Finding Place, putting heads together with the Denver Art Museum’s Asian Art Association for Finding Place, a group feast of work by six artists from pan-Asian backgrounds. Artworks range from the textured, beaten-pulp paper installations of Sammy Seung-Min Lee to Cory Feder’s hand-painted ceramics, with interesting personal destinations in between by Joo Woo, Jongku Kim, Chinn Wang and Kazu Oba.
Outsiders
Leon Gallery, 1112 East 17th Avenue
April 26 through 28
Opening Reception: Friday, April 26, 6 to 10 p.m.
Leon sets free a group of MFA students from the University of Denver’s Emergent Digital Practices program for a weekend pop-up of high-tech, new-media wanderings through the uncharted lands of digital fabrication, virtual reality, generative digital art and interactive animation curated by DU EDP professor Laleh Mehran. Tech in art is here to stay: Let these students show you the the way to the next level.
Untitled Final Friday: We All Start Off as Strangers, With Esther Hernandez
Denver Art Museum, 100 West 14th Ave Parkway
Friday, April 26, 6 to 10 p.m.
$8 to $13 and free for children and youth ages eighteen and under; students with valid ID receive two-for-one tickets to Untitled
See the current DAM exhibition Jordan Casteel: Returning the Gaze with new eyes with help from Denver performance artist Esther Hernandez, who leads April’s Untitled Final Friday: We All Start Off as Strangers by creating community-building encounters throughout the museum. Try your hand at exquisite-corpse poetry, make a zine, have your portrait drawn spontaneously by artist Caleb Hahne or bump into a random stranger in a ghillie suit.
Ana María Hernando Pop-Up: Undomesticated
Seidel City, 3205 Longhorn Road, Boulder
Friday, April 26, 6 to 9 p.m.
Go behind the studio wall with Ana María Hernando, known for her beautiful installations paying tribute to the indigenous handiwork of Latin American women, when she stops in at Seidel City for a one-night exhibition and a 7:30 p.m. screening of Undomesticated / Ana María Hernando, an exploration of that work by filmmaker Amie Knox.
Michael Penny, Sacred Journey: Sharing My Artistic Journey Though Art
BuCu West, 4200 Morrison Road, Suite 3
April 26 through May 31
Opening Reception: Friday, April 26, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The Westwood Creative District fetes longtime Denver fixture Michael Penny, whose sandblasted stone and wood works reveal pre-Columbian roots while grabbing cultural imagery from around the globe. Meet Penny and have a bite while he introduces a new series of pieces blasted into rainbow sandstone from India.
L’Avenir, a Graffuturism group exhibition
Mirus Gallery, 1144 Broadway
April 26 through May 25
Opening Reception: Friday, April 26, 7 to 10 p.m.
Free, RSVP or reserve a VIP ticket for $10 online
Street-smart and toney Mirus Gallery celebrates the first anniversary of its arrival in Denver from San Francisco with L’Avenir, an exhibition of international Graffuturists — a new generation of street artists who share a forward-thinking aesthetic. It’s curated by American artist Poesia, who coined the term “Graffuturism.”
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Talk Gallery Grand Opening, with Mark Brasuell and Matt O’Neill
Talk Gallery, 4382 South Broadway, Englewood
Opening Reception: Friday, April 26, 6 to 10 p.m.
There’s a new gallery in town, and it’s called Talk – presumably because its founders, artist Jesse Frazier and art junkie Gordon Mehterian, hope it will inspire conversation by employing a new gallery model: good art displayed in a curated, immersive space. See how well it works at the grand opening, which features local artists Mark Brasuell and Matt O’Neill, with a backdrop of music and decor by Compliment Design.
Hue: Demensions of Color
The Hideout at ABC Custom Framing, 2550 South Colorado Boulevard
April 27 to June 15
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 27, 7 to 11 p.m.
The Hideout, a studio and gallery space in the basement of ABC Custom Framing, is an underground venture in every way: Hue, a big group show curated by artist and ABC entrepreneur Justin Maes, has a DIY, urban-street spirit and a focus on color. Twenty artists will blast your eyes with shades of the rainbow at the opening, which includes live music by Caleb Hogan.
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