Fine art, DIY art, new beginnings, experimental open-entry art: There’s a little bit of everything going down this weekend in the local art world, so why not sample a bit of it all? Here are nine delicious directions you might take:
The Brady Tarot Closing Reception and Deck Sale
Syntax Physic Opera, 554 South Broadway
Thursday, October 18, 7 to 9 p.m.
Emi Brady called her Brady Tarot Deck project her greatest accomplishment when she answered the Colorado Creatives questionnaire for Westword last summer, and for good reason: Brady hand-carved and printed the 78 linocuts that were the basis for the professionally reprinted deck, which is finally available for purchase, packed in a handsome laser-engraved bamboo box. The original artwork has been on display (and for sale) at Syntax since July; the closing reception is not only your last chance to pick up an original Brady print, but also a new opportunity to buy a finished deck. It retails at $55, and a portion of the proceeds will be contributed to environmental nonprofits Earthjustice and the Indigenous Environmental Network. Go one step further, and Brady will give you a mini-reading with the deck for a fee.
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Muertos Workshop Weekend
EvB Studio, 3735 Ames Street in Wheat Ridge
-Third Friday Mini-Shop: Little Clay Skulls, Friday, October 19, 6 to 9 p.m., $10
-Sugar Skull Weedpots, Saturday, October 20, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., $75
-Boney Hamsas, Sunday, October 21, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., $75
Full weekend workshop bundle available for $140
Register in advance; space is limited
Marie Gibbons is a ceramics artist gifted with the ability to share her know-how with others, including kids, seniors and beginners, who learn that they, too, can create with a little guidance. She hosts workshops regularly at her Wheat Ridge studio, but this weekend will be a Día de los Muertos tour de force with three different opportunities to transform lumps of clay into something gorgeous, on a seasonal theme. Find the details and reserve a spot — they will go fast! — online.
The Water Within: New Works by Etsuko Ichikawa
Peter Olson: Photo Ceramica
Michael Warren Contemporary, 760 Santa Fe Drive
Through December 1
Opening Reception: Friday, October 19, 6 to 9 p.m.
Artist talk with Etsuko Ichikawa: Saturday, October 20, 10:30 a.m. to noon
Two artists mixing unusual mediums share solos at Michael Warren in late fall shows: One of them, Etsuko Ichikawa, who began as a glass-blower trained at Pilchuck, will unveil a series of glowy Jomon vessels and figurines conjured and cast using uranium glass as a riff on the events at Fukushima, Japan; the other, Peter Olson, makes Grecian-style ceramic vessels collaged with photographic prints that burn away in the kiln, leaving ghost images left by iron oxides in the ink.
Downtown – A Tribute to the Mudd Club
Lane Meyer Projects, 2528 Walnut Street
October 19 through November 1
Opening Reception: Friday, October 19, 6 to 9 p.m.
Downtown harks back to the late ’70s and early ’80s in New York City, where the Mudd Club snubbed the Studio 54 scene uptown as an experimental punk art bar with its own clientele of downtown glitterati. Artists answering an open call for ready-to-hang 2-D works will do so with no further artistic restrictions for a raucous anything-goes exhibit to which Mudd Clubbers like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring might have given a nod. At least in theory.
Mystical Beasts
Sally Centigrade, 445 South Saulsbury Street, Lakewood
Through November 19
Opening Reception: Friday, October 19, 5 to 9:30 p.m.
Sally Centigrade serves up a tasty smorgasbord of artists working with visionary imagery ranging from the fantastical to the psychedelic, in the form of Mystical Beasts. Curated by Martin Stensaas, a prime exemplar of the style, who often collaborates with other artists in dreamy canvases, the exhibit includes Denver painter CT Nelson, Hannah Yata, Lori Nelson, A. Andrew Gonzalez, Eric Howard, Isaac Hastings and Sri Whipple, as well as Stensaas himself, with painting partner Sunny Strasburg. In the world of lowbrow and pop-surrealism, that’s what we call a great lineup.
Trine Bumiller: 100 Paintings for 100 Years
Naropa University’s Nalanda Gallery, 6287 Arapahoe Avenue, Boulder
October 19 through December 17
Opening Reception: Friday, October 19, 6 to 8 p.m.
Denver painter Trine Bumiller spent the summer of 2014 as a resident artist in Rocky Mountain National Park, during which she painted 100 signature impressions of nature’s living infrastructures to commemorate the park’s centennial. The series first went up at the McNichols Building in 2015, but here’s a chance to see it again — or for the first time, if you missed it.
Welcome to the Machine
Access Gallery, 909 Santa Fe Drive
October 19 through November 9
Opening Reception: Friday, October 19, 5 to 9 p.m.
Access Gallery, which mentors young adults with disabilities through art, recently upgraded its facilities to include a Digital Media Lab. Naturally, the nonprofit’s ArtWorks artists wanted to try everything out. Welcome to the Machine shows off the results — in particular, highlighting young talents and techies Adam Barrow and Scott Sampson.
All Day I Dream: Jennifer Bobola and Topher Straus
Bitfactory Gallery, 851 Santa Fe Drive
October 19 through November 6
Opening Reception: Friday, October 19, 6 to 10 p.m.
Jennifer Bobola and Topher Straus team up for a complementary exhibition of abstract works — Bobola represented by heavily impastoed mid-century angles, while Straus shows off a unique process involving digitally altered photos printed on sheets of aluminum.
Cabal Creepshow
Cabal Gallery, 1875 South Broadway
Saturday, October 20, 6 to 10 p.m.
Cabal almost lost its quirky hackerspace and gallery, but at the last minute, the South Broadway venue’s crew pulled it out and will be marching forward with a slightly different model. To celebrate being “the gallery that wouldn't die,” Cabal is again hosting an old Halloween Creepshow exhibit and party, with lots of horror-infused works from thirty artists, a DIY haunted house and live music by Yao Guai. Drop in and say hello again. Admission is free, thanks to sponsorship by Meow Wolf.
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