The spaces on the main floor, as well as additional spots on the second floor, make the Arvada Center the perfect spot for sweeping group shows, sometimes as many as three at the same time, giving plenty of local artists time in the spotlight. While I often love those exhibits, the best shows I’ve seen at the center have been epic solos that Parson has mounted in the formal galleries on the lower level. In 2008 he presented David Yust, in 2012 Robert Mangold, and now it’s Virginia Maitland. Each of these artists has been working in Colorado for fifty years; such an established career is a prerequisite for one of these full-tilt solos.

Installation view of 1980s paintings by Virginia Maitland at the Arvada Center.
Courtesy of the Arvada Center
Maitland became interested in art as a child, and by the age of twelve was determined to be an artist. Living outside of Philadelphia, as a teenager she took classes at various schools in that city, including Moore College and the Tyler School of Art. For college, she chose the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. (David Lynch was a PAFA classmate, and Maitland appeared in several of his student films, including The Grandmother, which is included in support materials for this show, along with a career timeline.)

Virginia Maitland's early 1970s abstracts, (left to right) "Jamestown", "Hymnen" and "Tibetan Landscape."
Courtesy of the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities
This fantasy painting and others of different styles in the entry gallery were done when Maitland still lived in Philadelphia in the 1960s, before her spontaneous move to Colorado in 1970. She’d visited Boulder, fell in love with the town — and the nearby mountains — and relocated just a couple of years after she graduated from PAFA; she’s lived there ever since. It was only after she arrived in Colorado that she began developing her signature approach to picture-making, one that she’s adhered to, broadly speaking, right up to through her current work. According to Maitland, “the clear blue skies” above Boulder may have sparked this change in her aesthetic sensibilities.

"Remembrance of Clarity" (left) and "The Windy Heaven" (right), both from the 1990s, by Virginia Maitland
Courtesy of the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities

Virginia Maitland's recent paintings; "Breaking the Surface" (left), "Solar Chaos" (right).
Courtesy of the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities
Seeing Maitland drift away from what she had done earlier on sets up something of a revelation in the last gallery, where her most recent pieces make it appear that she’s picked up her practice precisely where she’d left it in the 1980s to pursue other aesthetic goals. Because of this surprising twist in the narrative of Maitland’s oeuvre, there was discussion of calling the show Full Circle. Still, these newer paintings differ from the earlier ones in technique; though Maitland still pours paint, she also uses brushes to reinforce the shapes. In the brand-new “Breaking the Surface,” for example, she arranges rough-hewn color wedges in rich blues and deep violets, with a streak of yellow going up the middle. It’s sensational, and shows Maitland still at the top of her game.
As is the Arvada Center, with this marquee attraction of this fall’s very strong exhibition schedule.
Virginia Maitland Retrospective 1965 to the Present, through November 11, Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Boulevard, 303-898-7200, arvadacenter.org.