Keep exploring. Here are the details for those shows, plus a lot more art to seek out and see this weekend:
No Puedo Imaginar Mi Vida Sin Ti
CU Denver Experience Gallery, Denver Performing Arts Complex (across the plaza from the Buell Theatre)
Through June 30
Under the direction of curator Jeff Lambson, CU Denver’s student-staffed Experience Gallery partners with Denver Arts & Venues to bring immersive fine-art exhibitions to the Denver Performing Arts Complex. The latest, No Puedo Imaginar Mi Vida Sin Ti (I can not imagine my life without you) explores platonic love and friendship within the Chicanx community, which values the grassroots relationships of familial and cultural connections through the eyes of artists Oswaldo Cepeda, Cal Duran, Armando Geneyro, Pico del Hierro-Villa, Arlette Lucero and Cherish Marquez. Curated by students Adira Castillo and Josephine Clark, the exhibition offers a combination of photography, new media, fine art and folk art.
Collage works by Mario Zoots.
Mario Zoots
MSU BA Thesis Art Exhibition
BRDG Project, 3300 Tejon Street
Thursday, May 9, through May 30
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 9, 6 to 9 p.m. (MSU BA Thesis, 5 to 9 p.m.)
Closing Reception: Thursday, May 30, 6 to 9 p.m.
As curators and gallerists work behind the scenes to build creative and meaningful exhibitions of work by others, it’s easy to forget that they started out as artists themselves. BRDG Project pays homage to the artist in every curator with Flipping Scripts, a group show curated by fellow artist/curator Dan Drossman that includes sixteen familiar names from Denver’s arts landscape in the gallery’s East Stage Gallery. Also on the docket through May in the Main Gallery is Metropolitan State University Denver’s BA Thesis Art Exhibition, which will branch out, thanks to BRDG’s utter hospitality.
360 Degrees—Looking at the Last Year
Dave Kennedy and Susan Tousley, Nature by Design, in the East Gallery
D'art Gallery, 900 Santa Fe Drive
Thursday, May 9, through June 2
Opening Reception, 360 Degrees: Friday, May 10, 5 to 9 p.m. (awards at 6 p.m.)
Opening Reception, Nature by Design: Saturday, May 11, 1 to 5 p.m.
D’art brings its national juried show, 360 Degrees—Looking at the Last Year, into the Main Gallery for an innovative break from member shows that was curated by a high-profile local art couple: Chris Stevens, the cultural arts manager for Greenwood Village, and art consultant Jennifer Perlow, who narrowed the show down from 308 entries to forty final selections. The couple sought to craft a diverse show that clearly takes the theme — personal high points in the past year — and runs with it. In the East Gallery, Dave Kennedy offers cloud-heavy landscapes and travel scenes alongside Susan Tousley’s array of landscapes, florals and wildlife in both traditional and abstracted forms.
Clyfford Still, “PH-950,” 1950, oil on canvas.
Clyfford Still Museum, ©City and County of Denver / ARS, NY
Clyfford Still Museum, 1250 Bannock Street
Friday, May 10, through January 12
CSM Members Opening: Friday, May 10, 1:30 to 6:30 p.m.; register here
Public Opening: Saturday, May 11, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission: Free to $15 here
Though Clyfford Still is traditionally allied with the Abstract Expressionists in art history and considered a major influence, Still himself preferred not to be lumped in with or compared to other artists of any movement. But Dialogue and Defiance: Clyfford Still and the Abstract Expressionists, a new exhibition opening this weekend at the Still Museum, takes the opposite side by suggesting that it’s a fair classification, and showing why. Curated by Abstract Expressionism scholar Valerie Hellstein, Dialogue and Defiance gives clues to how Still’s work supported the idea of a dialogue with the major art movement.
Amy Metier, Taking Shape
William Havu Gallery, 1040 Cherokee Street
Friday, May 10, through June 22
Opening Reception: Friday, May 10, 5 to 8 p.m.
Painter Amy Metier’s full-gallery survey, Taking Shape, at William Havu Gallery, revisits works from years of perfecting her relationship with abstraction — in her case, a balanced eye for color, expressive structure set free by intuitional brush technique and the travelogue hiding in her stormy, untethered compositions. Metier says the focus of the paintings included are connected to past art residencies in Ireland, France and Rome.
Dona Laurita, The Silhouette Project: Newcomers
Inbal Abergil, The Presence of Absence
Colorado Photographic Arts Center (CPAC), 1200 Lincoln Street
Friday, May 10, through June 22
Opening Reception: Friday, May 10, 6 to 9 p.m.
Out of the Shadows: Hear stories live from subjects of The Silhouette Project: Newcomers, Saturday, May 11, 11 a.m. to noon, free
Grief and Healing: A Moderated Discussion, led by Samantha Johnston, with artist Inbal Abergil, Gold Star Mother Scoti Domeij and Anne Walker, Ph.D.; Saturday, May 11, 1 p.m., free
CPAC showcases two photographers doing community-based documentary work in their own styles. Colorado photographer Dona Laurita's Silhouette Project: Newcomers showcases the experiences of young immigrants as strangers in a strange land by blending silhouetted photo-imagery with personal stories, and New York-based Inbal Abergil's The Presence of Absence comprises two bodies of work made while meeting with Gold Star families of relatives lost during World War II and conflicts in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Abergil’s ongoing photo collection, N.O.K: Next of Kin, records personal belongings left behind by soldiers killed in battle, now living second lives as keepsakes of the dead, while a film, Four Mothers, shows how families cope with battle scars, loss and rebuilding.
"Not Here," Irene Delka McCray.
Firehouse
The Rise From Our Earthly Ashes, South Gallery
Firehouse Art Center, 667 Fourth Avenue, Longmont
Friday, May 10, through July 7
Opening Reception: May 11, 5 to 7 p.m. (artist remarks, 5:30 p.m.)
Irene Delka McCray Artist Talk: Sunday, May 26, 3 to 5 p.m.
Irene Delka McCray — known for hyperreal portraits and nudes focusing on every last vein, hair, wrinkle and blemish, often amid deshabille drapery — gave special care to the large portraits she made of her mother in her last few Alzheimer’s-ridden months. In sync with Mother’s Day, the exhibition Mother Lasting uses these paintings to shine a light on aging and end stages with stunning beauty and precision. McCray will tell more during an artist talk on May 26 (see above). In the South Gallery, Firehouse fills the rooms with work made by students in the teen art activism program Studio Project with adult facilitators Devin Urioste, Max Coleman and Yazz Atmore.
Steadfast Into Spring: Sarah Kelly, through June 9
UndocuAmerica: Reclaiming Our Presence
Bala Thiagarajan, Shakti: The Source of Strength
In Search of Personal Icons: Sangeeta Reddy
Joel Dyer, Windows, Walls and Invisible Lines: Portraits of Life in Sanctuary
Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut Street, Boulder
Friday, May 10, through July 14, unless otherwise noted
Opening Reception: Friday, May 10, 5 to 8 p.m.
The Dairy galleries host five new openings this weekend, beginning with Sarah Kelly’s Steadfast Into Spring, a series of large color-field paintings setting nuanced organic shapes against neutral backgrounds in the Locals Only space. Moving on, Motus Theater presents photography, illustrations, films and animations in line with its UndocuAmerica series, which shares the dramatized stories of undocumented immigrants on stage. Related exhibitions, Bala Thiagarajan: Shakti: The Source of Strength and In Search of Personal Icons: Sangeeta Reddy, are cultural side trips by two female East Indian artists: Thiagarajan, who delves into Hinduism’s concept of the divine feminine (or Shakti) by picturing contemporary women reflecting the term in folk-art portraits and masks; and Reddy, whose paintings are inspired by shrines representing Indian deities that dot the Indian countryside. Lastly, Joel Dyer’s ongoing photography project, Windows, Walls and Invisible Lines: Portraits of Life in Sanctuary, continues in the storytelling vein with portrayals of undocumented immigrants living in sanctuary.
Rejectamenta
Art Contained Del Sol, 3058 West 55th Avenue
Friday, May 10, through June 30
Opening Reception: Friday, May 10, 5 to 9 p.m.
The Chicana women who largely supply the community vibes and original art at Art Contained Del Sol, an upbeat private shipping-container gallery in northwest metro Denver, invite the public to drop on by for the opening of Rejectamenta, an exhibition of art made from recycled and found materials, curated by Arlette Lucero and container owner Rebecca Rozales.
TAD Projects: Shenanigans
Marine Street Gallery, 1005 Marine Street, Boulder
Friday, May 10, 6 to 10 p.m.
TAD Projects, the curatorial side interest of artists Tobias Fike and Donald Fodness, sets up shop up the road at Boulder house gallery Marine Street Gallery. Shenanigans offers art objects and performance by Homare Ikeda, Virginia Diaz Saiki, Thomas Scharfenberg, Mary Elias Letera and Luke Warren that take on the concept of “provisional painting,” a tossed-off style not necessarily based on achieving artistic excellence. Oh, yes, it’s going to be bonkers-fun.
Gayla Lemke: Down the Rabbit Hole
Katie Hoffman: Eclipse
Edge Gallery, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
Friday, May 10, through May 26
Opening Reception: Friday, May 10, 6 to 9 p.m.
Edgewater Pride Kickoff Party: Saturday, May 18, 6 to 9 p.m.
Catch a new round of shows at the Edge, Next and Core co-op galleries at the 40 West Hub in Lakewood this weekend, beginning with a daily double of a duet with ceramic artist Gayla Lemke and painter Katie Hoffman. Lemke offers a variety of new work, including fiery busts of Brunhild-esque super women, stacked towers, hope stones and monotypes on ceramic surfaces, while Hoffman has painted up a storm of her signature fairy-tale ladies staring off into the distance dreamily with cats on their laps and birds on their heads.
Leslie Van Stelten, Urban Nocturne
Terra Marks, Quiet Season
Next Gallery, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
Friday, May 10, through May 26
Opening Reception: Friday, May 10, 5 to 10 p.m.
Plantstravaganza Pop-Up Plant Sale: Saturday, May 18, noon to 4 p.m.
At Next Gallery, painter Leslie Van Stelten captures neon night people carousing in moody nonchalance on the deep blue streets and clubs or eating Chinese food, as caught on camera through the glass from outside. Terra Marks muses on liminal between-season changes in the atmosphere in works using a variety of mediums, with live plants and seed mixes for sale on the side. It all ties into the idea of seasons passing on the afternoon of May 18, when the gallery will host a larger pop-up plant and art sale.
Architecture of Form 5
Core Art Space, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
Friday, May 10, through May 26
Opening Reception: Friday, May 10, 5 to 10 p.m.
Core celebrates architectural and geometric mid-century art trends with the fifth annual Architecture of Form show, juried by William Logan of Modern in Denver magazine and curated by legacy participants Jude Barton and Chuck McCoy. This year’s call for entries went national, meaning there’ll be a wider spread of artists on board, including old favorites and national newcomers.
AAPI Culture Fest
McNichols Building, 144 West Colfax Avenue
Saturday, May 11, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Denver area’s global pan-Asian communities aren’t shy about bringing attention to their cultural traditions, both singular and shared. But during May, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month is a huge incentive to share and celebrate those customs and rituals. The AAPI Culture Fest has a wide spread from them all, with global representation by Vietnamese, Hmong, Filipino, Korean, Mongolian, Japanese, Chinese, Thai and Pacific Islander cultural groups, including AAPI-centric food trucks outside; market vendors on level two; and cultural performances and a large art exhibition on level three, spilling over with diverse artworks, handcrafted items and garments both traditional and modern. Admission is free; reserve a downtown parking deal available to fest-goers here and find festival maps here.
Interested in having your event appear in this calendar? Send the details to [email protected].
