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Best Art District for Street Art

RiNo Art District

Whether you're in RiNo for First Friday, a concert at one of the area's many venues or just brewery-hopping, the street art is impossible to miss. It's almost everywhere you look, from murals dating back to the years of Crush Walls to new works that are seemingly going up all the time. That's because the nonprofit art district throws a lot of support to the local artists who make our city so colorful, providing opportunities for them by way of mural festivals, a BIPOC artist fund, and programming that includes workshops, markets and more.

rinoartdistrict.org

Best New Mural Installation

Denver Nuggets mural by Detour

The Mile High City was filled with pride when the Nuggets brought home the NBA championship trophy in 2023, and so was Thomas Evans, the local artist who goes by Detour. His murals are instantly recognizable for their bright splashes of color rendering portraits of people who inspire him, and as an avid fan of Denver sports, the artist immediately took to his canvas — i.e., the 7-Eleven wall he's been painting up since 2020. The mural was even covered by the New York Times. But of course, that isn't all the prolific artists has in the works: Detour has a major installation project at Denver International Airport, and just adorned Empower Field.

1919 East Colfax Avenue
iamdetour.com

Best New Mural Festival

Denver Walls

After local artist Ally Grimm, aka A.L. Grime, painted at the D.C. iteration of international mural festival World Wide Walls, she convinced organizers that the Mile High City would be the perfect fit for the fest. While she originally planned for the Denver version to happen in 2022, that effort fell through because of a lack of funds. But Grimm found an enthusiastic partner in the RiNo Art District, and after much planning, Denver Walls had its inaugural festival last September, bringing local, national and international artists together in RiNo to paint seventeen new murals around the neighborhood. The largest spot? That went to Detour, who painted the entire floor on top of a parking lot.

denverwalls.com

Best Street Art

Chris Haven

The Mile High City is known for its colorful street art, and some styles are becoming instantly recognizable. Who hasn't seen one of Chris Haven's goofy, smiling triangular dudes spray-painted on a building or alleyway? Whether they're throwing up peace signs or holding a mic as if about to bust out a cypher, they add a lot of joy to the streets of Denver. Haven also creates photo-realistic portrait murals. That breadth of talent really underscores the boundless energy of the Denver arts scene.

@ChrisHaven

Best Art Collective Events for Misfits and Risk-Takers

Voltaire Collective

Voltaire Collective brings visual and performance art to the city in its own creepy and original way, with "theatrical draglesque productions." The producers of the events and shows are all artists themselves. From an event described as a "kink extravaganza" showcasing burlesque and pole performances to the Inkwell, an original production that follows a wizard and his apprentice, you never know what the collective will come up with next. Voltaire events can be found all around the city, and its Instagram (@voltairecollective) shows off some of the fun things in the works.

ragdollclothingco.com/voltaire-collective

Best Artist Couple

Sushe Felix and Tracy Felix

Artists Sushe and Tracy Felix have been making stunning oil and acrylic paintings for decades, capturing landscapes through their own unique lenses. Both inspired by the West, they illustrate enigmatic mountainous scenery in flat, stylized strokes that give weight to saturated colors. You'll often find the talented pair showing their work together, and their styles both complement and supplement each other. They don't just share walls in the galleries; they share a life together, too, in a heartwarming creative collaboration.

felixfineart.com

Best Depiction of Blue Cows

Max Coleman

The cows that local artist Max Coleman paints are all blue, with phrases behind them such as, "How can we expect to build a peaceful world by using violence?" His murals and other work can be seen on walls around metro Denver, and they almost always reference animal advocacy in some way. If you're pro-cow, his series titled The Burden of Cattle, now on display at the Banshee House, is a sight to behold. If you can't make it there, your next best bet for cow art is the Westword office.

maxcolemandesign.com

Best Commercial Comic Book Artist

Jorge Corona

Comic book artists used to be siloed on the coasts, but one of the gifts of our digital age is that this is no longer true: Jorge Corona, 0x200Bwho was born in Venezuela, chose to make his home — and his art — right here in the Mile High. He found success with various Bat-titles for DC Comics, but struck out on his own with his Eisner Award-nominated and critically acclaimed take on Oz in Middlewest as well as a project with co-creator Skottie Young, The Me You Love in the Dark. Corona's work is wide-ranging, with the ability to be both inspiring and threatening, traditional and experimental. He's an artistic force, and he makes a point of showing up to local stores to give back to his fans.

instagram.com/jorge_cor

Best New Fiction by a Colorado Author

Don't Fear the Reaper
Stephen Graham Jones

Lots of great fiction was published in 2023, but Stephen Graham Jones's Don't Fear the Reaper — the second in his Indian Lake trilogy, which began with My Heart Is a Chainsaw and will finish up later this year with The Angel of Indian Lake — really stuck with us. Fans of horror will love every blood-soaked word in this trilogy of desperation and flat-out dark thrills. The series is not for the faint of heart, but Graham puts a beautifully Indigenous spin on what's become a love letter to the whole horror genre. This isn't just the best fiction book from a Colorado author in the past year; it's one of the best books of the year, period.

Best New Nonfiction by a Colorado Author

Reading Colorado: A Literary Road Guide
Peter Anderson

If you're a voracious reader, you've probably mused on how your favorite authors might have experienced our state. If so, Reading Colorado: A Literary Road Guide is the book for you. It invites you to shake hands with Kent Haruf's rural dwellers of the Eastern Plains; fords the South Platte with Mark Twain; poetically protests with Anne Waldman and Allen Ginsberg; thumbs a ride with Jack Kerouac; crests peaks with Isabella Bird and Enos Mills, and plumbs the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde with Willa Cather. It's the literary history of "Colorful Colorado" from authors you know, all collected in one perfect road trip of a book. And the foreword from Tom "Dr. Colorado" Noel is the cherry on top.

bowerhousebooks.com/shop/reading-colorado

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