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Best Museum Retrospective

Vance Kirkland's Cosmos
Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art

The Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art is named for Vance Kirkland, the iconic Colorado artist who came to Denver in 1929 as the founding director of the University of Denver's School of Art. While the museum is known for its expansive collection that includes artists of note from this state and beyond, its 2023 Kirkland retrospective, Vance Kirkland's Cosmos, was a revelation, showing how the artist moved from landscapes and surrealism to expressionism and radical modernism. The museum also unveiled several never-before-seen works by the late master.

Best Gallerist Retrospective

From All Angles: Fifty Years in the Art Business
William Havu Gallery

William Havu once had rock-star dreams, even performing with Jimi Hendrix in 1967, but luckily for Denver, he became a gallerist and staunch supporter of the local arts. His career has now passed the five-decade mark, which he celebrated with a retrospective show at his Golden Triangle gallery that highlighted the wide variety of artists he represents: Sushe and Tracy Felix, Tony Ortega, Emilio Lobato and more. Havu has been integral to the city's growing art scene, and From All Angles: Fifty Years in the Art Business showed just how indispensable he is.

Best Longstanding Gallery With Museum-Worthy Exhibits

Robischon Gallery

The Robischon Gallery has been a beacon for the city's arts community since it opened on Wazee Street in 1982, back when LoDo was just becoming a hub for the arts. And it goes back even further than that: Jim Robischon originally founded his gallery as Blue Door II on Parker Road in 1976. While many other galleries moved from LoDo after Coors Field opened in 1995, Robischon has remained for four decades, a testament to the museum-quality exhibitions mounted there throughout the year, usually highlighting multiple artists at once. Sleek, contemporary paintings and more mind-boggling works await in this art lover's paradise, where you're always sure to discover something new.

Best Place to Start an Art Collection

Denver Art Society

Evan Semón

A nonprofit community art hub, Denver Art Society is where many up-and-coming artists of all ages are able to first showcase their work. The volunteer-run co-op maintains multiple artist studios and offers a variety of classes and workshops to the public, so you can try your own hand at creative pursuits. But with art at affordable prices set up in booths inside the sprawling space, this is where you can also start becoming an art collector — and support a local artist at the same time. Once you catch the collector bug, Denver Art Society's location presents you with the perfect medicine, since it's situated in the Art District on Santa Fe.

Best Community Support for a Gallery

Leon Gallery

Leon Gallery opened in 2011, rewarding artistic risk-takers, outliers and forward thinkers with a space where they could showcase work that other commercial galleries might not deem "sellable" — and giving 70 percent of any sales to artists who show there, when most galleries split sales 50/50. Recently, Leon has presented everything from the clubbing snapshots by Shadows Gather and photographs documenting police brutality protests in Iran to Raafi Rivero's jerseys honoring Black victims of violence. But while the exhibits were rich, the gallery was not, and by mid-January, Leon was at risk of losing its lease. A fundraising campaign announced via social media paid off quickly, however: With donations from the community, the gallery hit its $20,000 goal within five days. Long live Leon!

Best Large-Scale Works

Black Cube

The nonprofit nomadic art museum Black Cube commissions large-scale works that comment on a variety of topics, and the installations it mounted last year were particularly big. For the Cities Summit of the Americas, Black Cube went along with the theme of "Global Challenges, Local Solutions" in Pipelines, an interactive installation created from PVC water and sewage pipes by Toronto artists Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster. The most impressive installation, however, was Orisons, by renowned artist Marguerite Humeau, which involved 84 sculptures planted on 160 acres of land at Jones Farms Organics in the San Luis Valley. Humeau took years to speak with people in the area and plan the work, resulting in an otherworldly, historic masterpiece.

  • 2925 S. Umatilla St., Englewood, 80110 Map

Best Surrealist Gallery

Ryan Joseph Gallery

A spiraling realm of psychedelia and surrealism awaits at Ryan Joseph Gallery, where artists defy traditional expectations in paintings with cascades of color and emotional depth. Micah Ofstedahl, for example, showed a new way of looking at landscapes in works on shaped canvases, but with overlaid geometry twisting the otherwise photo-realist form; Vanessa Lemen contributed glowing oil paintings that dabble in expressionist abstraction while hinting at pre-known forms. Even the portraits in the most recent group exhibition were imbued with intriguing, surrealist twists, showing that no two artists think or look at things the same way.

2647 West 38th Avenue
ryanjosephgallery.com

Best Gallery Exhibit to Set History Straight

The Lost Weekend: Photography of May Pang
Bitfactory

When John Lennon called his relationship with May Pang "the lost weekend," it remained a thorn in her side. The pair had a year-and-a-half-long committed relationship, and she has the evidence to back it up. Pang decided to set history straight with her collection of photographs, which landed at Bitfactory last September in The Lost Weekend: Photography of May Pang. Through candid shots of Lennon during the most productive time of his solo career, Pang showed a man reconnecting with his son, smiling with friends and happily in love. She even took what is considered to be the last picture of Lennon with fellow Beatle Paul McCartney. It was an intimate glimpse into the life of one of the world's most famous musicians, and laid to rest any misconceptions about Pang's impact on his life.

  • 851 Santa Fe Dr., Denver, 80204 Map

Best Celebration of LGBTQ+ Chicano Culture

Amor Es Amor
Northglenn Arts Center

Pride isn't limited to one month, and the Northglenn Arts Center and Chicano Council for the Arts and Humanities made that clear with Amor Es Amor, which included works from twelve Latino and Chicano artists, many of whom are also in the LGBTQ+ community. The exhibit revolved around unique narratives, identities and stories of queer individuals. "Queer joy is my priority," artist Tania Maldonado said, "and seeing a wall full of that art — that is something that all of the oppressive systems and things we are having to combat can't take away from us."

Parsons Theatre, 1 East Memorial Parkway, Northglenn
303-450-8888
northglennarts.org

Best Look Backward

Roots of an Era: Mixtape to the Old North Denver Art Scene
BRDG Project

Many locals bemoan the loss of old Denver. There's been a lot of change over the years, particularly in the last three decades, when the city slowly and inexorably moved away from $150-a-month rents for whole floors of old warehouse and factory spaces near downtown that artists could fill with their own work and that of others. Roots of an Era: Mixtape to the Old North Denver Art Scene at BRDG Project honored that time and all the creativity that sprang from it. The show included works from photographer Mark Sink and other local stalwarts such as artists Phil Bender, Reed Weimer, Arlette Lucero, Jerry Jaramillo and the late Stevon Lucero. Because of efforts like this, the city can honor its artistic roots and create some fertile soil for new growth.

3300 Tejon Street
303-808-8912
brdgproject.org

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