Critic Paddy Johnson Discusses the Art of the Animated GIF

Paddy Johnson has been on the cutting edge of online criticism since she launched Art F City in 2008. Tonight, pop-up exhibition space Black Cube hosts this art critic for the Internet era at Redline, where she will discuss the history and evolution of GIF art — the animated-image format that was born…

Old-Fashioned Chinese Brush Painting Goes Contemporary at CVA

Surely the biggest news for contemporary art in the twenty-first century is the ascendancy of Chinese contemporary art and its important place in the international mix. Amazingly, exhibition-goers in Denver have had a front-row seat for this rapid transformation in the art world’s hierarchy, and that’s partly due to the…

The Mayday Experiment: Questions and Answers

People have a lot of questions. Every other week or so, someone knocks on my door or slips a note through the window of the tiny house asking me to call because they have “so many questions.” I try to be friendly to the knockers, though often they are interrupting…

Another 100 Colorado Creatives: Laura Phelps Rogers

#8: Laura Phelps Rogers Laura Phelps Rogers tells her stories in complex sculptural installations combining cast metals with found objects, mixed media, photography and performance. A member of the Pirate and Ice Cube co-ops, Rogers has also placed public artworks, such as her 2013 Nipple Quilt installation, in spots as…

Steve Jobs Digs at the Core of the Apple Icon

Aaron Sorkin opens up a new desktop icon with Steve Jobs, a briskly busy, talkative companion piece to The Social Network. Adapting Walter Isaacson’s biography of the Apple innovator — and covering much of the same ground as Alex Gibney’s documentary Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine — Sorkin’s…

Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies Finds Murk in Moral Certainty

Steven Spielberg’s true-story Cold War procedural Bridge of Spies has a wintry chill. The colors are gray and green, the skin tones pale as frozen fish, and the film stock fuzzed and snowy. Our protagonist, James Donovan (Tom Hanks), spends half the movie waylaid by a cold and takes his…

The Crypt Is Seized for Back Taxes. That Smarts!

The Crypt, Denver’s beloved adult store and sex shop, has closed its doors. On September 30, both of the locations on  Broadway were shuttered; they’d been seized by the City of Denver because of “unpaid taxes.” Along with a notice from the city regarding the tax seizure, the door of…

Once Upon a Crime Doc Revisits Sensational ’70s Denver Murder Case

Forty years ago, the big crime news in this wide-lapel cowtown had nothing to do with six-year-old pageant queens, high-school shooters or feuding gangbangers. The obsession of the moment was the 1975 murder of businessman Hal Levine, and the prosecution of Michael Borelli, a supposedly mobbed-up former New York police…

Literary Calendar: Three Book Events in Denver for October 12-18

If books inspire us to flex our intellectual muscles, looking back on who we are and how we got that way, this is the week to dive into self-exploration. The calendar includes appearances by authors of every stripe, from cartoonists and poets to contemporary novelists. Here are just three of…

Three Things to Do for Free in Denver This Week, October 12-15

This may be National Moment of Frustration Day, but there are many moments of free fun ahead this week. Take in a horror movie, let out plenty of laughs, and then find out how conservation can be entertaining at a major festival. Check the online Westword calendar for more activities, and drop us…

Touchdowns Forever: Denver Comedy Scene Remembers Michael Carter

“I took a break from standup due to lack of skill and ability,” went a typical Michael Carter opener, “but I’ve decided that I’m not going to let that stop me.” While the archetype of the self-deprecating comic is so well-established that it’s become something of a ready-made persona, nothing…

Checking Out More of Denver’s Little Free Libraries

Little free libraries — tiny houses where you can leave a book or take a book — are popping up all over town. Some efforts are modest, like the library my father installed in front of my house; others are more elaborate — history-making, even. The Design and Production team…

Gallery Sketches: Three New Shows in Denver for October 9-11

From a magnificent solo by Joel Swanson at the Museum of Outdoor Arts to a deadly beautiful tribute to plants that go bump in the night in Aurora to a celebration in a rare survivor of that dying breed, the RiNo art-studio warehouse, this weekend is shaping up as a…

Street Style: Merida Teot on Tattoos as Fashion and Art

An all-black outfit may be stylish, but when you’re dressing in a single color palette, you have to pay attention to the details. We spotted fellow blogger and stylist Merida Teot — who describes her style as “color meets local chic” — at the Whorl Imprints fashion show in Cherry…

Love Is Love Blends Art and Activism at Emmanuel Gallery, Opening Today

An art exhibit about love doesn’t always have to be heart-shaped Valentine’s Day fodder — though hearts might still be part of the equation. Tasked with developing a group show that celebrates the entire spectrum of love, Emmanuel Gallery curator Jacquelyn Connolly crafted Love is Love, working with an eye-opening,…