The Mayday Experiment: What’s in a Name?

I have never been good at naming things. I usually tend towards a one-word solution; my former shop, Pod, and gallery, Capsule, were prime examples of this propensity. It takes me hours to name a work of art, googling and reading etymology of words as I overthink. When it came…

Reader: Why Isn’t the Hotel at DIA on Your Awful Architecture List?

Michael Paglia just revealed “The Hateful 8,” eight examples of the kind of disappointing architecture — or is that n’architecture? — that you see all over Denver these days.  But did he leave out some important, awful buildings? Anyone riding the free A Line train to Denver International Airport yesterday…

Reader: Derrick Velasquez Should Not Be Neutral on Gentrification

Derrick Velasquez’s new piece for Black Cube, New Brutal 2, will debut today at La Alma Park at a Doors Open Denver event. The original New Brutal was shown last fall at the future Stanley Marketplace, and inspired this response from reader Laura Conway: Derrick Velasquez’s piece New Brutal is set…

Seven Free Arts Events at Doors Open Denver This Weekend

Since stepping in to take over the citywide Doors Open Denver in 2014, the Denver Architectural Foundation has taken great strides toward growing the event and making it more accessible to a diverse audience. This year, the programming will include architecture-inspired urban arts and cultural events bankrolled by the Bonfils-Stanton…

The Denver County Fair Gets Two-Faced and Political in 2016

In its sixth year, the Denver County Fair is still full of surprises — and this week’s 2016 poster reveal offers another one.  The latest masterpiece from fair poster artist and Denver painter Mark Penner Howell is all about politics, with an emphasis on the fair’s newest addition: the Political…

Denver Is Drowning in Awful Architecture: Here Are the Hateful Eight

Denver is changing rapidly. Some of the changes have been good: the burgeoning art scene, the museum-building boom, the explosion in restaurants and the whole Napa-of-craft-beer thing, not to mention legalized marijuana. But there have also been some bad changes: the terrible traffic, the litter and pet waste everywhere, the…

100 Colorado Creatives 3.0: Curtis Tucker

#84: Curtis Tucker Trained in graphic design, Curtis Tucker is one of those staunch DIY guys. He’s worked as a middleman in the underground zine industry as a traveling vendor; through his online venture Far Out Zines, he’s distributed micro-press and handmade publications, including his own. As a ground-floor gallery…

The Craftsman & Apprentice Gets Keys to Expanded Space Today

Husband-and-wife duo Jonathan Fessler and Delanie Holton-Fessler are in the business of rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty, and now they have more than enough elbow room to do their work. The founders of The Craftsman and Apprentice, named Best Place to Learn Your Craft in the Best of…

Review: Four Impressive Solos at MCA Denver

The spring offerings at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver cover a lot of ground, with four impressive solos on view right now. Occupying the spaces on the main floor is Arnie Svenson: The Neighbors, a body of color photos depicting the New York artist’s neighbors as seen through their…

Performance Art Week Kicks Off at Emmanuel Gallery Tonight

The seventh annual Performance Art Week, spearheaded by Rian Kerrane, a sculptor who also teaches at the College of Arts and Media at the University of Colorado-Denver, kicks off tonight at Emmanuel Gallery. For this year’s PAW, Kerrane is pulling both artists and the public into situations characterized by the immediacy…

The Mayday Experiment: A Step Back to Go Forward

When Philip Spangler and I were trying to figure out how to fit a set of stairs onto a 20’ trailer, our original design required some accommodations. The shorter a set of stairs are, the higher the rise – and the harder to climb. With my bad knees thanks to…