It’s a new year, and time to celebrate new work: From fresh reinterpretations of classic schools of art to tattoo imagery and a hands-on way to celebrate modern environmentalism, there’s plenty to choose from in 2016. Tear, Cut & Paste: The Art of Collage Art Gym Denver Through February 14,…
Like a beacon of art house film hope, Video One took up residence in a converted house on the corner of 6th Avenue and Downing about four years ago. Though its paint color is more muted than the bright purple-y hue the structure wore in its past life as consignment…
Montbello and Green Valley Ranch: Never been there? The far northeastern Denver districts out by the airport do seem to be worlds unto themselves, cut off from the rest of us by parcels of Aurora and Adams County, and that’s why Denver’s civic health club, Warm Cookies of the Revolution,…
A Denver-centric art exhibit opens tomorrow at the historic Crystal Palace in downtown Aspen, and it could be the coolest show ever in that mountain town. ALL THE FEELS will feel a little something like the “nostalgia of music that still tickles the hair on the back of your neck, the…
Focus. Squirrel! While I don’t “officially” have ADHD (I’ve been tested, and it was borderline), living inside my brain is a source of constant distraction. My friends have noticed this on hikes, where every bit of minutia — the way the light hits a stone, and “what kind of bug…
When CORE New Art Space formed 35 years ago, Denver’s art scene looked very different — artists found that in banding together and creating a cooperative environment, they could thrive. This Thursday, December 31, the gallery celebrates three and a half decades of surviving the city — a tale of a…
As I look back at what has changed in Denver’s art scene over the past year, I feel that first I need to pause and fondly recall two key players who are no longer with us, each of whom led long and illustrious lives that enriched the Mile High City…
This list involves a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. The artists who ignore the gallery and take to the streets to paint their murals are among the most hard-working in the city. Narrowing it down to ten is a near impossible task, but subjectively, we have chosen our favorite…
What got people talking in 2015? On Westword’s arts blog, the hottest topics spanned everything from inner city woes and ugly buildings to the most Colorado-iffic ways of escaping both. Without fanfare, here are our ten most-read arts blogs of 2015. 10) Film on the Rocks 2015 Schedule Announced “Outdoor…
In October 2013 I had a pop-up show in New York, and I was there the week before hanging it with my friend Brittany Schall, who had curated the work. We spent late nights in the gallery hanging things from the ceiling (it was a borrowed space; we were not…
Considering the cornucopia of art venues in the Denver area — galleries, art centers, museums, artist-cooperatives, pop-ups, and even wide hallways — and the hundreds of exhibits presented inside them over the last year, it comes as no surprise that the Mile High City is starting to get some real traction as…
Part of a generation of modernists who emerged in northern New Mexico in the 1970s, Zachariah Rieke has been influenced by both abstract expressionism and Japanese calligraphy. A selection of his abstracts can be seen in Surface Tension, a group show at William Havu Gallery that combines paintings and sculpture…
On the bad days, Jim Stevens would curse and throw tools across his art studio, frustrated by his inability to create like he did before he lost his sight. He’d just come off a rough seven years: losing his vision, his wife, his job and his artistic ability in quick…
Joseph Koncilja is a longtime preservationist who’s working to save historic structures in Pueblo. His interest in the vintage built environment extends to neon signs, which he has been collecting for years. Because of a preservation ordinance in the southern Colorado town, neon signs aren’t allowed on buildings facing the…
Every year we endlessly debate the “meaning of Christmas.” Fox News stages its traditional “War on Christmas” show, commentators lament the crass commercialization, and decorations inch up in store stocks until they compete with pumpkins for space. And on Christmas Eve, families everywhere gather around a traditional nativity, with baby…
It’s cold outside, but plans are heating up for Artopia 2016 on Saturday, February 20 — a night of art, culture and fashion at City Hall. And cocktails, of course, which you can enjoy as you move through seven rooms of art installations and exhibits, curated by Jolt from Guerilla…
Local galleries and co-ops are in the holiday swing, offering year-end group showcases and lots of affordable art. Take a break from the malls and the non-stop Christmas music and feed your soul by looking at something awesome — and then take it home with you. Kanon Tenth Anniversary Show…
Given the alternating pattern of drought and floods brought on by global climate change, water has become an ever more urgent topic — not just for scientists and farmers, but for artists as well. These environmental issues provide the context for a discussion of six solos at two of the…
Warm Cookies of the Revolution, the local community-fostering group that founder Evan Weissman calls a “civic health club,” continues its yearlong Stompin’ Grounds Games series this month by focusing on Denver’s rapidly changing La Alma/Lincoln Park neighborhood and surrounding districts, from the city’s poorest — Sun Valley — to the urbane…
Aesthetics have been primary in my life as an artist, central to all I do and think about — whether I want them to be or not. It has always seemed impossible to separate form from function. And in a very real sense, the two are inseparable: No matter whether…
As 2015 draws to a close, it looks like Walnut Street Galleries are focusing on one of the major themes of this year, when rampant redevelopment has changed the face of the arts-driven RiNo community. And at Leon in Uptown, street writer Jolt also chimes in on gentrification. Get a…
On the eve of what could be the most-awaited Star Wars film premiere of all time – Star Wars: The Force Awakens officially opens in theaters nationwide on December 18 – the Denver Art Museum just announced an out-of-this-world prize. A showy Smithsonian-curated exhibit, Star Wars™ and the Power of…
