The American West as a topic first appeared on the stage of international consciousness in the late nineteenth century, when painters and photographers stumbled on the Rockies, the Sierras, the deserts, the forests, the canyons, the herds of buffalo and elk, the indigenous people and the new settlers. Their images…
Denver Comic Con is pulling out all of the stops this year with many impressive guest speakers, including the just-announced appearances of three of the stars of AMC’s The Walking Dead. Lauren Cohan, Steven Yeun and Chandler Riggs — who play Maggie Green, Glenn and Carl Grimes respectively — will…
The Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown and Gameroom Expo went down over the weekend, with more than 100 pinball machines and arcade games available — no quarters required. (Attendees paid a flat fee.) “We had about 1,800 people,” says organizer Daniel Nikolich. “I think it went great, we had a lot…
This weekend the New York Times published a review of the new History Colorado Center, which started in a very New York-centric way: An East Coast visitor’s first reaction, provincially enough, has to be skepticism: does Colorado even have that much history?…
The South Pearl Street boutique 5 Green Boxes, the recipient of Westword Best of Denver kudos for its wonderful window displays, has long carried the socially conscious brand Toms Shoes, the comfy cloth footwear that comes in a rainbow of colors and designs. And there’s an inner beauty to Toms,…
If you haven’t already seen it, the exhibit Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection at the Denver Art Museum is so worth a look-see. That’s because it’s not just a collection of interesting antique and costume jewelry. Albright chose each brooch — mostly collected over time at flea markets,…
Earlier this week, a creative art bomber added a bit of bathroom humor to the iconic Big Blue Bear sculpture that stands outside the Colorado Convention Center. And like most unsanctioned art — remember the ball and chain? — it was quickly removed. But not forgotten. “We still have it,…
Prax(us) is a Denver-based nonprofit that works with homeless youth who are currently involved in or vulnerable to human trafficking. As such, director Stephanie Bell says, “There’s so much pressure for us to be constantly telling their stories.” Art is a way for the youth to tell their stories themselves…
Marie Losier spent seven years of her life quietly watching two people become three by becoming one. Even today, she is subdued as she describes what that means. When Genesis P-Orridge, industrial-rock revolutionary and founder of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, moved to New York in the 1990s, he fell…
Artists, by virtue of being trained in aesthetic representation, usually have interesting jobs. Russ Beardsley, for example, takes his skills as a sculptor and applies them to his job as a stone worker. Beardsley, who is also a co-owner of Ironton Studios, took some time from lifting rock to talk…
Editor’s note: Westword cartoonist Noah Van Sciver paints the town like nobody else, as demonstrated in his recaps of visits to the Denver Art Museum, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, our own Artopia and MCA Denver. (Make sure you read Noah’s blog for more comics and wonderment.) Last…
Artists from the Arts District on Santa Fe have been working with UrbiCulture to create a new urban farming space, Gabrielle’s Garden, in the La Alma and Lincoln Park neighborhood, adjacent to the art district. The farm, which is just one of the many spaces UrbiCulture farms each year in…
Following in the footsteps of Wallace Stegner, the “Dean of Western Writers,” takes a big pair of shoes. Though we don’t know what size award-winning Colorado author Kent Haruf wears, we do know that his literary prowess is deserving of the Wallace Stegner Award, given annually by CU-Boulder’s Center of…
It’s a funny thing about the exhibition business: Sometimes multiple solos are presented at the same venue that work in concert with one another and for all intents and purposes function together as a group show, and sometimes pieces by different artists are organized into thematic group efforts that actually…
Denver certainly has no shortage of Star Wars fans and they were out in, um, Force, this weekend to take in all the geeky fun that was StarFest 2012. The convention is an annual tribute to all things sci-fi, comics and horror, but every year the Star Wars franchise seems…
Bringing to light the journeys of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals within faith traditions, The Shower of Stoles exhibition opening today at Iliff School of Theology lets sacred pieces illuminate the story. “Some of the stoles tell a story of pain — they may have been donated by…
Outside of maybe The Sound of Music, it would be hard to imagine a musical as far across the genre spectrum from the Rocky Horror Picture Show as Wicked. So when musical director Julian Yarcho decided to merge the two in tonight’s charity fundraiser, when the company of Wicked will…
Denverites really have no problem with getting up early on a weekend, donning a ridiculous costume and drinking — all for a good cause (remember Cupid’s Undie Run?) It happened again over the weekend. Photos below…
The name for Vertigo’s new show, The Cowboy Is on the Left, seems like a commentary on the stratification of rural culture, but it’s not. “The designer who put together the card advertisement put the photo of the cowboy on the left, and she thought that was the perfect name…
We all know that Big Brother’s been watching us for some time, but that doesn’t make the amazing recent paintings of William Betts any less intriguing or, well, creepy. Accurately replicating video imagery taken by surveillance cameras, the acrylic-on-canvas renderings are pointed in their message and sharply detailed in their…
Five dollars buys you a collage by Colorado artist Kathy Fisher. Fisher creates collages for Art-O-Mat, the company that turns old cigarette machines into art-dispensers — one of which, since last month, has made its home at the VSA Colorado/Access Gallery on Santa Fe Drive. Fisher took some time to…
The new History Colorado Center, at the corner of 12th Avenue and Broadway, is clearly the most accomplished, developed and significant design ever done by Tryba Architects. In fact, the museum, which opens to the public on April 28, crowns David Tryba, the head of the firm, as among the…
