The big news at this year’s Bordo Bello skateboard-art fundraiser isn’t just that it continues to grow in size. It’s also growing in stature, featuring more works by national design artists, intermixed with rad decorated decks by a fine representation of talented locals. Also, you can bid in advance online…
In this week’s issue of Westword, art critic Michael Paglia examines three shows, one of which is Not All Borthwicks Were Noblemen, which is being exhibited at the Ironton Studios & Gallery through October 22. Paglia writes: “Though there is an elaborate historical narrative that underlies the pieces in this…
Sherry Wiggins’ Prayers for Others is the “heaven” to fellow artist Regina Benon’s “hell” with On Fire at the Ice Cube Gallery. Art critic Michael Paglia reviews both of them in this week’s Westword. Of Wiggins’ installation, he writes:…
When Longmont’s Left Hand Brewing hired Boulder-based Moxie Sozo to redesign its labels a couple of years ago, the results opened a lot of eyes — and landed Left Hand beers on a lot of best-designed beer label lists. As an added bonus, Moxie, a Boulder design and advertising agency,…
Regina Benson’s On Fire was inspired by her trials last summer when Benson was forced to evacuate her home in Golden because of an approaching wildfire. Below (and in this week’s Westword), Michael Paglia writes on her new show and how she came out of the approaching flames…
The right wing likes to portray President Barack Obama as either one of two things: the good-times party animal you can spot in a Tag Team video, or the stereotypical Angry Black Man. Neither image brings to mind a good leader (and both are, you know, quietly racist). But as…
If these walls could talk. Barack Obama left town yesterday without going anywhere near Denver International Airport. After barely three hours on the ground in Denver, which was part of a three-state Western swing, the President headed back to Washington, D.C., without even a drive-by tour of the secret bunkers…
Interpellation: a word I learned in my college critical theory class, which I admittedly skipped almost every day of. The Althusser day, however, I dragged my semi-stoned, semi-drunk ass out of bed and learned some useless philosophy. Interpellation, as it was explained to me, is the act of mirroring. Ads…
Related sensibilities create a resonance between three installations on view right now in RiNo — two at Ice Cube and one at Ironton. In each case, the artist created an all-enveloping environment, and in each one, the shared characteristic is an ethereal or insubstantial element. Another connection is the necessity…
Ever since I pulled off an epic victory in the first Running of the Gays last year, they’ve been there: the sensible size-13 pumps I wore to exact that win, a little battered, one heel broken, smelling of vinegar and stale beer, perched atop my cabinet like a weird trophy…
Though I generally favor dynamic action over quiet contemplation, when I do ponder life’s more pressing philosophical questions, I basically make it my policy to punch the shit out of them with my mind-fist. And so, as the days grow shorter and the nights grow cooler, it once again comes…
“Robert Adams was teaching English at Colorado College in the early 1960s when he met Myron Wood, who taught him the basics of photography,” Westword art critic Michael Paglia writes in a preview of the upcoming Adams show at the Denver Art Museum. “But instead of taking the traditional approach…
Artist Penney Bidwell knows the carnival life isn’t always a circus. She ought to — Bidwell comes from carny stock, and their memories and lore left her with a different view. And it’s not as though we haven’t all lived through a creepy-clown shiver or two in our collective lifetime,…
After receiving $13 million to design Denver International Airport’s new south terminal hotel and commuter rail station, world-famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava abruptly quit the project because it lacked sufficient funding. Rumors about his exit had been flying around for weeks, but it became official earlier this month when Santiago’s…
It only took five minutes on stage for Nick Nunns to realize that he loved the idea of Ignite Denver. Actually, since his performance only lasted five minutes total, it took less than that. “It’s a blast,” says Nunns. “After I got over being nervous, I loved it.” Ignite Denver…
Was it just the summer before last that Santiago Calatrava brought his genius for form to Denver International Airport with design proposals for a dramatic bridge, a theatrical train station and a sculptural hotel, all in his signature white-on-white style? Yes, it was (“Taking Off,” August 5, 2010). I’ve met…
The International Film Series grew a little this year. To inaugurate new secondary digs in the University of Colorado’s state-of-the-art Visual Arts Center, director Pablo Kjolseth chose to fill the VAC’s auditorium seats with a documentary series that runs concurrently with regular IFS screening at Muenzinger Auditorium. Part of his…
Fifty years ago this week, a modest black-and-white movie about pool sharks and the people who back them, love them or break their thumbs had its world premiere in Washington, D.C. The initial critical reception was mixed, but over time, The Hustler would be recognized as a classic, a startling…
If you think Third Friday is an invention of the Art District on Santa Fe, think again. You can give them credit, perhaps, and Santa Fe will be aglow with happenings tonight. But that doesn’t explain the profusion of excellent shows opening tonight in other gallery districts all over town…
If most of the artists in Denver could make a living off their artwork, the staff of Denver’s restaurants and bars would be getting a big makeover. But sustaining the homeless through art is the idea behind RedLine’s Reach Studio. Tonight, pieces from the project will be on display at…
We told you about the yarn bombs across Boulder B-Cycle stations. Now, R-U-Engaged, who was planning on turning the large-scale yarn art into blankets for charity, can’t find the brightly colored cozies. It is like they just disappeared into the night. “Having stuff disappear is the nature of yarn-bombing so…
He mostly gave up art eight years ago to take over the family business, the Zephyr Lounge in Aurora, so the decision to feature Myron Melnick’s work at the Singer Gallery was an interesting choice, writes Westword art critic Michael Paglia in this week’s review…
