Craft meets genius in the work of master artisan William Morris, a one-time student of glass god Dale Chihuly who is also well-versed in native cultures and archeology. Both weave their ways into his technically advanced vessels and forms, which evoke the spirit of ancient artifacts and civilizations. That noted,…
What happens each First Friday on Santa Fe Drive never fails to amaze me: The whole street becomes this living, animal thing, as culture-goers snake this way and that on the overflowing sidewalks in long, organic conga lines of humanity. It’s a thing, Denver! Be proud. This past Friday, we…
It was an ingenious idea — so straightforward it was almost forehead-slappingly intuitive: Comment on the dysmorphic appearance of extensive plastic surgery patients by monoprinting realist portraits of them on Silly Putty. “I can’t believe nobody’s done it before,” says Lori Kanary, the artist responsible. But as far as she…
The nonprofit advocacy group, Women in Design, is sponsoring a lecture tonight at Walker Fine Art called “Work is Freedom.” The topic is the work of three significant 20th century modernist designers: Eileen Gray, Charlotte Perriand and Lilly Reich…
Denver made international architecture news last week when Spanish-born Santiago Calatrava came to town to unveil his designs for the expansion of Denver International Airport. An engineer and an architect, Calatrava gained fame — and respect — with his designs of bridges, transportation stations and buildings. There was so much…
After years of anticipation, construction of a new Clyfford Still Museum at the corner of West 13th Avenue and Bannock Street is finally moving forward. Last week, Dean Sobel, the CSM’s founding director, and Brad Cloepfil, the head of Allied Works Architecture, unveiled the final design for the museum, which…
Public art has always been vigorously controversial Denver. Whether it’s the blue devil “Mustang” at Denver International Airport, the (naked alien?) Borovsky “Dancers” in front of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Big Blue Bear or “National Velvet” — a sculpture that some say looks like a stack…
Earlier today, we told you about our top five favorite ridiculous King Tut tie-ins, one of which was moving Anubis, the jackal-headed Egyptian death-god, to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. But we were wrong. Anubis didn’t get moved; Anubis moves when he wants, wherever he wants — and he moves some…
After years of planning, Union Station is finally transforming into a modern transit hub — which means a big chunk of downtown is a fenced-off construction zone. To spruce things up, the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs has turned to local yard bombers the Ladies Fancywork Society (LFS) and sound…
There’s been a lot of talk about whether Denver can afford to build the set of designs by Santiago Calatrava done for the expansion of Denver International Airport. The reason? Times are hard, and the Calatrava pieces are projected to cost around $650 million. The Spanish-born, New York-based architectural genius…
Twenty years ago, Metropolitan State College of Denver opened an off-campus gallery to serve as an outlet for students, professors and the community. Over those two decades, it has gone through a number of changes, the most recent of which took place this year. First dubbed the Center for the…
There’s no question that Santa Fe Drive is the art district in Denver, and yet it’s also true that most of the galleries along the row leave something to be desired. To make matters worse, in the last year or so, the street essentially lost two of its flagships: Gallery…
I could use this entire page — and many more — to talk about what a lost opportunity the 2010 Biennial of the Americas turned out to be. I’d start out by exploring the story of the stillborn “In Good We Trust” theme thought up by Bruce Mau, who split…
Although it has only been a going concern for a few months, the upstart Ice Cube Gallery (3320 Walnut Street, 303-292-1822, www.icecubegallery.com) has surely become one of the most impressive exhibition spaces in town. It’s not just how beautiful and spacious the facility is; it’s also the high quality of…
Contemporary art is characterized by stylistic diversity, with a wide variety of different approaches vying for attention — each with its own roster of adherents. This week, I’m looking at conceptualism, realism and abstraction, all of which have long traditions and yet are completely contemporary in feel. First, let’s look…
This is the tenth summer in a row that David Cook Fine Art (1637 Wazee Street, 303-623-8181, www.davidcookfineart.com), the state’s premier purveyor of late nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century material, has presented a group show dedicated to historic Western art. And as could be expected, the current incarnation, Colorado & the West,…
A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine who has vast knowledge of the visual arts called me and, in an accusatory tone, asked, “When are you going to review the Moore show? It’s the best thing to hit this town since Giacometti.” He was talking, of course, about…
Stark: Life in Black and White, at Foothills Art Center (809 15th Street, Golden, 303-279-3922, www.foothillscenter.org), is made up of the work of five Denver-area artists, each of whom has been given a mini-solo to showcase his or her black-and-white pieces. (There’s also a supplementary piece, by Greg Cradick of…
A pair of solos on display at Robischon Gallery delve into the field of conceptual abstraction, as both artists have created three-dimensional objects, not all of which could be called sculptures. Up front is Linda Fleming: Lingering, made up of recent works by this part-time Colorado artist. In the center…
The William Havu Gallery (1040 Cherokee Street, 303-893-2360, www.williamhavugallery.com) specializes in showcasing classic Colorado artists. That characteristic is exemplified in Tracy Felix and Sushe Felix: Common Ground. A husband-and-wife team, the Felixes don’t work collaboratively, but their work is interrelated. In the front spaces at Havu is a solid selection…
Former Denver Art Museum director Lewis Sharp, who retired at the end of 2009, really made his mark on the place. The most obvious example of this is the Hamilton Building, which nearly doubled the museum’s exhibition space. Less obvious is the way he reorganized the DAM’s internal structure, recasting…
Maruca Salazar became the director of the Museo de las Américas (861 Santa Fe Drive, 303-571-4401, www.museo.org) in the fall of 2009 and unveiled her first show, La Malagua, a couple of months ago. The exhibit highlights the work of a collaborative group of artists based in Puerto Vallarta and…
