Using pictures to tell stories was definitely a no-no in classic modern art and for the first three quarters of the twentieth century. Manipulating form was the thing for painters to do instead. But in the 1980s and ’90s, narrative painting made a huge comeback in contemporary art circles, and…
It’s funny how things go in waves in the art world. One minute there’s a gaggle of landscape shows everywhere you look, and the next minute photography and photo-based works are everywhere. This phenomenon is under way again, as there seems to be a lot of three-dimensional work on view…
Though stone carver Vicki Rottman and photographer and ceramicist Loay Boggess, didn’t work collaboratively, they have nonetheless intermingled their separately produced works in a set of installations. This conjoined twin of a solo, Sticks and Stones: Branching Out, is on view at Ironton Studios and Gallery (3636 Chestnut Place, 303-297-8626,…
When I think of a gallery, the typical image I have is of a capacious, carefully lit room. Conjure up the many spaces of this type at the Denver Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver, the Lab at Belmar or any number of the city’s better commercial venues, like…
Thinking small is the theme of my reviews this week, so it makes sense to look at what is perhaps the smallest gallery in Denver, Michele Mosko Fine Art (136 West 12th Avenue, 303-534-5433, www.michelemoskofineart.com). Owner Michele Mosko was born and raised in Denver but spent more than 25 years…
Design is the stepchild of the visual arts, with none of the high status of its cousins, painting and sculpture, or its big brother, architecture. This is most likely because of its ubiquitous nature. On the plus side, the ready availability of design — which is all around us —…
East Colfax Avenue as it runs through central Denver is definitely on the way up. From downtown to the Monaco Parkway, storefronts are being spiffed up, shops and restaurants are opening, and people are starting to fill the formerly seedy sidewalks. The part of the street that seems to be…
Dale Chisman is an exceptional figure in Denver’s art world, not simply because he’s one of the region’s most talented abstract painters, but also because he’s been at it, day after day, for more than forty years. What makes this kind of commitment remarkable is how rare it is. In…
Cydney Payton, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver (1485 Delgany Street, 303-298-7554, www.mcadenver.org), has programmed the place to the max, and shows are constantly opening and closing there. One that’s on the way out soon is Making Public Buildings, a traveling show with special relevance to the MCA. The…
The development of abstract painting a hundred years ago can be easily explained by the rise of photography fifty years before that. Since cameras were much better than brushes at recording reality, painters moved toward new ideas, like abstraction. Given this, it’s hard to explain the continuing appeal of representational…
In the past few years, Denver’s art world has reached such a critical mass that many of our marvelous alternative spaces have been lost in the shuffle. As a palliative for that, I’ll now lead a whirlwind tour of the present offerings at two of the best. At Spark Gallery…
Sandy Carson Gallery is featuring two sculpture shows in the front and a large print show in the back — the latter being a late addition intended as an introduction to the gallery’s new owners and a new era there. I’ve covered the changes previously, but here’s a recap: Sandy…
Art offerings along Santa Fe Drive are uneven, at best, but a few places always seem to have something worth looking at. There’s the Sandy Carson Gallery, of course, the ArtDistrict’s flagship. But there is also Space Gallery (765 Santa Fe Drive, 720-904-1088, www.spacegallery.org), directly across the street. Space ordinarily…
When I mentioned to a friend that I was writing about quilts, he rolled his eyes and said, “Oh, please, you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.” It’s a common reaction, and I know a lot of people feel this way, because every time I write about a quilt show,…
Surely the biggest art news last week was the joint acquisition by the Denver Art Museum and the Anschutz Collection of “Cowboy Singing” (pictured), an 1892 painting by Thomas Eakins valued at between $5 and $8 million. In addition, the DAM has also acquired two Eakins sketches, both of which…
When two different groups of people, one made up mostly of artists, the other comprising collectors and donors, began to separately brainstorm back in the 1990s about the creation of a new contemporary-art museum in Denver, one of the biggest motivating factors was the desire to showcase art made in…
The Denver Art Museum’s outlandish Hamilton Building (100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, 720-865-5000, www.denverartmuseum.org) has fans and detractors. As for myself, I love it and think it’s one of the great landmarks of the city. But there are some problems with the handling of the interior. The cheap and already…
Denver’s Month of Photography ended weeks ago, but many of the exhibits are still up and running. So maybe the highly successful March event should have been called the “Season of Photography,” or even “Photo Spring.” Regardless of what it should have been called, it was an incredible chance for…
As demonstrated by shows at Robischon and the Center for Visual Art, conceptual photography has come on strong in recent years, and in the process, it has revolutionized the medium of photography itself. Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art has long showcased this kind of work — in which the photos…
There’s been so much going on in the Denver art world that we reached a critical mass of activity during the last month or so, especially considering that spring is typically light. In addition to multiple shows at the Denver Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, there was…
There’s a lot going on at Plus Gallery (2350 Lawrence Street, 303-296-0927, www.plusgallery.com), which has two solos on display and is featuring two other artists in small presentations. And there’s some news: Plus will be moving to 25th and Larimer streets this fall. Denver architect Steve Chucovich has been hired…
Over the years, I’ve often seen the truth in the old saying “One person can make a difference.” Often it’s for the good — for instance, the way Hugh Grant at the Kirkland Museum has almost single-handedly raised public awareness about the history of Colorado art, or the way Clark…
