Almost seven years ago, the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver opened in a two-level space in the former Granada Fish Market at 19th and Lawrence streets. Since its inception in 1996, the MCA (then known as MoCA/D) had been ensconced on the mezzanine of 1999 Broadway. The MCA originally intended to…
There’s one thing you can always expect from the Singer Gallery in the Mizel Center for Arts and Culture: high-quality art exhibits with some kind of intellectual content. So it’s no surprise that EUGENE YELCHIN: A Thousand Casualties, a solo featuring expressionist abstractions based on Old Master paintings, is one…
The funky little Edge Gallery (3658 Navajo Street, 303-477-7173) is the city’s oldest art co-op, which may be why it frequently hosts great pairs of solos. Currently, Edge is home to a couple of sophisticated shows dedicated to contemporary abstraction, with Jennifer Hope: 4 new paintings installed in the front…
William Havu Gallery is the only art shop in the city in its own specially designed building. That’s why, when things are really cooking, as they are right now, the atmosphere is more like that of a small museum than a retail store. For his opening volley this season, gallery…
There are two interesting shows kicking off the fall season at Walker Fine Art (300 West 11th Avenue, #A): WHAT SEASON IS THIS, which is in the front and combines paintings by Don Quade and sculptures by Paula Castillo; and, in the back, Selective Vision: The Art of Digital Atelier,…
Last month I wrote a piece about the Civic Center Conservancy in which I implied that the group’s members were a bunch of clowns (“Civic Circus,” August 10). In the weeks since, I’ve really come to regret that metaphor and feel a little guilty. After all, clowning is an honorable…
Daniel Libeskind’s ideas for Denver’s Civic Center are off the wall (see review,) but equally bizarre — though in a positive way — is the launching of the Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar (404 South Upham, 303-742-1520) with an opening on Saturday, September 16, from 2 to 9…
44T ARTSPACE, the exhibition end of Metro Frame Works (4400 Tennyson Street, 303-433-0335), is a smart-looking miniature sales room with extensive show windows that open the place up to the street. The gallery is one of only a handful participating in this year’s Denver Art Dealers Association series highlighting talent…
August is typically a dead time in the Denver art world, so the Denver Art Dealers Association came up with DADA INTRODUCTIONS, a way for members to present shows by artists whose work has not previously been shown in town. Robischon Gallery (1740 Wazee Street, 303-298-7788) is just about the…
In a few weeks, the fall art season will get under way, and as I look into my crystal ball, I see an unprecedented tsunami of exhibitions and events. (I feel like I’m drowning already.) The October opening of the Frederic C. Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum is…
The Stay Gallery (3519 Brighton Boulevard, 303-408-3057), run by the husband-and-wife team of John and Amy Bodin, only recently opened; in fact, the current exhibition, UNDERGO, is only the third show to be presented there. UNDERGO is a solo featuring Justin Beard, one of Denver’s most interesting young artists, and…
In January 2007, Dianne Perry Vanderlip, the founding curator of the Modern and Contemporary Art department at the Denver Art Museum, will retire, giving up the job she’s held since 1978. Vanderlip has been the most important and influential person in the Denver art world — something that will not…
Michael Burnett’s Space Gallery (765 Santa Fe Drive, 720-904-1088) is one of the highlights of the Santa Fe Arts District. It’s especially nice that it’s right across the street from the area’s flagship, the Sandy Carson Gallery — though if you’re tempted to jaywalk to get from one to the…
I can’t imagine what world-famous architect Daniel Libeskind was thinking when he took on the job of brainstorming about the Civic Center right before his new Frederic C. Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum is set to open. After all, the Civic Center is beloved by many, and messing…
I’m a logico-deductive sort of person, I think A comes before B, and I firmly believe that 1 + 1 = 2. And I don’t need any insider information to figure out what’s going on in the public sector of Denver, because so much of it is, well, public. I’m…
For the third time in two years, there’s a major show addressing how traditional Chicano art has progressed into post-Chicano art. The latest is Chain Reaction: Chicano/a and Latino/a Art in Colorado, at the Vida Ellison Gallery on the seventh floor of the Denver Central Library. The dialogue began locally…
There are two interesting shows installed back-to-back at Pirate: a contemporary art oasis (3655 Navajo Street, 303-458-6058). In the handsome members’ space that underwent a thorough remodel last year is Jason Appleton; in the still-as-funky-as-ever associates’ space is Strange attachments. Appleton, a longtime member of the venerable co-op, has gotten…
I’ve recently wondered why everyone seems to be so retrospective right now, with so many of the latest exhibits highlighting the state’s glorious aesthetic past. In the last several weeks, I’ve promoted a group of these shows, including the groundbreaking Decades of Influence, Colorado 1985–Present, being jointly presented at the…
Tracy Felix’s Colorado Modernism: 1930-1970 (see review) at Foothills Art Center (809 15th Street, Golden, 303-279-3922) brings together the work of around three dozen painters; one sculptor, Robert Mangold; and a single photographer, James Milmoe. There are only three Mangolds, which is in line with the other artists in the…
During the last decade or so, there has been increased interest in exploring the rich art history of Colorado, and Hugh Grant, director of Denver’s Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art, has been at the forefront of this movement, having acquired thousands of works by hundreds of artists who…
Something to Consider is a wonderful summer show filled with fresh-looking contemporary paintings and ceramic sculptures at Sandy Carson Gallery (760 Santa Fe Drive, 303-573-8585). I’m not sure the title means anything, but I am sure that the show is a knockout. Is it just me, or is Denver abstract…
Boulder came of age in the 1960s, right along with the first baby boomers. The beautiful little town became a national center for the counterculture and the New Left, creating social and political currents that flowed into the 1970s. The visual arts got caught up in the times, too, thanks…
