Last week I described some of the hideous proposals being put forward at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center as part of its five-year expansion plan. The plans were suggested by the Minneapolis-based architectural firm of Hammel, Green and Abramson (is there such a thing as architectural malpractice?) and approved…
The poetically named Raven’s Nest studio (1425 West 13th Avenue, 303-623-1425), whose director has the even more poetic name of Glissen Rhode, is one of Denver’s hidden treasures. The trouble is that this rehabbed, turn-of-the-century train depot with its cute little tower is rarely open to the public. However, on…
The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center is one of the finest early-modern buildings in the country, which means it’s the rarest kind of treasure in Colorado’s bleak architectural environment. Only such monuments as the prehistoric ruins at Mesa Verde and the 1960s Air Force Academy Chapel, by Walter Netsch of…
The small but smart-looking Fresh Art Gallery (208 South Broadway, 720-570-2255) is currently presenting encaustic evolution, which officially includes four artists and unofficially includes another five, all of whom use encaustic to create their paintings and sculptures. The gang of four is made up of Andrew Speer, Rachel Urioste, John…
Lewis Sharp, director of the Denver Art Museum, was in his typical ebullient mood when he addressed an assembled group of the media recently. The occasion was the unveiling of the model for the new wing being designed by Daniel Libeskind, the Berlin-based American architect who’s one of the hottest…
For some reason, the little room off the entry at Pirate (3659 Navajo Street, 303-458-6058) always seems to be hosting an exhibit worth seeing. The space, dubbed ILK @ Pirate to distinguish it as a separate, alternative space, is currently showing higgled ripples, featuring the mostly three-dimensional work of young…
There’s no question that oil paints were used to create the paintings in Jeffrey Keith: Recent Work. Invisible plumes of airborne linseed oil immediately engulf anyone who enters the Rule Gallery, where the show is on display. It’s not a light aroma that simply wafts through the room — it’s…
Installed below street level along the greenbelt east of Broadway in Englewood is a hidden attraction: the Dry Creek Sculpture Garden. It may be entered at various points, but the easiest route is to take one of the pedestrian ramps on Hampden Avenue that lead down to a walkway running…
Until last year, Artyard, the grand dame of the local sculpture world, was the place to see rotating exhibits of monumental outdoor pieces by a number of noteworthy sculptors. They were displayed in a large lot on South Pearl Street, just a few doors down from the gallery proper. But…
The Colorado Photographic Arts Center (1513 Boulder St., 303-455-8999) is featuring the recent work of Karen Kirkpatrick, Michael Butts and Glenn Cuerden, last year’s recipients of CPAC awards. Part of the prize for that honor was this exhibit, which has been rather bluntly titled Members Awards 2000. The show begins…
There’s only a couple of weeks left to catch the current attractions at the Robischon Gallery: three superlative solos, each devoted to an internationally famous artist. In the pair of spaces bracketing the front doors is Robert Motherwell: Early Drawings, 1963-1976; in the pair of spaces beyond, there’s the smaller…
It could be said that the ILK @ Pirate space (3659 Navajo Street, 303-458-6058) is a hole in the wall within a hole in the wall — or to put it more elegantly, an alternative space within an alternative space. Despite the limitations of a small, dingy room, more often…
You can always expect to see some of the best and most interesting contemporary art by local, national and international artists at Ron Judish Fine Arts, because director Ron Judish is relentlessly searching for new material — and he often finds it right in our own backyard. But the three…
There’s a great show being presented right now at the slightly off-the-beaten-path O’Sullivan Arts Center at Regis University (3333 Regis Boulevard, 303-458-3576) — but, then again, there usually is. The current attraction is Dickson: Oils — Monotypes, which presents an in-depth look at well-known Denver artist Mark Dickson’s most recent…
By clearly dividing his gallery into three distinct areas and installing the work of a different artist in each one, Bill Havu has finally come up with a successful scheme for laying out shows in his beautiful, custom-built space in the Golden Triangle. True, it’s only slightly different from what…
The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (30 West Dale Street, Colorado Springs, 1-719-634-5581) is a quintessential artifact of the 1930s. Designed by John Gaw Meem, it is adorned with gorgeous murals and bejeweled with exquisite metalwork. It is one of the finest early-modern buildings, not just in this time zone,…
Sally Perisho, the director of the Metro Center for the Visual Arts, describes Mexicanidad: Modotti and Weston as the most important show her institution has ever presented. The traveling exhibit, made up of more than sixty photographs by important twentieth-century American photographers Tina Modotti and Edward Weston, chronicles the few…
The Bayeux Gallery (1133 Bannock Street, 720-359-0990), one of the only galleries in the country specializing in art textiles, is showing the luxurious Spotlight on Tapestry, featuring works by Lucia Grigore and her daughter Celina Grigore. Both are Romanians by birth, but Celina lives in Denver while Lucia remains in…
Is there a pattern that connects the various media that are collectively called “crafts”? What does jewelry have to do with glass? Ceramics with quilts? How are they linked to one another? One obvious connection is that all craft items are handmade. Then again, so are paintings and cakes baked…
Last year, Denver artist and commercial art director Jeanie Nuanes King was looking for studio space when she found a run-down storefront on funky South Broadway. “At first I was just going to hang my own work,” she says, “but I always wanted to run a gallery and get out…
Colorado’s own Chuck Parson is surely one of the most prolific artists anywhere, as his activities of the last year illustrate. When he wasn’t putting in long hours as head of the sculpture department at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, he was feverishly working away in his…
Elizabeth Schlosser Fine Art in Cherry Creek is presenting The Estate of Ethel Magafan, an exhibit of fourteen pieces from the late artist. Magafan was born and educated in Colorado, but she spent most of her career in the art colony at Woodstock, New York. In the 1930s, Magafan and…
