Before it became the bustling hub of higher education in central Denver, the Auraria campus was a neighborhood of modest houses and small businesses. It all abruptly vanished in the early 1970s, after a bitter political and legal battle that uprooted hundred of residents — and left behind a trail…
You can find art all over town — not just on gallery walls. In this series, we’ll be looking at some of the local artists who serve up their work in coffeehouses and other non-gallery businesses around town. Take a look through local photographer Kitty Migaki’s camera lens, and you’ll…
Though pot’s what’s on the whole city’s mind this marijuan-derful 4/20 weekend, the local art scene will not go up in smoke. Here are three reminders that Denver galleries serve up good vibes and even better shows every weekend of the year. See also: Teased, Torn, Coddled & Pampered at…
Reading is about more than following a narrative or learning facts; it can also be a profound shared experience that culminates in a better understanding of ourselves and each other. In that spirit, welcome to the Westword Book Club, a bi-weekly feature celebrating the books that inspire Denver artists.
Lauri Lynnxe Murphy is well known here, having established her name as both an artist and an art advocate over the past two decades. But she fell off the radar for a few years when she moved to Columbus to earn her MFA at Ohio State University, where world-renowned installation…
When veteran artists Frank Farrar, Valerie Savarie and Karrie York opened Valkarie Fine Art Gallery and Studio last fall, they wanted to create a place not just where they could show and make art, but make connections with other local creatives. This Thursday evening, April 17, the space will host…
Big K Productions, which celebrated its twenty years of putting on record shows last year, kicked off the Denver Record Collectors Expo’s next twenty as fans stampeded into the ballroom at the Northglenn Ramada Sunday in search of musical holy grail. The platter-covered vendor tables served up everything from rare…
Last Friday, Conor McGarrigle walked Colfax Avenue — the longest continuous commercial street in the U.S. — and drew a 26.2 mile line captured in a satellite photograph. The walking art performance, named Walking West, was conceived as a catalyst for a discussion of the role of Colfax Avenue in…
A century ago this week, a long-simmering conflict between miners on strike in the southern Colorado coalfields and troops of the Colorado National Guard erupted into the deadliest labor war in American history. A raging gun battle on April 20, 1914, resulted in the destruction of the strikers’ Ludlow tent…
Every Friday is First Friday in this town, and this weekend, it’s Second Saturday, too. Here are three openings you’ll be glad you hit. See also: Video: Meet Westword MasterMind Eric Dallimore…
Ineffable is a dirty word for a writer. It means something like, “A concept you just can’t put into words.” Discussing The Deep Novelty Harvest Colony — a stereoscopic art installation that makes its debut tonight at Hinterland Gallery — with artist Andrew Elijah Edwards, you enter a philosophical wrestling…
From unconventional drawing workshops to lectures on what is real, Moxie U is redefining school. Founded by Rebecca Vaughan and Susan Stites, two former employees of the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, the new organization offers a variety of classes for people who want to learn something new…
Denver Art Museum director Christoph Heinrich has a gift for understanding how to attract an audience. His secret is presenting exhibits that appeal not only to the art crowd, but also to the general population. These blockbusters — dubbed as “beacons” by Heinrich — zero in on a topic of…
Michael Paglia visits the Denver Art Museum in this week’s review, taking in the exhibit that features work from such revered artists as Rousseau, van Gogh, Matisse, Chagall and Picasso, among many other heavy hitters. Continue reading for photos from the exhibit…
Colorado is home to a whole community of assemblage artists, some working with nuts and bolts straight out of the dumpster and others using more rarefied detritus they’ve collected over years. But it doesn’t really matter what goes into putting this kind of art together — the final transformation is…
Doors Open Denver will be back for its tenth-anniversary edition this weekend. “We’ve got everything the same and more of it,” says event organizer Jane Potts. But one thing is different: Denver Arts & Venues has cut way back on its involvement. “The City is a sponsor again this year,…
You can find art all over town — not just on gallery walls. In this series, we’ll be looking at some of the local artists who serve up their work in coffeehouses and other non-gallery businesses around town. Local chemistry teacher-turned-photographer Carol MacKay thinks the Denver Preschool Program is so…
The centuries-old culture of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, built on a bedrock of religion, yields an equally old subculture of santeros and santeras — carvers of religious figures, retablos and crosses. And each year, the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council gives over its walls to the best of…
“We just want to get famous enough to meet Lena Dunham,” say twin artists Taylor and Jazzmyn Barbosa. They may be joking, but it doesn’t seem like too fantastic a dream; the Barbosa sisters’ art is cut from the same vulnerable, whip-smart cloth as the star and creator HBO’s Girls…
That TV that looked so great twenty years ago is looking like an environmentally unfriendly albatross today — it’s essentially trashed, but too full of toxic materials to throw out with the trash. But on Saturday, April 5, Republic Services of Denver will provide a convenient way to recycle obsolete…
Whether he’s stuffing his subjects’ faces with food or taking pictures of them covered in their own blood, Andrew Novick takes photographs that document an always interesting and often delightfully weird time. This time around, the artist, collector, Peeps expert, Stanley Film Festival collaborator and Warlock Pincher looked to his…
Mo’Print, the Month of Printmaking, is winding down, and although the centerpiece is the Open Press show at the McNichols Building, there have been dozens of other events focused on printmaking up and down the Front Range. Among the ones that I’ve checked out are the two on view at…
