Melissa Furness installs a thoughtful solo at Plus

Romantic Overgrowth, an interesting and unusual solo at Plus Gallery, showcases work done over the past few years by Melissa Furness, who teaches at the University of Colorado Denver. The show could be seen as a single installation, as Furness orchestrates the same elements throughout: paintings (both her own and…

Rocky Mountain Warehouse Lofts has lofty art ambitions

Whether it’s food, beer, pot or art, Denver is all about showcasing what the Mile High City has to offer. And residents of the Rocky Mountain Warehouse Lofts, at 18th and Wazee streets, take the mission of supporting local artists seriously. They’ve not only decorated the upper hallways with local…

Artopia 2014: The artistic lights were bright on Broadway

Broadway became the center of Denver’s art world Saturday night as Westword’s Artopia 2014 took over five venues in the heart of town. Artists ranging from Westword cover boy Andrew Novick to zombie portrait artist Stan Yan were on hand to show their work at City Hall and Vinyl, while…

Buffalo Bill in art: Just how funky was he?

“Buffalo Bill first experienced the Wild West; then, he promoted it,” says Steve Friesen, head of the Buffalo Bill Museum, who has been working tirelessly to hang the new new exhibit Folk, Fine and Funky: Buffalo Bill in Art. The museum has divided the show into several themes: Buffalo Bill…

Conceptual abstraction runs through shows at Robischon and Vertigo

In the last decades of the twentieth century, conceptualism was on the upswing in the wake of pop art and minimalism, both of which have big conceptual components. The cutting-edge work of the ’80s and ’90s was heavy with narrative, and artists often chose representational approaches to tell their stories…

Suzanne Heintz and her plastic love in Life Once Removed

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. Suzanne Heintz, a local local photographer and self-proclaimed spinster, recently saw her…

MM Serra on whether Johnny Minotaur is art or obscene teen-exploitation

MM Serra is struggling to find a New York City venue bold enough to exhibit Charles Henri Ford’s 1971 surrealist memoir film, Johnny Minotaur. Nobody wants to bite. This experimental classic reflects on teen sexuality with explicit homoerotic imagery. Unnamed institutions refuse to show it because curators believe the performers look like minors and that the film violates basic standards of decency, she says.

Cornell alumnae fill Pirate’s walls for Ithaca

A smart-looking show on display at Pirate combines pieces by three artists who first met in 2006 at Cornell University, which is why the show is called Ithaca, the name of the upstate New York town where the institution is located. It was organized by one of the artists, Pirate…

Come to #Artopia14 this Saturday

Every year, Westword gathers our favorite painters, sculptors, performers, musicians and more from around Denver for Artopia, a celebration of all that’s good in Denver’s art world. This year, the celebration is taking over five venues along Broadway. See also: Artopia 2013…