Denver writer and part-time cab driver Gary Reilly was more interested in writing novels — many of which had to do with a cabbie named Murph who also wrote novels — than publishing them. But since Reilly’s death last year from cancer at 61, his Murph sagas are rolling out…
When the Historic Elitch Gardens Theatre closed in 1991, the fate of the century-old building was uncertain. Although the city said it wanted to save this last vestige of the original Elitch Gardens Amusement Park, there was no money for the project. So in 2002, the Historic Elitch Theatre Foundation…
It’s no easy task to open a planetary cultural dialogue in landlocked Denver, a place where members of an already strong arts community are fiercely, and perhaps rightly, protective of their own. But Patrick Mueller of the dance and movement ensemble Control Group Productions thinks a more continental mindset might…
I don’t know about you, but I have a love/hate relationship with the holidays. Sure, Christmas brings out the kid in all of us — well, except for those who celebrate Hanukkah or Kwanzaa — but it also brings out the dread, the depression, the debt and the dysfunctional family…
In this week’s review, Michael Paglia visits William Havu Gallery for the second installment of its Toy Stories exhibit — the first half of which came around in the summer of 2011. The group show features paintings, ceramic works and sculptures that are all inspired by toys — though not…
On November 25, Danny Cisneros set two (unofficial) world records for doing a handstand on his skateboard. He traveled .8 miles, nearly doubling the previous distance record, and was clocked going 35 miles per hour — establishing a speed record that had not yet been set. See also: – The…
Taking over City Hall for one night only this Friday, the Pancakes & Booze art show is exactly that — a showing of work by local artists combined with a smorgasbord of sweet treats and liquor. The traveling party originated in Los Angeles in 2009 and now makes a circuit…
In town for just a short time from his native “cheese gulag” in Wisconsin, former Denverite Bill Amundson will leave a mark nonetheless: Tonight the artist/raconteur is the featured speaker at the Denver Art Museum’s Logan Lecture series (see the DAM website for details and tickets). And on Friday, Amundson…
Over the summer, the Denver Art Museum explored the history and future of airport architecture through the design of local architect Curtis Fentress, the founder of Fentress Architects who designed Denver International Airport, including its iconic tent roof. Now highlights of the Now Boarding: Fentress Airports + The Architecture of…
The University of Colorado may not be able to win a football game, but the CU Art Museum has scored big with its traveling exhibition, “Through Soviet Jewish Eyes: Photography, War, and the Holocaust.” The show, which debuted in Boulder in September, was curated by David Shneer, CU professor of…
In 2003, Sandra Phillips opened her namesake gallery in a funky former hair salon on Santa Fe Drive. One unfortunate aspect of the space was a spiral staircase that created a dangerous obstacle: I came dangerously close to banging my head against it many times. But despite such physical shortcomings,…
These days, it seems like the only things that come in the mail are coupons and bills. Jared and Rachel Rippy want to change that by creating pieces of art that are intended for the mail. Through their new business, Postscript, the husband-and-wife team create letterpress postcards with graphic art…
Charming author, cultural philosopher, satirist and NPR commentator David Sedaris talks pretty to sellout audiences year after year in Denver, filling auditoriums with unabashed cultists who simply love the little, wise man to death. Early next year, he’s trying something different: Sedaris will play Denver for a series of eight…
As we promised in our recent cover story, it was on like Donkey Kong at the 1UP in LoDo this weekend. More than three decades after the beloved arcade game brought barrels into the mainstream, twelve of the world’s top players duked it out against high-scoring wildcard gamers at Denver’s…
It’s a busy Third Friday in D-town, particularly at the Laundry on Lawrence, where eleven artists came together in “an exploration of soft materials.” Not surprisingly, the concept takes many directions in a variety of mediums, with both individual and collaborative results. See also: – Artist Theresa Anderson explains how…
At the recent R-Squared: Risk and Reward conference held in Telluride, Cengage Learning offered a $5,000 reward for the library/librarian that came up with the most innovative way to engage the library’s customers. Basically, how to make libraries cool again. Joseph Sanchez, an employee of the Auraria Library, came up…
It’s fitting for the small Abecedarian Gallery to end the year with an exhibition of small-scale art. All the two- and three-dimensional works in the Modest in Scale show are twelve inches or smaller in every dimension. “It’s a great show to have right before Christmas because people are out…
Has the calm before the edible storm that is Thanksgiving got you down in the dumps? Revolution Circus, a huge compendium of bands, freaks, sideshow acts, burlesque girls, body painters, acrobats, tatto artists, belly dancers, hoopers and other circusy things will take over City Hall for a many-leveled, single night…
You’d have to be living under a rock not to know who Vincent van Gogh was. And I’m not just talking about art enthusiasts: Anyone with even a minimal sense of culture will have heard of him, if only for the severed-ear story. One of the greatest post-impressionists of the…
Clyfford Still. For the opening of the Clyfford Still Museum, director Dean Sobel has installed a career survey of the great artist that starts with the artist’s realist self-portrait and features his remarkable post-impressionist works from the 1920s. Next are Still’s works from the ’30s, with some odd takes on…
Michael Paglia visits the Denver Art Museum for this week’s review, “Go van Gogh.” The exhibit expands on the work of the revered post-impressionist artist, and it deserves the sold-out attention it’s receiving. Continue reading for photos from Becoming van Gogh…
Girls Gone Wild will land in Denver on Sunday, when the Back to School Tour 2012 stops at PT’s Showclub at 1601 West Evans Avenue at 9 p.m. But Joe Francis, the founder of Girls Gone Wild, isn’t that wild himself these days — or so his company would like…
