The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center recently announced that a new wing by Denver’s David Owen Tryba Architects is to be appended to the magnificent John Gaw Meem building (see story, page 43). That same day, the institution also announced the acquisition of more than fifty pieces by Seattle glass…
Using plants and flowers as source material for artwork is definitely an old-timey pursuit whose roots (pardon the pun) go back to the dawn of the Greco-Roman era. Here we are in the 21st century, and many contemporary painters — not just realists — still draw inspiration from the ubiquitous…
There are lots of galleries on Santa Fe, but surely everyone will agree that the Space Gallery (765 Santa Fe Drive, 720-904-1088) really stands out. Scottish-born owner Michael Burnett has made it happen by relentlessly putting on interesting shows. The current exhibit, HIDDEN NARRATIVE, fills the bill. In it, Burnett…
During the ’20s and ’30s, artists in Colorado and New Mexico began doing abstractions based on landscape paintings. They took the formal components of a mountain, mesa or rock formation, then simplified the compositions into non-realistic versions of the scene. With the rise of pure abstraction in the post-war period,…
The Denver Office of Cultural Affairs is facing some changes. On January 3, Denise Montgomery spent her last day as the agency’s director; she’s leaving to head up the marketing department of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. When Montgomery was picked for the cabinet-level post in 2003, she…
Over the past ten years, the city’s galleries, art centers and museums have done a number of exhibits charting out the region’s art history — a scholarly and aesthetic pursuit that’s still in its infancy. Most of these shows have spotlighted vintage paintings and, to a lesser extent, prints and…
The Sliding Door Gallery (3563 Walnut Street, 720-979-4448) is a newish co-op that was launched this past summer. The members include a number of former Pirates and Edge-sters, along with a smattering of others who are new to the local art biz. There are eighteen members in all, with openings…
Ten years ago, David Zimmer was one of the hottest young kids on Denver’s alternative scene. He presented impressive shows at Artyard and Pirate that immediately established his name for photography and sculpture. His ready success was clearly indicated when the Denver Art Museum included one of his installations combining…
In addition to the Lauri Lynnxe Murphy and Andy Miller solos (see page 40) displayed in the front and middle sections of + Gallery (2350 Lawrence Street, 303-296-0927), there’s a small exhibit with the epic title of Selections From the Western Edition of New American Paintings installed in the back…
The Singer Gallery never ceases to amaze me. Credit for this must be given to Simon Zalkind, the gallery’s able director. Despite a modest budget and even more modest facilities at the Mizel Center for Arts and Culture, Zalkind invariably comes through with some of the best exhibits in the…
It’s full speed ahead for the Denver Art Museum’s Frederic C. Hamilton Building (see review). With the structure to be completed in less than a year, the DAM recently announced the acquisition of three monumental outdoor sculptures that will adorn the grounds. “Big Sweep” (maquette, right) is a gigantic 35-foot-tall…
Many people — if not most — think of art and art writing as subjective enterprises. It’s all a matter of taste; one person’s trash is another’s treasure. This thinking is partially right — but mostly wrong. Like it or not, art is part of the objective reality that exists…
The William Havu Gallery (1040 Cherokee Street, 303-893-2360) is hosting a great pair of solos for the holidays: Mark Dickson and Michael Clapper. The shows have been installed on the first floor, with Dickson’s classic modernist paintings hung on the walls and Clapper’s equally classic modernist sculptures displayed on the…
As the 21st century gets under way, it seems more and more apparent that the quintessential art form of the era is photography — straightforward shots of exterior reality, photo-based methods (such as films, projections and videos) or the more conventional application of photographic technology in prints and paintings. I…
In the east half of Spark Gallery (900 Santa Fe Drive, 720-889-2200) is Peter Illig’s DIALOGUE: 21. Over the past decade, Illig has made a reputation creating contemporary representational paintings and drawings. Like other realists, he attempts to impart something new into the age-old tradition. In his case, he makes…
According to Museum of Contemporary Art director Cydney Payton, her current show, TRUSS THRUST: THE ARTIFICE OF SPACE, is the first large exhibit in the area dedicated exclusively to video art. I think she’s right, because while there have been any number of videos in group shows or solos, I…
Things are really taking shape over at 15th and Delgany streets in the Platte Valley, where a multi-family development of lofts and townhouses designed by Yong Cho and Catherine Mercer of Studio Completiva are well under way. Both of these projects are associated with the not-yet-started Museum of Contemporary Art…
The Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art is a unique aesthetic resource that’s filled to the rafters with interesting things to see. The Kirkland is a collecting institution; its impressive holdings, in a variety of aesthetic categories, are permanently displayed in a series of large rooms on two floors…
Twenty-something artist Jenny Morgan is surely one of the most serious and ambitious young painters around. She’s practically right out of school, having graduated only a couple of years ago from the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. There she was a protegée of Irene Delka McCray, and, like…
Andy Warhol was one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, which is really saying something, considering the cavalcade of talent that came down the pike between 1900 and 1999. Warhol’s contributions, both aesthetically and — even more so — conceptually, inspired and anticipated the current era in contemporary…
Though I’ve been there a zillion times, the majestic Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center never ceases to impress me. The 1936 building, by New Mexico’s John Gaw Meem, is done in cast concrete trimmed out in aluminum and shiny black aggregate and combines the attributes of traditional pueblo style with…
Construction workers are finishing up one of the first high-rises to be built downtown in about twenty years. It’s the new Hyatt Denver Convention Center Hotel, at 14th and California streets. For a decade now, the severe under-performance of the Colorado Convention Center has been laid at the feet of…
