Artbeat

The William Havu Gallery (1040 Cherokee Street, 303-893-2360) is so jam-packed with art right now that you can’t help but experience sensory overload. On the first floor are exhibits devoted to Emilio Lobato (see art column), Gregory Gioiosa, Mark Lunning and Jerry Wingren. Upstairs is the small and kooky Lauri…

Due South

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…

Artbeat

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…

Nightmare on Dale Street

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…

Artbeat

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…

Amazing Grace

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…

Artbeat

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…

Oil Wells

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…

Artbeat

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…

Time Machines

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…

Artbeat

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…

Slights of Hand

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…

Artbeat

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…

Three-Way

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…

Artbeat

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…

Winter Gardens

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…

Artbeat

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,…

Mexican Sojourn

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…

Artbeat

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…

All Hands Down

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…

Artbeat

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…

Northern Lights

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…