1993 was a terrible year for the local art world. First the galleries started closing–Joan Robey, Alpha, Hassel Haeseler and Payton-Rule. Then the artists started dying–Wes Kennedy, Edward Marecak and David Rigsby. In the years since, both Kennedy and Marecak have been the subject of several fine surveys and memorial…
Clay is a material that occupies a special–or should that be peculiar?–place in the world of the visual arts. It is most often employed in the making of utilitarian objects such as cups, mugs and vases and is therefore relegated to the underworld of the decorative arts–the much-maligned craft tradition…
In the last few years, two groups have emerged in Denver, each intent on establishing a museum of contemporary art as an alternative to the Denver Art Museum. For a long time the two groups were unknown to each other. (If only the Ocean Journey crowd had been so circumspect.)…
Cherry Creek has been in the news lately–and not just because of that dreadful “We have a whole district” advertising campaign. Even more prominent than that awkward attempt at self-promotion has been the hoopla surrounding the destruction of an ancient elm tree to make way for a duplex in Cherry…
Since the impressionists invented modernism nearly 150 years ago, relentless innovation has been the buzzword in contemporary painting. Newer has been better since at least the late nineteenth century, at which point new art trends started coming along one after another. Impressionism was eclipsed by post-impressionism, then by neo-impressionism, then…
Although Mary Mackey announced a couple of months ago that her namesake gallery on the city’s west side would close at the end of the year, it now appears the gallery will remain open at least into 1997. No such uncertainty, however, surrounds the life expectancy of two superb shows…
Ignorance is bliss, but in Denver’s art world, it’s much more than that. These days it’s seen as being the best indicator of personal integrity. A good example of this can be found in the city’s approach to public art. In that arena, art disciples are outnumbered more than ten…
In the last thirty years, Japan has gone a long way toward establishing total world domination of the camera industry. At both the high and low ends of the market, Japanese cameras–Pentax, Canon, Minolta, Nikon–aren’t just the ones that predominate, they’re the ones that have become household names. If Japan’s…
Increasingly, it seems as though every coffee shop or restaurant in town also fancies itself a gallery. Drop a stone in Cherry Creek or in LoDo and, likely as not, it will fall on an art show. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s getting any easier to find truly good…
Pity Colorado Springs if you must. Today it’s known primarily for its right-wing politics. But as recently as the early 1950s, the city was famous mostly for its art–a lot of which was left-wing. Hard to believe? Perhaps. But it’s a message that Manitou Springs painter Tracy Felix wants to…
For the denizens of the art world, it’s not runs, hits and errors that are on our minds every October, but runs, drips and errors–in acrylics or oil paint or wood or pencil. Right now there are at least a score of worthwhile events being presented in one or another…
The paintings and sculptures in the current show at Denver’s Artyard Gallery were completed in the last five years, but they still provide a look back at the city’s nascent contemporary-art scene of the 1960s. Reunion joins Robert Mangold, a household name and old-guard wizard of local contemporary sculpture, with…
Fall has arrived, and with it the most desirable slots in the exhibition schedules of the city’s art galleries. This time of year, excellent solo shows by established artists seem to pop up nearly everywhere. Among the most notable this autumn are a fine pair of exhibits that feature the…
Maybe it’s the way the mountains emphatically hit the sky, or perhaps it’s those seemingly infinite flat prairies. Whatever the reason, many artists working in Colorado have looked to the firm, straight line as the principal means to their artistic ends. One of the most prominent of those practitioners is…
The five artists featured in the current exhibit at Auraria’s Emmanuel Gallery, Elemental, don’t constitute a school. Neither are they working in the same style or even in the same media. Yet brought together, pieces by Jeff Starr, Dean Habegger, Frank Shaw, Rodger Lang and Scott Chamberlin produce a consistent…
It’s hard to imagine, but at one time regional growth meant something more than the grand opening of another shopping center or the umpteenth big-box hardware store. In the 1970s, new construction also meant a cultural coming of age for metro Denver. The decade began with the completion of the…
Because it was made by an artist and is meant to portray America’s recent art history, the film Basquiat, which opened a couple of weeks ago at the Mayan Theater, has sparked a groundswell of interest in the art community. Perhaps only a psychiatrist is truly qualified to interpret painter…
Being home on the Front Range in August brings new meaning to the old cowboy song about the skies not being cloudy all day. After all, it’s the too-clear sky that leads to that searing, oppressive heat. But there’s an upside to all that blazing sun: the clear light that…
Colorado’s printmaking tradition is so rich, its influence spreads far beyond state lines. In the first decades of the twentieth century, George Elbert Burr plowed new ground with his color etchings made right here in Denver. In the 1930s Guy McCoy and Paul Gallagher, working in Colorado Springs and Aspen,…
Watching over the nearly completed destruction of I.M. Pei’s Zeckendorf Plaza is reminiscent of those “thinnest books in the world” sold in novelty shops. You know the kind–Honest Lawyers or Inspired Bureaucrats. Unfortunately, the pageless gag in this case could be titled something like Great Denver Buildings. But that’s not…
Putting together a credible exhibit takes three things: space, money and an organizing concept. But in the art world, it’s often those curators or gallery directors with the least space at their disposal–and even less money–who come through with the biggest ideas and the best shows. The latest case in…
The distinction between sculpture and installation is a blurry one–and that makes sense, given that the two mediums are both essentially concerned with artfully occupying space. Many local contemporary sculptors and installation artists test the boundary between the two art forms. But no one knows the territory better than well-known…
