When Marcel Duchamp found an industrial bottle rack and proclaimed it art, he transformed fine art from an activity for a privileged few to one that everyone–and almost everything–can play. Almost eighty years later, people still delight in “found” objects, abandoning the formal grind of academic art to celebrate the…
After a decade spent isolated in a Highlands barrio, Spark Gallery, the oldest of Denver’s cooperative art spaces, gained a new lease on life two years ago with its move to the industrial-grunge neighborhood near the Paris on the Platte coffeehouse. The once-sleepy Spark now buzzes with activity: A recent…
To be an innovator in today’s art world takes more than skill, knowledge and talent–it also helps to know how to focus an electron microscope or calculate the frequency of a microwave transmitter. These seemingly nonartistic techniques are only two elements involved in the extraordinary creations at the Arts Innovation…
She stares out of the canvas at the viewer–at nothing. She seems frozen in a moment of deep anxiety, preoccupied with her thoughts. Who is she? In a sense, she is the artist, for this is an intensely realistic self-portrait. But at the same time, this woman and the other…
Among the Denver area’s many opportunities for artists, the annual associateships at the Rocky Mountain Women’s Institute are unique, offering studio space, a stipend and a supportive atmosphere to a select group of visual and performing artists and writers. Originally designed to give women artists a place to work on…
Rejecting journalistic photography while investigating the uncharted neighborhood of the unconscious, three artists turn reality-based images into weird worlds full of symbols and suggestion at Mackey Gallery this month. Although the exhibit’s photographs are in black-and-white, they all display dark-hued psychological effects. Phoenix artist Linda Ingraham starts with grainy photographs…
The medium of printmaking still carries an Old World cachet–as well as equally exclusionary costs. The expenses involved in making a hand-pulled print on heavy paper puts the reproductive technique out of reach for many artists. To overcome this obstacle, some arts communities have worked to make printmaking facilities more…
After fifty years of disrupting the art world, the formerly disreputable style called abstract expressionism has achieved a kind of elder-statesman eminence. Paintings that once were the butt of endless I-don’t-know-much-about-art jokes now enrich museums and decorate corporate offices, hotels and movie sets. Unfortunately, all of this visibility hasn’t made…
Given the current art-world trend to deconstruct every available style and medium, it was only a matter of time before the same turn-it-upside-down mania hit the furniture market. To fit postmodern strategy, the “new” furniture must look like it’s coming apart at the seams or defying gravity–as well as tradition–all…
Spontaneity, politics and confrontation marked much of the street theater and performance art of the Sixties and Seventies. And like many artists who came of age in that free-swinging era, L.A.’s Glugio Gronk Nicadro was drawn to art that encouraged direct interaction with the viewer, literally off-the-wall art forms that…
This state’s prairie lands appear remote–spare, spacy, even boring. But Last Chance to Cope–photographs of Colorado’s northeastern plains on which sit the actual towns of Last Chance and Cope–finds a lot to look at out where most of us see nothing. This exhibit, now on display at Emmanuel Gallery, is…
Artists Who Are Indian, the year-long exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, showcases strong new works of art, some exploring vital spiritual issues and all produced by living Native Americans who reject artistic stereotypes for the freedom–and equality–of the cutting edge. The seventeen contemporary pieces assembled for the show’s second…
The siren call of stellar artists including Ed Ruscha, Red Grooms and David Hockney makes WORD, an exhibit at the Boulder Art Center, hard to resist. But this large show of text-based works fails to thrill, displaying many noncurrent (if not aged) creations, some that have been seen more than…
So-called fine-art quilts are nothing new. Pop-art guru Robert Rauschenberg invented his famous “combine” series in 1955 by sloshing paint on a quilted bedspread. More recent high-art treatments of Granny’s handmade bed coverings include Judy Chicago’s ground-breaking feminist collaborative projects of the Seventies and the sad, enormous “AIDS Quilt.” Usually…
With about a zillion galleries in the West featuring Native American art, you’d think that many would have Native American owners or managers. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Certainly some legitimate galleries guard artists’ interests and the art’s authenticity, but just as many offer mass-produced goods that may or may…
In Latin America, la promesa is a sacred concept: in order for your prayers to be answered, you must promise to give something in return. This replenishing philosophy motivates much of the area’s folk art as objects of beauty are made to fulfill promises given to family, the community and…
Denver has no better showcase for sculpture than Artyard, the outdoor gallery on South Pearl Street. The landscaped, paved and fenced garden area is ideal for showing large, durable pieces, and each work gets ample room to make its statement, with only the sky to limit scale. And the intimate…
In the art world, representations of the human body commonly symbolize perfection and beauty, an ideal. But occasionally the form depicted is flawed, maimed–even erased. Such figures inhabit the abstract-flavored paintings, drawings and sculptures of Agnese Udinotti and Jeff Bertoncino, on display at Mackey Gallery. The two artists’ harmonious styles…
The Fourth has come and gone, but the spirit of independence is amply demonstrated in three sparkling new art exhibitions by and about women. At Edge Gallery, solo shows by artists Cara Jaye and Gail Wagner each explore the idea of “a woman’s place” with revolutionary zest. Across town, photographer…
The old maxim that a picture is worth a thousand words takes on new significance when art incorporates text. The use of letters, words and meaningful phrases as visual elements in artwork is a fairly recent invention–the two media still are perceived by many as essential opposites. If not for…
Although there are several Denver galleries that specialize in African-American art, oftentimes the work displayed is as safe and stereotypical as that of the most conservative Cherry Creek showroom. Few opportunities exist in the area for African-American artists on the cutting edge, those who don’t conform to the demands of…
Like a finely crafted poem, installation art must carefully balance its elements. In order to successfully fill an entire room (or at least a large space) with a single, multifaceted artwork, every object and idea within that space must contribute to the overall strength–and meaning–of the piece. Too many artists…
