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…
Dania Pettus uses the “principles” of black-and-white photography, assemblage and puppetry to construct the harrowing shadow boxes of Do It Until the Principles Are Burned Into Your Mind, at Edge Gallery. No problem there. Pettus’s searing images of disembowelment, dismemberment, piercing and bondage, though they involve anonymous paper-doll puppets, are…
Fans of sophisticated contemporary sculpture will be delighted with the array of styles and media on display at Foothills Art Center. The 16th Annual North American Sculpture Exhibition fills the space with bronze, steel, wood, glass, ceramics and found objects, all material elements of 76 sculptural works from 66 artists…
Human figures appear in representational art so frequently that new and exciting interpretations hardly seem possible. Even so, artists continue to render the figure, finding an inexhaustible source of inspiration in the body human. Three artists take over 1/1 Gallery with original, thought-provoking twists on the genre, infusing the well-worn…
Landscape As Metaphor, a show originally intended as a celebration of site-specific art, opens Saturday at the Denver Art Museum after more than two years of planning and construction. Such international talents as Judy Pfaff, Ursula Von Rydingsvard and Ed Ruscha scouted out locations in and around the museum in…
Television’s pervasive influence on society and the deconstruction of domestic life provide the major themes for two very different installations at Spark Gallery. Annalee Schorr and Virginia Folkestad fill the Platte Street space with mixed-media paintings, minimal sculpture and topical humor. Schorr’s fascination with the sequential imagery of television flavors…
Mackey Gallery’s Annual Photo Show grows more popular with each passing year. The current, third edition displays the young artspace’s customarily astute selection of more or less traditional fine-art photos, this time augmented by adventurous photo collages, photograms and 3-D photo constructions, all by local artists. Nostalgia tints Patricia Barry-Levy’s…
The pungent smell of peeled onions welcomes viewers to a rambunctious exhibit of installation art at Edge Cooperative Gallery. Three artists turn the alternative space into separate and diverse environments, each defined by gallery walls. Since works constructed onsite like this are almost impossible to sell, the dedication and sacrifice…
Longtime CU art instructor Luis Eades’s extraordinary paintings at first resemble illustrations in children’s science books. His clean, expert representational style is technically flawless and viewer-friendly. But the paintings on display at Foothills Art Center are far from simplified schematics of difficult subjects. Instead, Eades attempts to portray complicated interconnections…
Dreams and mythology are among the most common themes in art, yet no two artists see these related subjects in the same way. Even when dream/myth-based art shares archetypes and heroes, each piece tends to be highly personal and unique, just as dreams are. But as different as an artist’s…
If one word can sum up something as complex as Asian art, that word is “tradition.” The strictly observed methods of mixing and applying ink, the narrow range of acceptable subjects (trees, pagodas, mountains, birds), the consistently diagonal composition–all are painstakingly repeated by generation after generation of artists. But even…
Daniel Sprick, master oil painter and key contributor to the annual Artists of America exhibition, conquers–and transcends–the stereotypes of that bastion of mainstream representational art. His exquisite but unsettling paintings are on display at Carol Siple Gallery through April 9. Sprick’s soulfully exact portrayals of quiet rooms filled with ordinary…
The healing power of color provides a soothing tonic for gray March days. An extra-satisfying injection of curative hues highlights a CORE New Art Space show opening Thursday and featuring CORE co-op members Bari De Jaynes, Dean Habegger and Sandra Toland. Not all works were available for previewing, but if…
Thirty years after her death, Marilyn Monroe’s legendary image retains its fascination and allure. Marilyn in her many guises embodies all aspects of The Goddess–virgin, whore, would-be mother, muse, crone. She symbolizes postwar America, fun and glamour, woman as sex object and vessel–and woman as exploited, abused victim. The arc…
The word “thrash” brings to mind visions of stage diving and shrieking feedback. At the THRASH Open Show at Edge Gallery, however, the term takes on new significance. According to curator Sherrie Ingle, THRASH stands for “The Harshest Radical Art Since Hell.” But the art here, though outrageous at times,…
Contemporary Native American artists face a strange dilemma. The same white race that tried to destroy them now wants to celebrate their dying culture–not to mention profit from it. Art that supposedly revives ancient Indian traditions, fulfilling the white buyer’s expectations of what Indian art “should” look like, still fills…
Stock Show season traditionally gives Denver galleries a yearly opportunity, if not a mandate, to showcase art of the West. Most of it stereotypically portrays the romantic ideals of cowboy life, often expertly mimicking work from the era of the Golden West, say, 1860-1920. Among the herd, The West as…
While making a good likeness is the consummate goal to most representational artists, some insist that resemblance to the subject and its mood aren’t enough. Painting and sculpture at two LoDo galleries find profound meaning in the realistic depiction of ordinary things. At 1/1 Gallery, Jim Alford uses airbrush and…
Two new shows stretch the definition of the photograph as art while offering original and exciting visual experiences. Experimental Vision: The Evolution of the Photogram Since 1919, at the Denver Art Museum, tracks the long, fascinating history of cameraless photos, dubbed “photograms.” And Beyond Photography, at Emmanuel Gallery, skips past…
Most Denver art cooperatives celebrate the turn of the year with big group shows of members’ work. These exhibitions provide both an opportunity to party and a way to assess the year’s achievements on the “alternative” scene, offering an infrequent overview of a co-op’s talent and diversity. Last year the…
Everybody knows about instant photos–aim, shoot, and sixty seconds later a small square of photographic paper pops out and develops itself into an image of Aunt Rosie. Because there’s no negative, reprints, retouching and other arty effects aren’t possible: What you see is what you get. Even so, a number…
