March brings the return of Denver’s biennial Month of Printmaking, with multiple openings and events this weekend. But there’s more than prints to enjoy this First Friday: Here are a few ways to go either direction — or both.
R. Kauff and the Art Lab present some Objects & Objections of this land
PlatteForum, 2400 Curtis Street
March 1 through 3
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 1, 6 to 8 p.m.
Artist R. Kauff, an Iowan with a background in print media, sculpture and installation work, wraps up her six-week residency working with ArtLab high school interns with R. Kauff and the Art Lab present some Objects & Objections of this land, a three-day show at PlatteForum combining artful actualizations of each student’s personal manifesto through the creation of surreally altered everyday objects, with Kauff’s own large-scale work, “A Brief History of Presidential Smiles,” rendered in milk-based paint on a carved poplar base. Meet the artists at the opening reception; if you can’t make that, be quick: The exhibit is only on display through March 3.
Black Ink: A Mo'Print Fundraiser
TRVE Brewing Company, 227 Broadway
Friday, March 2, 7 p.m. to midnight
Free
Denver’s Month of Printmaking 2018 is here, with a few friendly social gatherings interspersed among the larger scope of exhibits and workshops all over town. Black Ink: A Mo'Print Fundraiser is the first of them, and it beckons with the promise of cheap original art: The centerpiece of the evening is a collection of small, black-and-white linocut prints that will sell for the easy cash-and-carry fee of only $10 each. Party on, have a beer and pick up a deal at TRVE Brewing Company on Broadway.
Barbara Shark, “Dessert on Blue Mountain Road II,” 2002, oil on canvas, at Pattern Shop Gallery.
Barbara Shark
Pattern Shop Studio, 3349 Blake Street
March 2 through May 4
Opening Reception: Friday, March 2, 6 to 9 p.m.
The works of Colorado photorealist figurative painter Barbara Shark often focus on people in the act of being people, eating or working together in moments of repose and activity. A survey of Shark’s laid-back human snapshots, painted over a period of twenty years or so, goes up this week at Pattern Shop Studio for a two-month run. Additional receptions will be held on First Fridays in April and May, and the gallery is hosting a salon and book launch for Shark’s newly published memoir, How I Learned to Cook, An Artist's Life, on April 14, from 4 to 6 p.m.
Mark Bueno
Urban Space Unlimited, 864 Santa Fe
Friday, March 2, 2 to 10 p.m.
Artist Mark Bueno pieces together elegant, patterned studies in wood for We Love What Seems Familiar to Us, elevating the mundane to heights of meditational beauty. At the intersection of craft and fine art, Bueno makes woodworking waves in a higher echelon of imagery.
Community Print Show and Members’ Print Show
Edge Gallery, 7001 West Colfax Avenue
March 2 through April 1
Opening Reception: Friday, March 2, 5 to 10 p.m.
Edge Gallery joins the Mo’Print 2018 bandwagon with a couple of easygoing, community-minded print exhibits, beginning with an open-entry community show and continuing with a hanging of print works by Edge members in the Small Room. There’s nothing highfalutin’ about it — just work from the street and a showcase for the Edge enclave. Bonus: Lakewood's 40 West First Friday Art Walk will be in full bloom during the opening, so plan to make it an evening of strolling.
Under the Influences: A Tribute to the Month of Printmaking
Lowbrow Denver, 38 Broadway
Opening Reception: Friday, March 2, 7 to 10 p.m.
Even Lowbrow has its thumb in the Mo’Print pie: The ladies of Lowbrow invited Denver street artist Javier Flores to curate a national print show on the theme of printmaking roots, history and influences. But if you prefer Lowbrow’s usual mix of vinyl collectible toys, rad tees and street-smart merch, the spot will also be hosting a pop-up by New York designer DINKC Studios during the First Friday opening reception. Equal opportunity!
Ashley Eliza Williams, Anthropocene
Blanca Guerra-Echeverria, The Cyclical Glow
Goodwin Fine Art, 1255 Delaware Street
March 2 through April 14
Opening Reception: Friday, March 2, 6 to 8 p.m.
Goodwin Fine Art brings back painter Ashley Eliza Williams, whose imagery of floating rocks in space and other geologic subjects, often bathed in strange light, will raise your respect for the soul of the inanimate natural world. Joining her in a duet is fellow CU Boulder graduate Blanca Guerra-Echeverria, who sculpts in ceramic, summoning the biological and cultural issues of genetics and human reproduction. Rock your world.
Check out Westword’s list of Mo'Print 2018 picks for more printmaking adventures in March.
