Yoshitomo Saito, Woven
William Havu Gallery, 1040 Cherokee Street
Through March 2
Though it’s been open for a few weeks, Woven, sculptor Yoshitomo Saito’s first large solo in a local commercial gallery since 2012, is a beauty worth catching before it closes March 2. Known for his bronze works inspired by the tangles, webs, minute leavings and murmurations of the natural world, Saito’s work takes you to a higher, more contemplative place and might also make you smile.
Don Coen: The Migrant Series
Karen Kitchel: Grasslands
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, 1750 13th Street, Boulder
Coen: January 31 through May 27
Kitchell: January 31 through April 21
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 31, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Colorado artist Don Coen branched off from his work depicting farm and ranch life in the West almost two decades ago to look at a flip side of agricultural culture: the migrant workers out in the fields, who harvest the crops that feed the rest of America. The resulting Migrant Series, Coen’s ongoing project of making large-scale portraits rendered in airbrushed layers over blown-up photographs, directly portrays real people, bathed in sunlight and the bright colors of the farmworker’s landscape – and it couldn’t be more current. Kitchell, on the other hand, does similar studies, but with grasses as her subject, in environmentally directed oils that tell the hidden stories of disappearing prairie lands.
Some panels from Jordan Wolfson's Song Cycle With Blue Cloth (abridged) at 808 Projects.
Jordan Wolfson, 808 Projects
808 Projects, 808 Santa Fe Drive
January 31 through February 24
Opening reception: Thursday, January 31, 6 to 9 p.m.
A single still life is deconstructed on its way through a polyptych of 27 paintings and eleven drawings in this abridged version of Song Cycle With Blue Cloth, showing the many parts of a whole hidden in every painting by panning in and out throughout the painting process.
Snowboard-world artists Jamie M. Lynn and Schoph Schofield hang a show.
Courtesy of 1910: Schoph + Jamie Lynn
Leon Gallery, 1112 East 17th Avenue
January 31 through March 2
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 31, 7 to 11 p.m.
Jamie M. Lynn and Schoph Schofield, who work in collaboration under the moniker 1910, came together as a team at the intersection of art and the snowboarding universe to create wall- and mural-sized mashups of their individual gear-art styles. Leon turns over gallery space to the duo for a display of original collaborations and prints.
Jorge Marín, Luz de Denver Public Art Unveiling
Riverfront Park Plaza, Little Raven Street between 15th and 17th streets
Unveiling and Reception: Thursday, January 31, 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Indoor Reception follows at Slifer Smith & Frampton, 1610 Little Raven Street, Suite 115
Mexican sculptor Jorge Marín’s original "Wings of México" was created in 2016 as part of a temporary Wings of the City installation of eight sculptures in Commons Park, each representing a different world city and culture. Now "Wings" has been reimagined in permanent form, engineered by Denver’s YetiWeurks, as "Luz de Denver (Light of Denver)," which will be unveiled on January 31, courtesy of the Riverfront Park Community Foundation.
Sexxxhibition
Pieces, by Erynn McConnell
Ossify, by Austin Armstrong
Art Gym, 1460 Leyden Street
January 31 through February 22
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 31, 5 to 8 p.m.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Art Gym gets down and dirty with Sexxxhibition, a sex-minded group exhibition from curators Louis Trujillo and James Mullane. Comedy and frisky fun both play a part in the general presentation, but so does the science of social observation, in works by Corinna Espinosa, Esther Hernandez, James Mullane, Pansy Ass Ceramics, John Paradiso, Ryan Riedel, Peter Stevinson, John Tarantola, Louis Trujillo and the Women's Art League. While you're there, also enjoy Erynn McConnell's work in Pieces and Austin Armstrong's in Ossify.
Time: Biannual UCCS Visual Art Faculty Exhibition
Galleries of Contemporary Art, Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 North Nevada Avenue, Colorado Springs
January 31 through May 12
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 31, 5 to 8 p.m.
Artist Talks: 6 to 7 p.m. February 21, March 14, April 5
Art faculty at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs will cut loose through the spring in Time, a compendium of all the UCCS art department has to offer, with a big spread of mediums represented by the versatile staff. Painting, drawing, sculpture, sound installation, kinetic works, time-based media and performative happenings are all part of the package. A monthly lecture series with a changing roster of instructors accompanies the exhibition. See the complete lecture lineup at GOCA online.
Fawn Atencio uses printmaking techniques to give depth to her abstract paintings.
Fawn Atencio, Mai Wyn Fine Art
Mai Wyn Fine Art, 744 Santa Fe Drive
January 31 through February 1
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 31, 6 to 8 p.m.
Fawn Atencio blends painting and printmaking techniques to make these abstracted landscapes inspired by her travels in Colorado and the Far East. Atencio drags ink across a paper surface as a printmaker does, going back over the base with embellishments of paint, ink and graphite to create what she describes as “dreamlike landscapes, which incorporate the romance of the West and impressions of the East.”
Pulchritudinous
Foolproof Contemporary Art, 3240 Larimer Street
February 1 through March 30
Opening Reception: Friday, February 1, 7 to 9:30 p.m.
Foolproof will make a First Friday statement with the all-new group exhibition Pulchritudinous, which we can only hope will be as gorgeous as the title suggests. If you like variety and themeless shows, this is perfect for you: A big hodgepodge showcasing 33 artists from here, across the nation and around the world will be on display.
Katie Hoffman
Valkarie Gallery, 445 South Saulsbury Street, Belmar, Lakewood
January 30 through February 24
Opening Reception: Friday, February 1, 5 to 9 p.m.
Painter Katie Hoffman gets a guest spot at Valkarie through most of February with a fresh batch of her dreamy, otherworldly oils, where romantic creatures and mythological figures mingle. They’d make nice Valentine’s Day gifts for that one-of-a-kind, art-loving significant other.
Karen Bennett, What Lies Beneath
Lisa Bigalke, Seasonal Fossils
Next Gallery, 6851 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
February 1 through 17
Opening Reception: Friday, February 1, 6 to 10 p.m.
Next up at Next? Guest artist Lisa Bigalke will have a batch of linoleum reduction relief prints on the wall, while co-op member Karen Bennett goes big with a fiber installation and small with a series of felted roots. Support local artists and co-ops and enjoy art-walking the neighborhood.
Edition II
Helikon Gallery & Studios, 3675 Wynkoop Street
February 1 through March 2
Opening Reception: Friday, February 1, 6 to 10 p.m.
Helikon’s first big show of the year focuses on printmaking, with works created digitally or traditionally by fourteen artists. Prints mean fine-art finds with bargain prices if you’re looking for sweetheart gifts or simply want something new to look at on your walls.
Joshua R. Clark: Darling, Darling,
Plinth Gallery, 3520 Brighton Boulevard
February 1, through Saturday, March 30
Opening Reception: Friday, February 1, 6 to 9 p.m.
Jonathan Kaplan’s Plinth Gallery is all about clay, all of the time, and a lot of very good ceramic work makes its way through the space each year. New Mexico-based artist Joshua R. Clark, who earned his MFA at Cranbrook in 2015, builds slip-cast clay assemblages and towers, some with baroque gold or brightly colored drips and shapes that are sometimes geometric, sometimes amorphous and sometimes architectural. In other words, they’re a whole lot of fun.
Robert Bell
RiNo Made, Zeppelin Station, 3501 Wazee Street
February 1 through 27
Opening Reception: Friday, February 1, 6 to 9 p.m.
Check out nudes and abstracts by RiNo Made featured artist Robert Bell and grab a bite in the Zeppelin Station food hall as you trek through RiNo for First Friday. As always, RiNo Made specializes in the work of artists who live and work in the district. Find a full slate of First Friday events in RiNo at the River North Art District website.
40 West Member Showcase Exhibition
40 West Arts Gallery, 1560 Teller Street, Lakewood
February 1 through 23
Opening Reception: Friday, February 1, 6 to 9 p.m.
40 West celebrates its initial First Friday in 2019 by showcasing artist-members from around the Lakewood arts district. Maybe it’s time you got to know the district better — or look ahead to First Friday in March, when all the galleries in the area will join together for the first Colfax Art Crawl of the year. More on that in March.
Fluid Expressions: The Prints of Helen Frankenthaler
Amos Kennedy, Jr. and the Press at Colorado College
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, 30 West Dale Street, Colorado Springs
Frankenthaler: February 2 through June 2
Kennedy: February 2 through April 7
Museum Admission: $5 to $10, free for members, and students and teachers with ID
Best known for her soaked canvases awash in clouds of liquid color, abstract-expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler also translated the style using less pliable printmaking techniques, including lithography, etching, screen printing and woodcut. See how successful those experiments were at CSFAC in a new exhibition of 25-plus prints from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation. While you’re there, make time for the continuing exhibition, Virgil Ortiz: The Revolution, on view through May 19, and a new show of letterpress posters created at a workshop at Colorado College with Detroit-based master printer Amos Kennedy.
Kuzana Ogg, Tripping the Light Fantastic
K Contemporary, 1412 Wazee Street
February 2 through 23
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 2, 6 to 9 p.m.
Mumbai-born Santa Fe artist Kuzana Ogg’s borderless abstract work travels the globe for visual cues, all in a single painting. Also new and on view in the same building: A solo show, State of Being, by figurative artist Matt Talbert, presented by Abend Gallery.
Inez Sanchez makes Missfit Dolls as part of her art business Dia de Los Muertos & More.
Inez Sanchez
BuCu West Development Association, 4200 Morrison Road
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 2, 1 to 5 p.m.
The group Local Artists & Friends Helping Artists (LAHA) is giving a hand to Denver artist Inez Sanchez, who needs help relocating and developing her cottage businesses Missfit Dolls and Dia de Los Muertos & More, with a fundraising silent auction of art and services and a spread of homemade tacos and live music by Jon Romero at the afternoon party. This is a true community effort in the Westwood Creative District.
Denver Fashion Week Exhibit
Elemental Construction
McNichols Building, 144 West Colfax Avenue
February 2 through April 7
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 2, 6 to 9 p.m.
Free, RSVP at Eventbrite
New shows with a Month of Photography 2019 focus are in the spotlight this weekend at the McNichols Project: Lights, Camera, Fashion, a blend of art openings and a highbrow party in Denver’s civic galleries at the McNichols Building. See Elemental Construction, an exhibition of photo-collage work organized by the Colorado Photographic Arts Center on the second floor, then take a hike up to the third floor for a pictorial show celebrating the runways of Denver Fashion Week.
Talk With Your Mouth Full: Joseph Coniff
Black Cube Headquarters; 2925 South Umatilla Street, Englewood
Sunday, February 3, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
RSVP in advance at Black Cube online
For artists only: Black Cube’s new Sunday brunch art talks continue in February with artist Joseph Coniff, whose work is currently on view in the group show Paper Work at Rule Gallery through March 2. Coniff rules the event by choosing his own subject matter and main brunch dish, which will be coffee cake.
Interested in having your event appear in this calendar? Send the details to [email protected]. For more events this weekend, see our 21 Best Things to Do in Denver.
