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Best Way to Appreciate Local Art

Documents of Colorado Art

Over the years, Ocean View Books (the press relocated from the West Coast in the mid 1990s, thus the name) has published a series of volumes on the history of Colorado art. The two-person operation -- Lee Ballentine is the designer; his wife, Jennifer MacGregor, is the editor -- has just put out its tenth issue, The Erotic Art of Edgar Britton, by poet Jane Hilberry. The volume takes a look at Britton, the state's most significant modern sculptor of the mid-twentieth century. Previous monographs have been devoted to Edward Marecak and Roland Detre; there have also been surveys on modern sculpture and painting. Luckily for us, Ocean View isn't finished yet, with more books in the Documents of Colorado Art collection being added to the list all the time.

Best Annual Transformation

Lannie Garrett into Pasty DeCline

You know the cows are coming home when normally sleek and sultry local entertainer Lannie Garrett pulls on her cowgirl outfit and emerges as Patsy DeCline, a country singer who's never going to make it to the Grand Ole Opry. On Friday and Saturday nights through May 5, the popular sendup of country music transforms the Denver Buffalo Company into the ReCliner Lounge. You'd be crazy to miss it.

Best Outdoor Art Show

Joel Shapiro

In an unprecedented collaboration between the Denver Art Museum and the Denver Performing Arts Complex, the outdoor exhibit Joel Shapiro was presented on DPAC's lawn on Speer Boulevard; an additional piece has been placed in front of the DAM. The traveling show, which was put together by New York curator Martin Friedman, includes classic Shapiros in welded steel and aluminum dating from the 1980s to the present. Many are signature pieces that reconcile figural abstraction with minimalism by using clusters of steel beams to suggest the human figure. The exhibit will remain in place through May.

Best One-Man Band

Trace Christensen

Rather than let a shrinking market for live music and shriveling pay end his career, Trace Christensen rolled with the changes. He's now replaced bandmates with his own pre-recorded tracks, taking his one-man karaoke company into area clubs. As one musician playing the parts of four or five headbangers, Christensen's oddball act is a gas to witness, one that rocks like no other solo effort in town.

Best Installation Show

Chuck Parson
Vertical Garden

Vertical Garden was the best of three solo exhibits mounted this past winter that showcased the most recent work of Lakewood sculptor Chuck Parson. An apparent workaholic, Parson created two complete environments for this show along with a group of related sculptures, all of which attempted to put a human face on our technological society. The tour de force was "Vertical Moment," a ceremonial space surrounded by a metaphorical fence and equipped with an acoustic baffle and amplifier, allowing viewers to hear their own footfalls on the walkway that leads into the piece. Parson is one of the state's most sophisticated artists, and this exhibit was one of the best last season.

Best Career Upgrade by a Former Local

Clark ov Saturn

Clark ov Saturn was a multifaceted contributor to Denver's scene before his 1999 move to New York City. His local-access cable show -- one teaching German, no less -- never seemed to get in the way of his ambient DJ gigs or the touring schedule of his techno/industrial unit, ph-10. Now ensconced as a DJ in Brooklyn coffee shop/vintage store Halcyon (its global prestige goes far beyond the dark roast), Clark has found time to expand his portfolio. Which explains why the Clarkster was found strolling through Manhattan, coffee in hand, in the guise of a dot-com superstar in one of Visa's Christmas commercials. Go, Clark.

Best Drawing Show

Robert Motherwell: Early Drawings

The Robischon Gallery usually offers museum-quality shows, but few have matched Robert Motherwell: Early Drawings, which came down in early March. The late modern master was represented by some of his signature action paintings on paper as well as several examples of his later, and equally fine, color-field pieces. Many of the drawings, though quite small, had all the power and majesty of his larger and better-known works, such as those that are occasionally exhibited at the Denver Art Museum.

Best Hire by a Museum

Cydney Payton

It's been a rocky start for the still-fledgling Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver: During the last few years, the museum has had two permanent directors and an interim one. Now a third permanent director has been hired: Cydney Payton, who rescued Boulder's Museum of Contemporary Art from obscurity during her glorious eight-year reign as its director. There's no doubt that Payton will have MoCAD -- which she plans to redub "MCA Denver" soon -- up and running again in no time.

Best Kiddie Recording

Permanent Teeth
Natural Selection

Denver-based songwriter Mark Ledwig first penned Permanent Teeth as a classroom tool: An elementary-school teacher in Los Angeles, he knew his catchy numbers might help bilingual students comprehend such things as punctuation, the alphabet, multiplication and environmentalism. But after hauling some of his professional musician friends into the studio and recording under the name Natural Selection, Ledwig wound up with a recording that should appeal to fans of the Fab Four almost as much as the second-grade set. The CD is currently available exclusively through the Masterworks Music Services Web site, at mwms.net, but it's definitely worth checking out from a music standpoint. As for the lyrics, who couldn't use a little refresher in the basics?

Best Theater Production (since June 2000)

The Kentucky Cycle

The time commitment required to see all of The Kentucky Cycle didn't deter area theatergoers from sampling Robert Schenkkan's nine-play, six-hour epic. Even though the evening could have easily degenerated into a Roots-length version of the old Daniel Boone television series, director Jeremy Cole staged the saga with economy, passion and clarity. And the splendid ensemble of actors triumphed where it mattered most, uncovering each play's unique flavor, each character's particular humanity and each time period's overriding sweep. Mostly, though, the effort amounted to a monumental achievement for the Hunger Artists ensemble.

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