Cowboy, Charlie Russell, Denver Walls and More Art This Weekend

While Cowboy bucks tradition at MCA Denver, the Denver Art Museum has rustled up some Russells. Meanwhile, the Corn Mothers are exiting History Colorado Center while Denver Walls celebrates the end of its inaugural event in RiNo.

And there’s still more to see! Here’s the lineup:

Cowboy
MCA Denver, 1485 Delgany Street
September 29 through February 18
Opening Celebration: Friday, September 29, 6 p.m. VIP, 7:30 p.m. general admission
Admission: $29 to $59 here
The heroic myth of the cowboy has been active since before the turn of the last century, courtesy of dime novels and early Hollywood oaters. But with the new exhibition Cowboy (and its gorgeous Rizzoli catalogue), MCA Denver’s director, Nora Burnett Abrams, and senior curator, Miranda Lash, have fashioned a truer, more inclusive story of the West, using modern art as a marker. Gathering the voices of Black cowboys, Hispanic vaqueros, Native Americans, Asians and the queer community, they’ve pieced together a show to remember, blending images from national and key — if not the ones you might expect — local artists. Cowboy promises to grab hold of the imagination with as much, if not more, power as the mythical stories once did, while bringing the concept of social justice squarely into the spotlight. MCA recommends dressing Western, whether pro-mythical or representing your own personal truth, to the opening.

Mary Williams and Elissa Quist, Abstract Geometry
Women’s Caucus for Art, Colorado Chapter: Atmosphere in the East Gallery
D’art Gallery, 900 Santa Fe Drive
September 28 through October 22
Opening Reception: Friday, September 29, 6 p.m.
Mary Williams and Elissa Quist, who share an affinity for abstract expressionism, tag-team at D’art for Abstract Geometry, a tight exhibition lit up with freewheeling paintings in lush colors by both; Williams’s carved wooden sculptures are also on view. In the East Gallery, members of the Women’s Caucus for Art Colorado Chapter host a national group show juried by artist Robin Hextrum, who chose from a myriad of works on the theme of Atmosphere.

Return of the Corn Mothers Closing Reception / Hilos Culturales Book Launch
History Colorado Center, 1200 Broadway
Friday, September 29, 5 to 9 p.m
Free, RSVP required (email jake.jensen@state.co.us)
History Colorado bids farewell to Return of the Corn Mothers, an exhibition for a continuing project honoring a growing group of multicultural and multigenerational Southwestern women who’ve contributed to their communities by upholding traditions through words, art and actions. As the show’s closing celebration honors this most recent group of Corn Mothers one last time, History Colorado will also host a book launch for Hilos Culturales, a pictorial book by Patricial B. Martinez, Herman A. Martinez and Enrique R. Lamadrid, honoring musicians, dancers and other safekeepers of the traditional arts of the Indio-Hispano communities in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. Learn more and order copies of Hilos Culturales here.

VantagePoint Radio Street Artist Group Show
Ryan Joseph Gallery, 2647 West 38th Avenue
Friday, September 29, 6 p.m. to midnight
Urban artist James Bullough and digital media producer Tom Auto64, the voices behind VantagePoint, a Berlin-based monthly podcast featuring artists from the world graffiti/mural scene, curated this international group show that lands at Ryan Joseph Gallery during Denver Walls, and will appear in person at the opening. And who will be on the walls? Find the list and RSVP on Instagram.

Spooky Show
Balefire Goods, 7513 Grandview Avenue, Arvada
Friday, September 29, 5 to 7 p.m.
RSVP at Eventbrite
Metalsmith Jaime Hollier, who loves Halloween, is stocking Balefire Goods with scary wares for the Spooky Show, a seasonal deep dive into the dark side, with handmade art, jewelry and curiosities by a dozen-plus local artists. Costumes are quite acceptable at the opening.

The Mix #1: Jennifer Ghormley, Pat Lickly, Paula R. Schmitt and Mark Stokesbury
Niza Knoll Gallery, 915 Santa Fe Drive
September 29 through November 4
First Friday Reception: Friday, October 6, 5 to 9 p.m.
Artist Reception: Friday, October 20, 4 to 8 p.m.
It’s that time of year when members of the Mix, a local art co-op that lives in the back room at Niza Knoll Gallery, take over the front of the art space. The Mix #1, the first of two shows each representing works by four artists, includes printmaker Jennifer Ghormley, mixed-media artist Pat Lickly, ceramic artist Paula Romero-Schmitt and Mark Stokesbury, who makes whimsical mixed-media fabric paintings of animals. If you like what you see, come back beginning November 10 for The Mix #2, with artists Nancy Enyart, Mark Friday, Victoria Eubanks and Aliki McCain.

Denver Walls Street Fair
2900 Block Larimer Street
Saturday, September 30, noon to 5 p.m.
Denver’s new mural festival wraps things up with a public celebration on the street where all the new wall art is drying, giving the RiNo neighborhood a new look. The Denver Walls finale will also have an open-air art market, live music and food and drink, as well as a perfect opportunity to scope out fresh murals.

WORDS / BODY / SOUND / IMAGE
Common Name Farm, 9849 Isabelle Road, Lafayette
Saturday, September 30, 8 p.m.
Eight diverse artists — Sarah Boyer, Phil Cordelli, Stella Corso, Ian Hatcher, Johnny Lake, Raquel Meyers, Nosine, Laura Shill and Phillip Stearns — will pair up for a variety of collaborative performances adhering to one or more of the concepts in the event’s title. To add to the experience, the experimental mélange will be on display in a relaxed and lovely environment at Common Name Farm, an organic vegetable grower near Lafayette in Boulder County, where refreshments will be offered (or bring your own). Spread the word, and it might happen again.

Party People!: Part II
Black Book Gallery, 3878 South Jason Street, Englewood
Saturday, September 30, 7 to 9 p.m.
Black Book offers a one-night-only pop- and urban-art followup to last October’s Party People! ceramics show. These clay creations by Brett Kern, Katie Kimmel, Tim Kowalczyk, Lorien Stern, Benjamin Cabral, Jonah Strub, Mitchell Spain, Jeremy Hatch, India Jacobs and others are highly collectible and will turn your mantle into a wild figurine party overnight. Anything left over from the show will be published on the gallery website on October 2; sign up for Black Book’s newsletter to be notified as soon as the show of artworks for sale goes live.

The Russells in Denver, 1921
Denver Art Museum, 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway
Sunday, October 1, through June 30
While MCA Denver debuts a show that turns the mythical notion of the American cowboy on its head, the Denver Art Museum pays tribute to Charles M. Russell, who called the West he depicted in paintings and sculpture “the West that has passed.” Eighteen paintings, many of them canvases shown in 1921 as part of a Russell exhibition at the Brown Palace Hotel, make up The Russells in Denver, 1921, on display in the Martin Building’s seventh-floor Western American Art galleries through next June.

Carlos Santistevan, El Grito de Aztlán
Dayton Library Fireside Gallery, Regis University, 3333 Regis Boulevard
Sunday, October 1, through October 31
Artist Reception: Thursday, October 19, 4 to 6 p.m.
Gifted Denver-based santero Carlos Santistevan is not only an award-winning artist and carver, but also a keeper of centuries-old traditions practiced in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. His activism in the late ’60s led to Denver’s first Chicano art gallery, El Grito de Aztlan, which shared space with Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales’s Crusade for Justice. Santistevan’s latest show, at Regis University’s Dayton Library, also called El Grito de Aztlán, is a nod to the mestizo identity adopted by the La Raza movement, pointing to a community united by common roots.

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