Edge members put on a good-looking show

Among the city’s cooperative venues, Edge Gallery (3658 Navajo Street, 303-477-7173, www.edgeart.org) is almost always interesting. Because the membership is diverse and quite accomplished, shows here are often surprising and always worth viewing.

A friend had contacted me about In the Manner of Pollock, a solo made up of recent paintings by Susan Berkley. Pollock, of course, is Jackson Pollock, irreverently known as “Jack the Dripper,” and Berkley has created a body of drip paintings that are, as the title says, in the manner of Pollock. In a way, Pollock ruined the technique for others because he did it so well. But Berkley has a good sense of color and did well, too.

The other exhibit is mara/thalassa/kai: The Sea, for which Edge member and well-known Denver artist Rian Kerrane invited two out-of-town friends, Melissa Borman and Anastasia Pelias, to join her. Each artist did one piece for the show, which is dedicated to water. Borman created a shelf on which photos of the sea near Hawaii are placed in fancy, old-looking frames, while Pelias made a video of the sea off the coast of Greece. But Kerrane’s installation (pictured) is the strongest by far. Kerrane has created an installation that, at first sight, looks like a facsimile of a stone-strewn beach, complete with a beach chair. On closer examination, however, the “stones” are cast heads made of concrete, and the beach chair is a non-functional if well-crafted metal sculpture.

In order to give each of the three artists their own discrete space, the room has been cut into three areas using temporary walls — and the result struck me as a little cramped. But that’s a minor complaint in an otherwise smart-looking effort.

The current round of shows at Edge closes on April 18.