Art Attack: Twelve New Art Shows and Events in Denver

It’s a busy weekend for Front Range galleries, fueled by social justice dialogues, pandemic fallout, Valentine’s Day, the Lunar New Year and other themes — or plain old good art, which is why these spaces exist in the first place.

Trudy Chiddix: Flaming Fingers
Plinth Gallery, 3520 Brighton Boulevard
Through March 27
Plinth Gallery hosts a beautiful show of new work by ceramic artist Trudy Chiddix, who embellishes her folk-art-inspired hand series with metal flames and words of encouragement to pandemic first responders and hospital workers. Alongside the hands, Chiddix adds elaborately decorated vases in kimono forms with added fused-glass elements, as well as whirl-winding figures, standing disks and lamp-like works lit from within.

Parad’ox: Chinese New Year Invitational
Valkarie Gallery, 445 South Saulsbury Street, Belmar, Lakewood
Through March 7
Opening Reception: February 12, 5 to 9:30 p.m.; RSVP in advance at Eventbrite for timed-entry slot
Valkarie’s annual Chinese New Year exhibition is back, this year celebrating the Ox — a sign of the Chinese zodiac known for reliability, persistence and honesty — with renditions in a wide variety of styles and mediums, from paint and mixed media to scratchboard and hand-stitched leather. Each artwork is eight inches square, and available to view and buy both in person and through an online store at Valkarie’s website.

From This Day Forward
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, 1750 13th Street, Boulder
February 11 through May 31
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 11, 4 to 8 p.m.
Denver artist Tya Alisa Anthony, who herself works in a mixed-media mashup of photography, collage and sculpture, was tapped by BMoCA to curate From This Day Forward, an exhibition of artists working at the intersection of the Black Lives Matter discussion and the collective effects of living through a pandemic. The show, a varied body of work designed to get viewers thinking and talking, also brings forward underappreciated Colorado artists (and artists with ties to Colorado). It’s an exhibition for the times that you won’t want to miss.

Gabrielle Shannon and Jean Smith, From the Earth
Virginia Wood and Darlene Kuhne, Shared Spaces, in Gallery East
D’art Gallery, 900 Santa Fe Drive
February 11 through March 7
Valentine Celebration: Friday, February 12, noon to 7 p.m., and Saturday, February 13, noon to 5 p.m.
D’art member artists Gabrielle Shannon and Jean Smith share the Main Gallery with a complementary exhibition of abstract paintings inspired by nature, and wall arrangements and columns of clay shapes reminiscent of stone cairns. Shared Spaces, in the East Gallery, doubles as a benefit for the Virginia Wood Fund for Artists in Need and Darlene Kuhne Charity.

Amy Hoagland and Jenny Cole, Scope of the Natural, Main Gallery
Shelby McAuliffe and Molly Ott, Indoor Emergencies, South Gallery
Firehouse Art Center, 667 4th Avenue, Longmont
Second Friday Exhibit Opening: Friday, February 12, 6 to 9 p.m.; RSVP online in advance for timed-entry slot at Eventbrite
Longmont’s Firehouse lets you attend this month’s Second Friday reception just the way you like it: in person, by timed entry, or virtually, with a live-streaming gallery tour and artist visit you can enjoy from home — a useful opportunity, considering this weekend’s cold weather, not to mention COVID. Either way, you’ll want to see the site-specific art installation devised during the NEST winter residency by CU Boulder grad students Amy Hoagland and Jenny Cole, who melded art and science in an artificial natural environment. In the South Gallery, CU MFA candidates Shelby McAuliffe and Molly Ott address new routines developed under quarantine in the last year with a three-part video presentation.

Justin Beard Member Show
Hart Krypilo, Strong Female Lead
Pirate Contemporary Art, 7130 West 16th Avenue, Lakewood
February 12 through February 28
DIY forager and outdoor guy Justin Beard, who’s mum on what he’s creating for his member slot at Pirate, and Hart Krypilo, who’s not, open shows on Friday that last through the end of the month. In Strong Female Lead, goth-connected Krypilo will present cut-tin sculptures paying homage to the female protagonists of sci-fi and horror stories. All in all, you can’t go wrong.

Gayla Lemke, Wynne Reynolds, Stephen Shugart and Faith Williams, Lighting Our Way: A Collaboration in Illumination
Edge Gallery, Art Hub, 6851 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
February 12 through February 28
Four Edge members — Gayla Lemke, Wynne Reynolds, Stephen Shugart and Faith Williams — put their heads and chosen art mediums together for a four-way sculptural installation dealing with the convergence of light and art, for a show one might enjoy viewing in the dark.

Love…or Something Like It
Core New Art Space, Art Hub, 6851 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
February 12 through February 28
Artist reception: Friday, February 12, 6 to 9 p.m.
Core mounts one of two Valentine-inspired shows opening this weekend at the Art Hub in Lakewood, with a hearty display juried by Denver art maven and event promoter Dana Cain, who says she was “literally crying a little” about having to narrow 216 entries down to the sixty pieces you’ll see in the gallery. The things we do in the name of love.

Dark Heart 2021
Kanon Collective, Art Hub, 6851 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
February 12 through February 27
Opening reception: Friday, February 12, 6 to 9 p.m.
Also at the Art Hub, Kanon’s Valentine’s Day entry covers the darker — and funnier — side of love with a varied show juried by Denver power couple and horror-flick fans Merhia Weise and Andrew Novick.

Show Number One
Bleue Tile Gallery, 3940 South Broadway, Englewood
Through February 26
Red Mask Soirée/Opening: Friday, February 12, 5 to 9 p.m.
To visit the gallery, RSVP online in advance for a timed-entry slot
Bleue Tile Gallery in Englewood, the studio space of artists Helene Strebel and Courtney Cotton, announces its debut with Show Number One, presenting an eclectic group show including work by some local luminaries and national artists. This weekend’s opening won’t just be reception; Bleue Tile is instead throwing a Red Mask Soirée, and we suppose that means your COVID face gear ought to be red.

Unarmed Artist Panel
Saturday, February 13, 2 to 3:30 p.m., via Zoom
Register online in advance for Zoom link
In conjunction with Raafi Rivero’s Unarmed, currently turning heads and starting conversations at Leon with its social justice themes and sports jerseys memorializing Black victims of police violence, a panel moderated by Donna Bryson with artists Rivero, Tya Alisa Anthony, Narkita Gold and Edgar L. Page will shed more light on the discussion that starts in the gallery. It’s free, but you’ll need to register in advance. Before or after, see the exhibition for yourself through February 27.

Brian Rattiner, Hummingbird
Christine Nguyen, Lightness Within the Cosmic Universe
David B. Smith Gallery, 1543A Wazee Street
February 13 through March 12
Brian Rattiner brings liquid-looking abstracts in rainbow colors to David B. Smith’s main gallery from his Brooklyn studio, while Christine Nguyen helps celebrate Month of Photography 2021 with mixed-media cyanotypes and photo-based paintings in the project room.

Interested in having your event appear in this calendar? Send the details to editorial@westword.com.