The last few months have been pretty tough for the Center for Visual Art, the LoDo mini-museum operated by Metropolitan State College of Denver. In a shocking move this past spring, the school’s Republican-dominated board of trustees cut the center’s funding in half (“New Directions,” May 5). No surprise there:…
There’s a funky new art spot in town that has the ridiculous name of Rhinoceropolis (3553 Brighton Boulevard, no phone). The venue recently opened in the old Wheelbarrow space, another funky art spot with a ridiculous name that closed some time ago. Like its predecessor, Rhinoceropolis is held together with…
The second quarter of the twentieth century can be described as a golden age for Colorado art. Right after World War I, the Broadmoor Academy opened in Colorado Springs, developing a reputation as a nationally significant art school. But this was not the first aesthetic outpost in the Colorado wilderness;…
As I wandered through the Bethany Kriegsman solo, aptly named Treasure Island, at the William Havu Gallery (1040 Cherokee Street, 303-893-2360), it occurred to me that the Golden-based artist just might be the most overlooked first-rate artist in the region. As evidence of this, despite the fact that her show…
In 2001, Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art launched what became the first in a series of biennial exhibits. It was such a good idea, it’s a wonder the Denver Art Museum didn’t think of it first. Having a regular exhibition devoted to local art is compelling because it’s about living…
Though most of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (30 West Dale Street, Colorado Springs, 1-719-634-5581) is taken over by the mammoth Dale Chihuly retrospective, there is another attraction installed in the side gallery just west of the lobby. ATHLETE/WARRIOR is made up of elegant, beautifully printed black-and-white photos of…
You can’t miss one of downtown’s newest public sculptures: It’s blue, it’s gigantic and it’s a bear. “I See What You Mean,” created by well-known Denver artist Lawrence Argent, is part of the multi-million-dollar art program associated with the expansion of the Colorado Convention Center. The enormous sculpture was installed…
Whether he likes it or not, Lawrence Argent is going to be associated with the color blue because that’s the color of his gigantic bear, which was only recently installed downtown at the Colorado Convention Center (see review,). Another Denver artist who’s known for his taste for blue is Bryan…
Colorado has a strong tradition of producing ceramics. During the early decades of the twentieth century, this was due in large part to the abundance of natural clay. But there’s no simple explanation for why the post-World War II era was such a golden age here, and why so many…
Typically, the show in the main room at Pirate: a Contemporary Art Oasis (3659 Navajo Street, 303-458-6058) has nothing to do with the one in the associates’ space. That’s not the case this time, though. Pirate member Marie E.v.B. Gibbons is a friend of Pirate associate Jimmy Sellars, so the…
Since taking over as president of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center a couple of years ago, Michael De Marsche has made many changes — some for the better, some for the worse. But one call no one can argue with is his decision to bring in Chihuly, a massive…
A couple of months ago, Cherry Creek North’s Pismo Gallery (2770 East Second Avenue, 303-333-2879) moved from its familiar spot on Fillmore Street, where it had been for a decade, to a gigantic and handsomely finished showroom next to Hapa Sushi. Relocation, always a risky prospect for a small business,…
Although its roots go back almost a century, to the World War I-era work of Marcel Duchamp, only in the past thirty or so years has conceptual art become a common approach. Today the Denver area has many proponents of conceptualism; key among them is John McEnroe, currently the subject…
There are so many talented representational painters in the area, it’s a wonder that no curator of some local museum or art center has thought to put a group of them together in a show. The next best thing might be a duet, which is essentially what’s shoehorned into the…
I think it’s easy to comprehend why artists have been so taken with the ethos of abstract expressionism. As the late philosopher king Andy Warhol once noted, it’s easier to be sloppy than it is to be neat. Well, that explains abstract expressionism’s appeal to painters, but not why it’s…
The other day, Jim Peterson, who runs DEN Gallery (757 1/2 Santa Fe Drive, 303-507-6100), called to me from across the street. Ordinarily, this would annoy me. But if he hadn’t, I wouldn’t have known that DEN was open, because the chief access to it is through Space Gallery, which…
Entering the first of the galleries off the main entrance of Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art, viewers are surrounded by white-on-white color-field paintings by German-born Udo Nger, one of three artists in WHITE OUT: Lighting Into Beauty. As I looked around at the dazzling lack of color, it occurred to…
Rule Gallery (111 Broadway, 303-777-9473) is currently putting on a pair of back-to-back solos, both of which are made up of sophisticated abstract paintings. In the front is Udo Nger: Light as a Material; in the back is Maggie Michael: (T)rain. The Nöger paintings are more modest examples of what…
The objects on display are only the most visible aspects of exhibitions. There are other key components that, though less prominent, are equally essential. The most important of these is the idea underlying the display. Without an idea — even a bad or misguided one — there is no show…
Every year at this time, LoDo’s David Cook Fine Art (1637 Wazee Street, 303-623-8181) presents a group show that’s filled with museum-quality pieces by a who’s who of Western artists working during the last part of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth. This is an important…
Depictions of the figure are getting hot in the art world again; I haven’t seen this much interest in the topic since the 1980s. Falling in line with this international trend, the Robischon Gallery is presenting Stefan Kleinschuster, a mega-sized show that provocatively fills several of the spaces up front…
There’s an interesting sculpture show now at Pirate: a contemporary art oasis (3659 Navajo Street, 303-458-6058) called Sanctuaries. The abstract wall and floor works by Craig Robb are made of steel, wood and plastic. Some include recognizable things, such as tiny chairs and houses, but the best ones are completely…
