The Colorado Rockies — the mountains, not the baseball team — have attracted painters for more than a hundred years. But it’s the period between 1900 and 1950, without question, that is the most significant for Colorado landscape painting, with scores of accomplished artists working here at that time. It’s…
The truly wonderful summer show at the Robischon Gallery (1740 Wazee Street, 303-298-7788), Divining: Art and Water in the West, provides Denver gallery-goers with some badly needed psychological refreshment on these hot, dry days. It’s water, water everywhere — at least by implication, because there’s not a real drop in…
The drought of the past few years has been on nearly everyone’s mind, making water a timely topic around here for politicians, gardeners and even artists. In doris laughton: theSplatphenomenon2003, multimedia artist Doris Laughton takes the shape of a drop of water hitting a hard surface — the ‘splat’ referred…
The Cordell Taylor Gallery (2350 Lawrence Street, 303-296-0927) was originally situated in Salt Lake City; it moved to Denver in 2001. The gallery maintains a Salt Lake connection, though, and from time to time pairs artists from the two cities. That’s exactly what’s happening now with sight unseen, an exhibit…
For the past ten years or so, the Denver Art Museum has presented one important exhibit after another, focusing on art from the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first ones of the twentieth. As a result, Denver audiences have enjoyed numerous explorations of such relevant topics as…
The exhibit ReconFIGURED: Persons and Personas of the Permanent Collection, on display at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (30 West Dale Street, Colorado Springs, 1-719-634-5581), includes an eclectic assortment of pieces that range widely in style and date. One standout among this mixed bag is the institution’s famous John…
On the morning of Thursday, June 12, Mayor Wellington Webb and First Lady Wilma Webb, among a host of political and art world luminaries, dedicated the most expensive sculpture ever erected in Denver, “The Dancers,” by international art star Jonathan Borofsky. The public was invited to the event, and I…
The commercial strip that lines Tennyson Street in northwest Denver has changed a lot over the last few years. Whereas once it was a collection of thrift shops and laundromats, it is now home to loft buildings, coffee shops and specialty stores. In the last category are Metro Frame Works…
The Center for the Visual Arts in LoDo is currently hosting a large and important show. Tamarind: Forty Years documents some of the many accomplishments achieved over the decades by the legendary New Mexico-based printmaker. The title is somewhat misleading, since Tamarind was founded in 1960, making 2003 the 43rd…
It’s unusual for a juried show to have a coherent theme, because there’s no controlling what artists will submit. Yet Interior Spaces, a sculpture show in the North Gallery of the Lakewood Cultural Center (470 South Allison Parkway, Lakewood, 303-987-7844), was juried and is coherent. So how did artist-jurors Patricia…
One of the most hotly discussed contemporary shows of the year is the 2003 Colorado Biennial: 10 + 10, at Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art. The controversial show is undeniably important, which is not unexpected. After all, it’s the state’s official biennial and the lone summer attraction at Denver’s official…
Many of the city’s most prominent women artists are brought together in the Ladyfest Out West Art Exhibition at Andenken Gallery (2110 Market Street, 303-292-3281). The show is the art component of the larger Ladyfest Out West, an event that includes concerts by acts with names like Vox Feminista and…
Surely one of the most appealing art-world attractions in Denver this spring is JUDY PFAFF: New Work, at Denver’s prestigious Robischon Gallery. It’s the kind of thing that’s unexpected in the off-season, but there’s a reason Denver audiences are being treated to such a big deal at this time of…
In the intimate and inviting Viewing Room in the back of the Robischon Gallery (1740 Wazee Street, 303-298-7788) is a wonderful show, Trine Bumiller: new paintings. The elegant Bumillers provide the perfect visual chaser to Judy Pfaff, which is on display up front (see review). True, the space in the…
For a while back in the ’80s and early ’90s, it looked like formalism — essentially non-objective abstraction — was on the ropes. Then about five years ago, it rose, Phoenix-like, from the ashes of neo-expressionism, on the one hand, and annoyingly personal conceptualism on the other, re-establishing itself as…
Surplus, at Studio Aiello (3563 Walnut Street, 303-297-8166), is the big-tent title connecting three unrelated solos — but just for good measure, each also has its own title. The show starts with Clare Cornell’s Dress Formal, which combines photo-based pieces and sculptures. The sculptures from Cornell’s “Lingual Discharge” series are…
Surely among the mega-art trends of the early 21st century is art based on popular culture — which makes quite a bit of sense, because it was also a mega-trend of the late twentieth. It seems that everywhere, there are shows highlighting the different approaches being embraced by artists who…
There’s a remarkable show, Shock/Awe, currently in the back room at the Spark Gallery, 1535 Platte Street, 303-455-4435. This sophisticated exhibit features photos of television coverage of the Iraq war taken by Annalee Schorr, who’s renowned for this kind of work. Though Schorr is serious in her negative appraisal of…
It’s hard to believe, especially considering the budget shortfalls the city is facing, that the Webb administration just committed $3 million to demolish Skyline Park and replace it with…another park! What makes this situation so incredible is it’s happening at the same time that city-employee furloughs and layoffs are being…
In the front room at Pirate: A Contemporary Art Oasis (3659 Navajo Street, 303-458-6058), Shovels, Brooms, Ladders And Rakes… features found-object installations created — or would that be assembled? — by Phil Bender. The literal personification of Denver’s alternative scene, Bender was one of Pirate’s founders, way back in the…
The signs of spring are everywhere: Flowers are blooming; the leaves are coming out on the trees, and the 2002-2003 art season is officially over. That means we now find ourselves plunged neck deep into the off-season. But don’t be misled by that designation; worthwhile exhibits will continue all the…
It was just last month, for the first time since it was founded in 1996, that the Vance Kirkland Museum formally opened its doors to the public. True, the hours are quite limited (Wednesday through Friday, from 1 to 5 p.m.), but it’s still a big improvement over the previous…
