May 2012 Website Update

Published on May 17, 2012

May 2012 Website Update

If you are a regular reader of DenverArts.org online, you might have noticed a variety of changes (and some significant outages) over the last 3 weeks. Due to upgrades at the DenverArts.org web host, the site was moved to a new server which caused a variety of problems and created the need to totally migrate the site to a new version of software.

While there was some short term pain, the upside is improved mapping software to highlight gallery locations (with the final migration of the mapping data over the next week or so), an update to the newsletter look and functionality and a few other nice behind the scenes tools.

One of the unfortunate downsides has been the loss of most all of 5 years worth of Google indexed "Search Engine Friendly" URLs. If you have linked to an article on DenverArts.org or find something via web search in the short term, most likely that link has changed and will generate a "File Not Found" error. Please use the website search feature to find the article, note the new link and update your website or blog with the new information.

Another unfortunate side effect has been a variety of formatting problems with the site due to changes in the site template. Please be patient as things get sorted out over the next few weeks.

As always, thanks for your continued support!

 

Victoria H. Myhren: BFA Exhibition 2012

Published on May 17, 2012

BFA Exhibition 2012

Victoria H. Myhren Gallery at the University of Denver

May 17 - June 8, 2012

• Featuring: Sarah Begnoche, Zoe Brown, Hannah Chaussee, Wangui Maina, Grace West and Faith Williams
• Opening Reception: Thursday, May 17, 5:00 - 8:00 PM; Special 4:30 preview for DU Art! Members

The BFA Exhibition 2012 features the work of graduating seniors in the BFA programs in the School of Art and Art History at the University of Denver. Join us for the Opening Reception on Thursday, May 17 from 5:00 - 8:00 PM. The BFA exhibition runs through June 8.

Victoria H. Myhren Gallery
Shwayder Art Building
University of Denver School of Art & Art History
2121 East Asbury Avenue
Denver, CO 80210
303.871.2846
http://www.du.edu/art/myhrengallery.html

Sandra Phillips: Mel Strawn: Abstract Merge

Published on May 16, 2012

Mel Strawn: Abstract Merge

Sandra Phillips Gallery

May 12 - June 30, 2012

• Opening reception: Friday May 18, 5 – 8 pm

(from the press release)

Professor Emeritus and past Director of the School of Art at the University of Denver, Mel Strawn holds an MFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts including work with Richard Diebenkorn and Sabro Hasegawa, one of the first "abstract" Japanese artists. With a fifty plus year career in painting, drawing, printmaking, and digital imagery, Strawn is a popular icon in Colorado's art history with his evolving artistic process. He has been a leader in the acceptance of digital imagery as fine art.

Bold, vibrant and confident, the dramatic pattern paintings of Mel Strawn are grounded in line, plane, form and color with stunning visual impact. The oil paintings “Negentrophy” and “Series Last”, were part of a 14 year investigation and invention of complex shape structure compositions using only four shapes. Abstract art is indeed alive and well in the ingenious hands of artist Mel Strawn.

The Sandra Phillips Gallery
744 Santa Fe Drive
Denver, CO 80204
303.573.5969
Tue - Sat: 12:30 - 5:00 PM
http://www.thesandraphillipsgallery.com

 

Robischon: Material Abstraction

Published on May 16, 2012

Material Abstraction

Robischon Gallery

May 17 - June 30, 2012

• Opening Reception, Thursday, May 17 from 6 – 8 pm
• Featuring: Linda Fleming, Lisa Stefanelli, Katy Stone, Reed Danziger, Jamie Brunson, John McEnroe, Ted Larsen, Derrick Velasquez, Tyler Beard and Terry Maker

(from the press release)

Robischon Gallery presents a group exhibition of select artists dedicated to the structural and textural properties of their chosen materials to build and compose unique forms within dimensional abstraction. Distinctive in their approach and use of medium – from employing industrial paint applications to recycled car parts – or utilizing bookbinding vinyl or Duralar, the artists visually unite in form via impactful color in tandem with activated light and shadow.

Robischon Gallery
1740 Wazee Street
Denver, CO 80202
303.298.7788
Tue-Sat: 11:00-6:00
http://www.robischongallery.com

 

Vertigo: Ted Vogel: Recent Work

Published on May 16, 2012

Ted Vogel: Recent Work

Vertigo Art Space

May 17 - June 30, 2012

• Artist Reception: Friday June 15 from 6 - 9pm

(from the press release)

Ted Vogel has always been a collector of objects, and a maker of spare parts. In his work these “parts” are made of clay, kiln cast glass, digital images and other mixed media elements. His interest in working with clay, glass, cast iron, the photographic image and other materials is in what each material gives to the work: light, color, transparency, depth, strength, weight, illusion, fragility, etc. The ceramic elements are formed and fired using a variety of techniques and finished in a range of surfaces and colors that embrace his ideas of symbolism and metaphor.

Reflecting the traditions of ceramic and glass figurines and the kitsch ceramics of the 1930s,‘40s & ‘50s, Vogel’s work explores ideas of story telling and allegory and references our inseparable relationship to the natural world, the body, humanness and our complex and precarious interactions with humankind. These stories are derived from sources of mythology of our vast history and family tales that are passed down from generation to generation, and from the so-called “true stories” of our time, often created by public myth. 

Vertigo Art Space
960 Santa Fe Dr
Denver, CO 80204
303.573.VERT (8378)
http://www.vertigoartspace.com

 

David Cook: 12th Annual Colorado & the West

Published on May 16, 2012

12th Annual Colorado & the West

David Cook Fine Art

May 18 - August 4, 2012

Ethel Magafan (1916-1993) - Evening - 1946

(from the press release)

David Cook Fine Art presents our 12th annual show, Colorado & the West. An exhibition and sale with over one hundred paintings, watercolors and prints by distinguished artists of the West from the late 19th through the mid 20th century.

As always, the show will focus on Colorado’s rich artistic history. This year, the exhibition will focus on historic women artists. Most emphasized are female artists who worked in Colorado and New Mexico. However, there will be fine examples from a number of other women artists working in states west of the Mississippi prior to 1960.

In addition to paintings and works on paper, the show will also feature a number of works in varying mediums by Native American women of the Southwestern United States. The works, which date from the 1860s, illustrate the invaluable role women played as autonomous designers and artisans. The majority of antique Native American art was made and designed exclusively by women, and the exhibition will describe the techniques and creative processes of these objects in a way that increases a visitor’s appreciation not only of their value as fine art but as part of a genre dominated by female artists.

In conjunction with the Metropolitan State College Center for Visual Art’s upcoming exhibit, Taos Contemporary, we will be highlighting the work of notable historic female artists who lived and worked in Taos including exceptional paintings by Dorothy Brett, Barbara Latham and more.

David Cook Fine Art
1637 Wazee Street
Denver, CO 80202
303.623.8181
Mon-Sat: 10:30am-6:00pm
http://www.davidcookfineart.com

 

Access: Matt Sesow: “Trickle Down”

Published on May 16, 2012

Matt Sesow: “Trickle Down”

Access Gallery

May 17 - June 9, 2012

 

• Showing in the Studio Gallery: “Excessive Force” by Javier Flores
• Artist Reception: Friday May 18 from 6-9 pm

 

(from the press release)

The trajectory of Matt Sesow’s life is mirrored in his art. While it is not always pretty, it never fails to garner attention. As a young child, his left arm was amputated after a traumatic accident. Eleven years later, he began to share his paintings with the world and hasn’t stopped since. Access Gallery at 909 Santa Fe Drive is proud to present this internationally known artist in a one-person show entitled “Trickle Down”. The show has a very limited run of May 18 through June 9, 2012 and Matt will be in attendance at the gallery for only 3 days. Community members are encouraged to take advantage of this rare opportunity to meet the artist and participate in the following special events:

• Listen to an interview with Matt on the Untitled Art Show Podcast: Wed. May 16, 8 pm at www.untitledartshow.com
• View Matt painting live in the studio: Thursday, May 17 & Friday, May 18 10 am-2 pm
• Meet Matt at the Artist Reception: May 18 from 6-9 pm
• Participate with Matt in Community Art Day: Saturday May 19, 12-3 pm (Free! Just drop in to join in an art project)
• First Friday reception: Friday June 1, 6-9 pm (artist will not be in attendance)

Matt’s work includes symbolically rich compositions with raw, almost tribal sensibility and rapid, muscular techniques. Dense with detail and fraught with emotion, his works combine a brazenly subversive political wit with street-influenced style. The pieces Matt creates while painting live tend to reflect his reaction to the city he his visiting.

Trickle Down is a nod to the buzzwords and posturing Matt sees everyday from his studio in Washington DC. Being in our nations capital gives Matt plenty of inspiration for his paintings. Each day in July Matt takes a headline from the Washington Post and paints an entire painting based on the headline. In shows from New York to Europe, his vivid colors, frenetic lines, and contemporary aesthetics have been called, raw, emotional and intense. Matt claims Willem deKooning and Frances Bacon as inspirations, along with the punk music soundtrack of the 1980’s that is usually playing loudly in the background while he paints. “I spend most every day of the week painting, including Saturdays, Sundays and most federal holidays.” Says Matt, “I do it because I love it. Painting has become the meaning of life for me”.

When Matt was 8 years old he was struck by the propeller of a landing airplane, ultimately losing his dominant hand as a result of the accident. Untrained and self-taught Sesow started painting n 1995 as an emotional reaction to his disability. Matt says he has learned to paint “from the gut”. When collectors of folk, visionary and outsider art started buying his paintings, Matt states that he did not understand the attention to his work and that he was just “painting in reaction to my life, to my passion, and to my disability”.

VSA Colorado/Access Gallery is an inclusive nonprofit organization that engages the community by opening doors to creative and educational opportunities for people with disabilities to access and experience the arts. The gallery is located at 909 Santa Fe Dr., in Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe and welcomes visitors Tuesday-Friday 10am- 5pm and First Fridays until 9pm. For more information call 303-777-0797 (TTY 303-777-0796) or visit www.accessgallery.org.

Access Gallery/VSA Arts of Colorado
909 Santa Fe Drive
Denver, CO 80204
303.777.0797
http://www.accessgallery.org

Next: Mindpool2012

Published on May 16, 2012

Juried Show: Mindpool2012

NEXT Gallery

May 18 - June 3, 2012

• Juried by Kara Duncan, Vertigo Gallery
• Opening Reception: Friday May 18th from 6 - 10pm

(from the press release)

Mindpool 2012: Where streams of consciousness collect. An exhibit of artwork that was created relying heavily on intuition and informed by chance. When artists allow the element of risk into their creative process, the opportunity for surprise is increased. Sometimes these surprises are called happy accidents.

Participating Artists: Molly O'Brien ~ Michele Soler ~ Sarah Rockett ~ Chase Folsom ~ Katie Hoffman ~ Chris Bullock ~ Corrina Espinosa ~ Rebecca K. Tolle ~ Steve Schaffner ~ A. Miriam Green ~ Ken Crost ~ Yulia Aiden ~ Rachel Eng ~ Patricia J. Finley ~ Brian D'Agosta ~ Zach Zecha ~ Stacey Bernstein ~ J. Gluckstern ~ Tony Mackey ~ Siobhan Keleher ~ Rachelle Gardner ~ David Lukens ~ Paul Sisson ~ Daniel Nilsson ~ Abilene Brychel ~ Donny Dixon ~ Jen Zielinski ~ Judith Berlinger ~ Annie Denison ~ Diane J. Mayer ~ Kendall Thompson ~ Arturo Tovar ~ Mike Whiteley ~ Meagan Stirling ~ Brady Smith ~ Rose Lynch ~ Ayla Bott ~ Faith Bengtson  

Next Gallery
3759 Navajo St
Denver, CO 80211
303.433.4933
Fri: 6:00 - 10:00 PM
Sat/Sun: Noon - 5:00 PM
http://www.nextartgallerydenver.com

Visions West: Theodore Waddell: “Landspace”

Published on May 16, 2012

Theodore Waddell: “Landspace”

Visions West Gallery

May 22 - July 7, 2012

(from the press release)

May 22nd Visions West Gallery Opens “Landspace” a solo show of the work of Theodore Waddell. Waddell, long recognized as one of Montana’s most important contemporary artists, will also be showing 26 works at the Denver art Museum May 20th-December 2nd in a show titled “Abstract Angus“.

Waddell's career took off in 1983 when he was invited to exhibit his work in the prestigious 38th Corcoran Biennial Exhibition, which is a survey of American painting and is presented as a touring show every two years. In 2004 he was honored at the White House for having paintings in various U.S. Embassies. A Montana native raised in Laurel, Waddell studied at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, Eastern Montana College, and Wayne State University, Detroit (MFA, 1968). He taught at the University of Montana from 1968 to 1976 and has since been a full time artist and rancher. He has had over ninety one man exhibitions, including a major survey at the Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis.

Waddell’s style springs from a very American idea of beginning new. He brushed aside preconceptions of what Western art should be. He found his own style influenced by his time in NYC in the 60’s at the tail end of the Abstract Expressionist movement as well as the years spent ranching in the western spaces of Montana. His work draws attention to the entire surface of the painting like many abstract expressionists, but departs in his rich vocabulary of pictorial space, horses, cows, herds and horizon. Curator Ben Mitchell has said, “there is no Myth of the west” in Waddell’s paintings. A unique perspective and story unfolds in Waddell’s work that tells us that this is a painter who is seeking answers to the mysteries surrounding him. He was never interested in repeating the detailed, clichéd overwrought paintings that have become the genre of Western painting. Instead, Waddell departed and set off on an authentic path of freshness and surprise, making paintings that are full of atmosphere and imagination.  

Visions West Galleries
1715 Wazee St.
Denver, CO 80202
303.292.0909
Mon-Fri: 10am-6pm
http://visionswestgallery.com

Sloane: Genia Chef: Glory of a New Century

Published on May 16, 2012

Genia Chef: Glory of a New Century

Sloane Gallery of Art

May 17 - June 10, 2012

(from the press release)

From May 17th to June 10th, 2012, The Sloane Gallery of Art is proud to present “Glory of a New Century,” an exhibition of works by the Russian artist Genia Chef.

Genia Chef was born in 1954 in Aktyubinsk, Kazakhstan, where his father was banished “For Anti-Soviet Agitation and Propaganda”. In 1961, his family was permitted to return to Moscow. In 1972, Chef enrolled in Moscow’s Polygraphic Institute, where he received an excellent professional artistic education and academic training.

After marrying a German woman, the journalist Elke Schwab, Chef emigrated to the West in 1985. This represented far more than just a physical move away from the Soviet Union, with its enforced political dogmas rooted deeply within the system of official Soviet Art. During the next five years, Chef moved constantly between Vienna, Berlin, New York and the Spanish village of Cadaques. Cadaques had long attracted famous artists. "Here, Chef’s resistance to oppression became exaltation in new-found freedom. Yet, he did not become a convert to any of the aesthetic faiths that flourished in the West."#1

During his stay in Cadaques in 1986, Chef wrote his Manifesto that set the direction for what he has called his “Post-Historical painting.”

”When I came to the West, a flood of contradictory ideas came crashing down on me like a waterfall. The experiences of socialism and capitalism, socialist realism and modernism, commingled in my head. The old and the new, revolution and tradition, the past and the present, exchanged places. My understanding of all this was confused.

I had come from a society that had become the past for me, even though it had declared itself to be the 'society of the future.' I arrived to the society of my future, which had long ago been in decline. For me, the past and the future exchanged places, and the concept of 'right' and 'left' had lost all meaning. Wouldn’t the same thing happen to me that was now happening throughout the world?” #2

From 1988 - 1993, Chef studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria. In addition to his Master of Fine Art Degree, Chef was awarded their coveted Fueger Gold Prize. Currently, Chef lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Sloane Gallery of Art
1612 17th Street
Denver, CO 80202
303.595.4230