All the Best Art Shows to See This Weekend in Denver

This weekend, take your art neat, like a swift and uncomplicated drink. Hang outdoors in the evening under a Black Cube tarp of many colors and make-and-take a tiny copy of your own; find art deals at artist studios and secret shows; ponder the plight of a lone body navigating through places where it wasn’t meant to be. Or just see something beautiful on the wall.

Here’s a short and sweet list to help set you on your way:
Community Programs at Horizon Drift: Translucent Paper Triangle Collages
Plaza of the Americas, 1550 Wewatta Street
Thursday, September 26, 5:30 p.m.
Free, RSVP here
Horizon Drift, a beautiful translucent color-throwing textile installation by Rachel Hayes brought to Denver by Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum, is segueing into its final month under the sun at Plaza of the Americas. But there’s still time to enjoy its glow at a free all-ages art workshop hosted by Art Students League of Denver instructor Rhiannon Alpers, making mini versions of Horizon Drift out of translucent vellum and tissue papers. If you come with a group, collaborate and piece your triangles together for a larger piece. One last free public event — Latin Jazz in the Plaza with Mistura Fina, is scheduled for October 24 at 5 p.m; info here.
Michael Dowling, A Recent History
Space Gallery Annex, 95 South Cherokee Street
September 26 through October 26
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 26, 6 to 8 p.m.
While he always drew and later took up painting, Michael Dowling’s career as a fine artist didn’t take off until he took off for Florence, Italy, at age 28 to focus on his painting practice. Dowling then came back to Denver classically trained, with an agile drawing style and a highly charged work ethic. His work is well known, and he’s also quite visible as a co-founder of the BRDG Project gallery, which continues to bloom after moving to the Northside from a temporary space in LoHi. Currently, Dowling is clearing some studio space before he leaves for a month-long residency in France, with an exhibition at the Space Annex. Word is, there are deals to be made at the hush-hush show.
Ted Moore and Anna Elise Johnson
Space Gallery, 400 Santa Fe Drive
September 27 through November 2
Opening Reception: Friday, September 27, 6 to 8 p.m.
Space Gallery opens a pair of solos by Ted Moore and Anna Elise Johnson just a day after Dowling’s show opens at the Annex. Moore is a Renaissance man, a drummer, Medieval historian, naturalist and fine artist who works freely between disciplines, arts and sciences, delving into cabinetry and woodworking, ink paintings and a balanced blend of mediums and natural history. Johnson is a master of layering dimensional landscape paintings and collage pieces floating in acrylic boxes, using mediums of translucent color, or surfaces embedded with rocks and dirt. Both engage the passage of time in visual terms with roots in the earth sciences.

Mary Mackey Studio and Art Sale
​926 West Sixth Avenue
Friday, September 27, 6 to 9 p.m.; Friday, September 28, and Saturday, September 29, noon to 5 p.m.
Internationally collected artist Mary Mackey, a longtime working mainstay in Denver and beyond, has deep roots in mid-century abstract painting, sculpture and printmaking, though she practiced as a photographer right out of art school. As she moves into a new Denver studio for painting and ceramic art, Mackey invites the public to drop in over the weekend to explore four flat files of works on paper (including oil on Mylar and monoprints), as well as mixed-media paintings on canvas or wood panels in various sizes. Can’t make it? After the weekend sale, the studio will open by appointment only, so Mackey can get on with her new works. Email her here, or call 720-271-9601.
Sam Grabowska, Haptic Terrain
Leon Gallery, 1112 East 17th Avenue
September 28 through November 9
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 28, 6 to 10 p.m.
Queer, second-generation Polish-American, nonbinary, cross-discipline artist Sam Grabowska examines where the body floats between nature and the converse manmade world in the aptly titled show Haptic Terrain. Grabowska visits those ideas in literal ways, by melding physical human materials such as hair and sinews with industrial materials like concrete, foam and plastics into sculpture, insinuating the weight of the psyche, senses and human baggage. In the end, the work is about healing the spaces between the two.

South Denver Artists (SoDA) Open Studio Tour
Eight South Denver Locations
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 28, 6 to 10 p.m.
Visit with ten artists at eight locations between Platt Park and Virginia Village during this weekend’s inaugural South Denver Artists Open Studio Tour. Instigated by Mai Wyn Schantz, who tested the idea herself last fall by inviting the community to her studio; it was successful enough that she began looking for other artists working within the wide swath of south Denver. Schantz suggests starting with Rhiannon Alpers and Elaine St. Louison on the west boundary and ending at Woodward Studios on the east end, where one could easily end the evening with pizza at Esters, 1950 South Holly Street. Find a map here.

Final Evans School Open Studios and Art Market
Evans School Building, 1115 Acoma Street
Sunday, September 29, noon to 6 p.m.
Another good thing in Denver is coming to an end: the Evans School Building, a Golden Triangle treasure where artists were allowed to rent studios at economical prices while developers were still finalizing their mixed-use redevelopment plans. But around twenty artists who were part of the close-knit studio community have one last party for the public: the facility’s final Open Studios and Art Market at the school, an event that debuted last December. Along with the opportunity to see and buy the latest works of Evans School studio mates, visitors will also get a look at work already happening on the first two floors.
Pop-Up Art Show: Tania Kaaz
Grace Noel Art, 734 Santa Fe Drive
Sunday, September 29, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Free, RSVP at Eventbrite
Photographer Tania Kaaz is known for manipulating her images by lighting them on fire, pouring acid on them or submerging them in liquids and inks, resulting in warped surfaces and special color effects. Kaaz pops up at Grace Noel’s studio during the Art District on Santa Fe’s Final Sunday art-walk events, and will have a selection of her alternative-process works for sale.

Interested in having your event appear in this calendar? Send the details to [email protected].