All the Best Shows to See in Denver on First Friday

Another First Friday is here, and it's jam-packed. There's the Denver Walls mural fest; Nepantla, a bang-up curation job by Chicano artist Tony Ortega in Fort Collins, and a return appearance by the collaborating collectives Los Fantasmas and the Not White Collective. Co-ops will be hopping in 40 West, including one favorite that closed back in 2017, and Access Gallery is letting loose a slew of superheroes on the walls.

Celebrate the holding weather while you can, and get out to galleries all over town.
Denver Walls 2024
RiNo Art District
October 3 through October 5
Secret Walls Paint Battle: Thursday, October 3, 7 to 11 p.m., Blue Moon Brewery, 3750 Chestnut Place; admission: $25.77 GA, $97.73 VIP at Eventbrite
Wet Paint Art Show: Friday, October 4, 6 to 10 p.m., RedLine Contemporary Art Center, 2350 Arapahoe Street, free
Denver Walls Closing Party, RiNo ArtPark, 3400 Arkins Court, Oct. 5, noon to 6 p.m. (Denver Walls Afterparty, 6 to 10 p.m., No Vacancy, 3911/3925 Walnut Street)
Denver Walls is back, with street artists from near and far creating the latest crop of new murals in the RiNo District. The public is invited for a three-day extravaganza of mural-watching and special events, beginning October 3 with the Secret Walls Paint Battle, where six Denver Walls artists compete in an extemporaneous show of free painting at Blue Moon Brewery.

The next evening follows the citywide First Friday groove with an opening for the Wet Paint Art Show at RedLine. A comprehensive collaboration between graffiti writers Persue and WANE ONE, the traveling exhibition looks at street-art history, comprising dozens of “wet paint” signs left in the New York City subways by the MTA after painting over tagged walls. Persue collected the signs, which have now been reclaimed as new masterpieces by more than eighty global graffitists. Finally, October 5 is party time, with an all-ages fest for everyone during the day at RiNo ArtPark and dance-the-night-away festivities in the evening at Denver’s latest No Vacancy artist installation incubator.
Nepantla
Museum of Art Fort Collins, 201 S. College Avenue, Fort Collins
October 3 through January 5
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 3, 6 to 8 p.m. (Curator Talk at 6 p.m.)
Panel Discussion: Thursday, November 7, 7 p.m.
Ortega, Dr. James Cordova of the University of Colorado Boulder, Dr. Khristin Montes of Regis University and Dr. George Rivera (Ret) from University of Colorado Boulder.
Chicano painter and printmaker Tony Ortega set aside his own work to curate Nepantla, a comprehensive survey of work by 36 Chicano and Latino artists working in Colorado, opening this week at the Museum of Art Fort Collins. The title and theme refer to life in a culturally “in-between” place in society, driven by Mestizo roots. Considering the breadth of artistry represented in this show, from traditional mural art to street, it’s more than worth traveling north to see.
Shapespeak: Ky Anderson, Emilio Lobato, Andy Ryan, Courtney Sennish
Nick Ryan Gallery, 1221 Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite 110, Boulder
October 3 through November 9
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 3, 5 to 8 p.m.
The Nick Ryan Gallery turns over a new show this weekend with a focus on abstract work by Ky Anderson, Emilio Lobato, Andy Ryan and Courtney Sennish. The contrasts between the four artists make this exhibition interesting, from Anderson’s paintings defined by arches and directional lines in lush colors and Lobato’s symbolic circles and rectangles, indicative of his cultural, geographical and familial relationships to the San Luis Vallery in Colorado, to Ryan’s whimsical color-saturated watercolors and Sennet’s sculpture using urban rectangles and structural materials.

Alejandra Calvo, Transference: A Physical Narrative
Post Residency, 910 Santa Fe Drive, Studio 12B
Opening Reception: Friday, October 4, 6 to 8 p.m.
Artist Talk: Thursday, November 21, 6 to 7 p.m.
Artist/curator Kenzie Sitterud’s Post Residency, an incubator partly funded by the artist’s Sharon Prize grant, now offers a show by Alejandra Calvo, an interdisciplinary artist who also helps manage the ArtLab program for young art students at PlatteForum when she isn’t mixing art and science in her own studio. Calvo’s exhibition, Transference, focuses on the holistic ties between mental health, human anatomy and nature, tying them together through visuals.
Los Fantasmas and the Not White Collective: Everybody’s Everything
Alto Gallery, RiNo ArtPark, 1900 35th Street, Suite B
October 4 through October 26
Friday, October 4, 6 to 10 p.m.; RSVP here
This collaboration between Denver’s Los Fantasmas and Pittsburgh’s #notwhite collective is a reprise of the conspiring artist collectives’ recent show, Collective Dreaming, at the new Yolia ArtSpace in Englewood but with all-new material and no specific theme. Collectives are where it’s at, friends, in a world where artists are struggling, and this collaboration is sending out positive energy waves.
Terry Campbell, Whispers Behind The Curtain: More Spooky Drawings
Dateline Gallery, 3004 Larimer Street
October 4 through October 31
Opening Reception: Friday, October 4, 6 to 11 p.m.
Dateline brings back Terry Campbell, whose tiny drawings are always a hit, not to mention affordable. The main theme here is Halloween-friendly, but as Campbell notes, there are hundreds more drawings of every sort available. At least that’s the vibe suggested. Have fun. Do I sense a closing Halloween party in the future?
Fandemonium
Access Gallery, 909 Santa Fe Drive
October 4 through November 23
Opening Reception: Friday, October 4, 6 to 9 p.m.
Zine Fest 2024: A Celebration of Independent Voices: Friday, October 18, 6 to 8 p.m.
Meet the Artists: Friday, November 15, 6 to 8 p.m.
Access Gallery’s artists with disabilities pointed their strong focus on the world of superheroism for Fandemonium, their excellently-wrought new show of superheroes of all types, including some you’ve never seen before. Access is keeping this show in the news with a whole side of extra enrichment throughout the run, including a Zine Fest and a Meet the Artists night.
Zip 37 Reunion Show
Kanon Collective, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
October 4 through October 27
Opening Reception: Friday, October 4, 5 to 9:30 p.m.
Newcomers to Denver might not remember Zip37, the buzzy bee-factory of co-op artists who started their little-gallery-that-could in what used to be the Navajo Street Art District in 1982. It’s an old story we’ve heard a lot in this town, but by 2017, Zip 37 closed down and the other galleries on the row, including the trail-blazing Pirate: Contemporary Art, moved on to Lakewood’s 40 West. Many of Zip’s artists spread out among the city’s other co-ops, but for a few weeks in October, a large group of them will meet again at Kanon Collective, which followed the others to 40 West, but from the Art District on Santa Fe. If you do remember, or even if you don’t, it’s a show that brings new community karma to 40 West, where about twenty former Zip 37 artists will hang out on first Friday and beyond (or at least their art will). Some blasts from Zip’s past, including Bill Amundsen, Kenny Be, Martha Keating, Chandler Romeo, Gary Sweeney and Reed Weimer are in the show, plus many more Denver favorites.

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