What’s it going to be? You decide, with our help…
The Center Cannot Hold
Union Hall, the Coloradan, 1750 Wewatta Street, Suite 144
Thursday, June 13, through August 10
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 13, 6 to 8 p.m.
After last week's fifth-anniversary celebration, Union Hall opens a topical exhibition that reinterprets global violence and its destructive tools: civil divisions, war, guns and crime. Artists Fitz J. Lewis, Sara Rockinger and Stephanie Mercedes examine the situation, seeking ways to salvage a better world. If that sounds like a minefield of an art show, perhaps it is. But mutual faith in human resilience guides the three artists, who pick up the ugly pieces and signal change through reformation: Lewis and Rockinger study the systemic upbringing of boys drawn into violence, while Mercedes offers an opera, Never in Our Image, that’s rooted in the wake of the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting, but with surreal solutions that turn guns into musical expression.
A collage by Samuel Mata, inspired by cannabis experiences.
Samuel Mata
BRDG Project, 3300 Tejon Street
Friday, June 14, through July 14
Opening Reception: Friday, June 14, 6 to 9 p.m.
Saturday, June 15, 4 to 6 p.m.
Artist/Science Talk: Tuesday, June 18, 7 to 9 p.m.
Artist Talk: Saturday, June 22, 4 to 7 p.m.
Closing Reception and Artist Talk: Sunday, July 14, 6 to 9 p.m.
Is today’s highly cultivated over-the-dispensary-counter pot more dangerous in 2024 than a joint bought on the street in 1964? How much is too much? The issue comes to roost at the BRDG Project with Hear/Say, a group exhibition sponsored by the University of Colorado School of Public Health in the wake of a three-day workshop with scientific guidance and community input on the impacts of high-concentration cannabis. Curated by Denver artist/curator Tya Anthony, Hear/Say channels ideas on the subject from artists both local and national.
Audrey Bialke and Olivia Oyamada, Does your center have a slipstream?
Lane Meyer Projects, 2528 Walnut Street
Friday, June 14, through August 4
Opening Reception: Friday, June 14, 8 p.m. to late
The real and imagined animals in Does your center have a slipstream? are heavy with personal symbolism to each artist. Audrey Bialke places mythical touchpoints within homey borders and cabins in the woods, which are painted in compositions transformed from the pages of illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, while Olivia Oyamada’s surreal canvases depict fantastical, often devilish creatures that operate as the artist’s personal Shinto deities. Together they shepherd viewers through a world of balanced chaos and beauty.
65 & Bolder
Art Students League of Denver, 200 Grant Street
Friday, June 14, through July 21
Opening Reception: Friday, June 14, 5:30 to 8 p.m.
Older but wiser artists ages 65 and older get a new showcase at the Art Students League this week, with representational watercolorist and ASLD visiting artist Telagio Baptista leading the way. Baptista, who handily masters portraiture, figurative paintings and ’scapes of every stripe in his chosen medium, will not only have work in the exhibition 65 & Bolder, but will also give a lecture on July 18 (register here) and teach a three-day intensive watercolor workshop from July 19 to 21 (register here).
Tricia Vitrano, Bust, with guest artist Erica Rawson
Dan Root: Sci-Fi DIY, in the Associates Space
Pirate: Contemporary Art, 7130 West 16th Avenue, Lakewood
Friday, June 14, through June 30
Opening Reception: Friday, June 14, 6 to 10 p.m.
Pirate returns to Earth after its own elder artist show, with member Tricia Vitrano’s Bust, a series of clay and mixed-media breast sculptures dedicated to women fighting breast cancer, alongside an installation by her guest, Erica Rawson. Associate Dan Root, a photographer, adds Sci-Fi DIY, a collection of analog photography with a sci-fi theme manipulated in the darkroom for special effects.
Tatum Elizabeth, Celebrating the Body Art Show and Fundraiser
Banshee House, 2715 Larimer Street
Friday, June 14, 5:30 to 10:30 p.m.; free ($10 to $15 suggested donation), RSVP at Eventbrite
Body-centered collage artist Tatum Elizabeth exhibits altered nude collages to raise money for aiding sexual-assault survivors, with a healing message. For what began as a personal trauma-healing journey, Tatum Elizabeth first cut and pasted images from porn magazines to tear up and rearrange the triggering imagery, later moving on to digital collage. For the Celebrating the Body Art Show and Fundraiser at Banshee House, guests are invited to volunteer for a photo shoot in a “nude donation station” and then contribute their images to the art-making cause, all while enjoying live music, live painting and a raffle.
Jared Hankins, Ski Town Americana
Raitman Art Gallery, 223 Gore Creek Drive, Vail
Saturday, June 15, through July 14
Hankins in Person: July 5 through July 7
Photography lovers heading up I-70 to Vail over the July 4 weekend or through July 14 can make a stop at the Raitman Art Gallery in town for a gander at stunning black-and-white mountain photography shot from a skier’s perspective by Jared Hankins. Snow-covered peaks are perceived differently when zipping among them, he says, and Hankins hopes to share the experience.
Summer Slang, group exhibition
K Contemporary, 1412 Wazee Street
Saturday, June 15, through July 6
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 15, 3 to 6 p.m.
Got a favorite artist in the rich K Contemporary stable? Chances are you’ll get to see their work in the summer group exhibition Summer Slang, with fair-weather work from ten or more gallery artists. Go to the seashore with Kaitlyn Tucek or peep through a bed of hollyhocks at Kevin Sloan’s elegant sandhill crane — and so on — while taking an indoor break from the blistering sun.
RiNo Summer Art Market
RiNo ArtPark, 1900 35th Street
Saturday, June 15, noon to 4 p.m.
The RiNo Summer Art Market starts up anew for 2024 in the open air at the RiNo ArtPark, with more than fifty local art and craft vendors. Free, hands-on fun is available first come, first served for cyanotype print or DIY screen printing workshops, along with live music by Sofar Sounds, food and drink by Comal Heritage Food and Dewey Beer, and a kids’ storytime by the Bob Ragland Branch Library.
Open Studio: Resident Artist Tyler Grimes
Denver Digerati, Room 325, Evans School, 1115 Acoma Street
Saturday, June 15, 2 to 6 p.m.
It’s another Open Studio Saturday at the Evans School, with plenty of resident artists opening their doors to visitors, but Denver Digerati has a special treat for fans of video installation, electronic media and other emergent technologies: Current Digerati resident artist Tyler Grimes will be demonstrating his agility between old and new media.
Flux Fest Pottery Pop-Up and Market
Flux Studio/Eron Johnson Antiques, 377 South Lipan Street
Saturday, June 15, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., free
Flux Fest is back with another summer day of artisan, food and drink vendors, as well as pottery demonstrations and live raku firing designed to get folks in the mood for classes. The pop-up is one of Denver’s sweetest little indie happenings; get there early for the best range of cool buys.
Cody Kuehl: “Phases 1,” acrylic on plexiglass, on view now at Valkarie Gallery at Arts in Belmar.
Cody Kuehl. Valkarie Gallery
445 South Saulsbury Street, Belmar, Lakewood
Saturday, June 15, 1 to 5 p.m.
Arts on Belmar, a row of businesses hiding behind the shopping center on Saulsbury Street, is trying something different this summer to bring more lovers of galleries and small businesses to the back street. Demo Days debuts on Saturday, June 15, and repeats on third Saturdays in July and August, offering live artist demos by Valkarie Gallery and My Essential Objects, while iNk Jewelry will be scooping ice cream from the Ice Cream Farm in Lone Tree to the sounds of live music on the sidewalk.
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