This week’s cover story, “In Sickness and In Health,” tells the story of Jen Berman, a Denver attorney who lost her fiance, Doug Furcht, to brain cancer last year. Jen had already bought a wedding dress for their upcoming nuptials; after Doug’s death, she donated it to Brides for a…
A solo show from Xi Zhang is always a beautiful treat, and Bone, which opens tonight at Plus Gallery, will double your pleasure. As Ivar Zeile of Plus notes, Zhang “paints with a lot of experimentation and has been evolving with several different styles over the last few years.” And…
Conceptual artist Tobias Fike, who’s been showing his creations around Denver for the past few years, is the subject of an elegant solo at David B. Smith Gallery titled Then and now and then. Fike is perhaps best known for his performances done with Matthew Harris, which are documented in…
In 1983, Federico Peña’s campaign for mayor of Denver urged us to “Imagine a Great City.” Once elected, Pena worked to create that city, pushing through Denver’s One Percent for Art program – which earmarked 1 percent of every major civic construction project for public art – and creating a…
Want to work in a piece of history? The Crawford Hotel — the independent luxury hotel that will soon debut in the renovated Union Station — will be hiring more than fifty employees before its July 12 opening. And from 1 to 6 p.m. Friday, May 30 and 10 a.m…
Over Memorial Day weekend, ArtStir — a Colorado-centric festival of fine art and craft — brought a taste of local culture to downtown Denver and the Denver Pavilions. Crafted by Samuel Schimek of the I Heart Denver shop in the Pavilions, the fest cast a modern, urban slant on an…
Unleashed by Petco, a chain that’s popping up all around the country, prides itself on being butt-sniffing friendly. “We make it a priority to be involved in the community that surrounds us,” says Margaret Aareberg, general manager of the Unleashed by Petco that will open this weekend at 3615 East…
Read between the lines! Westword will publish its second annual Comics issue on June 5, and you can be a part of it. We’re accepting submissions from any Colorado artist who wants to create a cartoon about life in the Centennial State — whether it focuses on beer, fracking or…
You can find art all over town — not just on gallery walls. In this series, we’ll be looking at some of the local artists who serve up their work in coffeehouses and other non-gallery businesses around town. Mike Keyes, originally from Dayton, Ohio, spent much of his adult life…
For Tony Diego, art and education are inseparable. For over fifteen years, he has worked with young people, using art as a tool to address social issues. Diego is also a part of the Chicano art collective Los Phantazmas, which started in the ’90s with Josiah Lopez, Carlos Fresquez, Ismael…
Art doesn’t go on vacation or take three-day weekends, and this weekend’s bounty proves it. Here are a few shows — big, small, serious and not so serious — to check out while you’re kicking back. See also: Stephen Batura, Stream, Ironton Gallery…
Paying rent in a bloated market isn’t working for you? Have the piles of stuff you’ve hoarded in your closets finally forced you to scream: “I’m ready for a purge”? Maybe you just want to live a simple, green life? If you are ready to start thinking about building a…
On Friday, May 23, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra will take its show on the road – specifically to the new Space gallery, at 400 Santa Fe Drive, for the first installment of “Classically Cannabis: The High Note Series.” But there have been some definite bumps in the road. After the…
Matt O’Neill is the Denver art world’s perennial bad boy: he does things his own way regardless of what anybody thinks, which is why his varied works have such an in-your-face sensibility. Though on the surface, his paintings and drawings seem to be anti-intellectual (as do his explanations of them),…
Michael Paglia visits the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in this week’s review, taking in the show Matt O’Neill: Thrift Store Sublime which features a handful of stylistic moves that the artist has made during the past twenty years. Continue reading for photos from the exhibit. See also: New work…
It’s been two years since the once-private Anschutz Collection — one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of Western art — first opened its doors to the public for limited guided tours in its home at the American Museum of Western Art. And it’s been so successful — perhaps too…
You can find art all over town — not just on gallery walls. In this series, we’ll be looking at some of the local artists who serve up their work in coffeehouses and other non-gallery businesses around town. “I love collecting old vintage pieces,” says graphic designer and mixed-media artist…
Red Bull’s national cooler challenge stopped in Denver this week with a mission for twenty handpicked Denver artists: Each was presented with a Red Bull cooler covered in canvas and asked to turn it into a work of art. The resulting works were reviewed by a panel of local gallerists,…
Art is everywhere this weekend, including dozens of stops on the district-wide RiNo Art Safari on Saturday. Here are three singular shows worth checking out in other neighborhoods. See also: TEXT, at Downtown Aurora Visual Arts…
Editor’s note: Our cover story this week, Alan Prendergast’s “Party in the Park,” looks at how Denver’s park rangers are gearing up for a busy summer season. In response, Westword writers are weighing in with appraisals of their own favorite Denver parks, starting with Prendergast’s tribute to City Park. City…
If you take a closer look, underneath layers of paint and decades of additions, there are gorgeous mid-century modern commercial structures along Colfax Avenue that have a story to tell. A sordid past is part of what makes the country’s longest main street fascinating to some, but for Bill Marino…
The William Havu Gallery is one of only a handful of top-tier contemporary venues in Denver. Havu specializes in the work of advanced or mid-career artists, most of whom work in Colorado or the Southwest. Currently, Havu is presenting Amy Metier: Preconceived Notions, which is filled with modernist-derived abstractions by…
