Despite last week’s random fit of snow, it is, in fact, spring, and a whole new season stands before us. Students aren’t the only ones gearing up for new classes or preparing for their new jobs. Most galleries I came across this past week are wrapping up their exhibits, which means that an abundance of new events and shows are about to flourish across Denver. Rather than focusing on one exhibit this week, I decided to present a few free noteworthy exhibits that students, or anyone for that matter, can enjoy as a way to start their season off right.
Meta Structures
Where: Black Book Gallery
304 Elati St.
Denver, Colorado 80223
When: April 11- May 3
Artists: Max Kauffman and Brian Robertson
Cost: Free
Black Book Gallery is a contemporary gallery that just moved to the Baker neighborhood. However, they have maintained their strong artist relationships and the belief that “the artist is just as important as the work,” as stated on their website. Starting April 11, their new exhibit, Meta Structures, will collectively feature the work of Max Kauffman and Brian Robertson. Although these artists have different styles, they both combine two different states into their work: one of a recognizable reality and a second of a dream-like state that takes viewers beyond reality.
Verging on the subject of surrealism, Kauffman incorporates certain architectural elements from our surroundings, such as a building, but distorts them to a point of almost complete nonrecognition, giving his work a sense of familiarity mixed with unknown chaotic elements. “There’s always been a balance between hard realized things and unconscious flow/movement. I’ve often danced around that line, but been very aware of it, tweaking different balances of it but aiming for control in the moment…focusing on details instead of the big picture,” Kauffman says on the gallery website.
Robertson similarly plays with the mind’s different layers of consciousness. For example, his piece titled “L.A. Rover” is a surrealistic depiction of NASA’s space rover. Viewers are readily able to recognize the subject in the piece as the rover, yet no realistic or accurate symbols from the rover are used. His paintings evoke an uncanny emotion that places viewers in a common place state of confusion.
Thomas Robertson in Genetic Time Bomb and Phil Spaulding in Manifestations
Where: Ice Cube Gallery
3320 Walnut St.
Denver, Colorado 80205
When: April 2- April 25
Artists: Thomas Robertson and Phil Spaulding
Cost: Free
On April 2 the Ice Cube Gallery opened a joint exhibit that showcases the work of two very different artists: Thomas Robertson and Phil Spaulding.
Aptly named, Robertson’s Genetic Time Bomb series is that of colorful, abstract paintings, which were inspired by Alzheimer’s. The disease plagues both his father and brother and doctors predicted he will also get it.
“Like any child, I study my father for clues to where the future may lie. Sometimes his world seems to be a blank slate, beautifully new. Other times a rush of memories leaves him emotional, with holes shot through stories that lead nowhere. Images peek through, but neither he nor I find a way to understand what they are. So I have turned things over to art,” said Robertson on the art gallery website.
His work displays layers upon abstract layers, which I interpret as the many layers that take form when revisiting a memory over and over again.
“In my art I search for the light that has been blocked out by the unconscious and stored in the deep recesses of the mind… So come walk through my mind and take a trip through darkness in search of the light,” says Spaulding on his personal website.
His black-and-white, graphite drawings explore a similar theme to that of the other artists I previously talked about: consciousness versus unconsciousness. Spaulding self-reflects in an attempt to uncover a more honest self, an honest self that has been suppressed from outside influences, societal norms and one’s own mind.
Size Matters?: A Photographic Conversation in Silver Gelatin, Fiber, and Carbon Pigment Canvas Prints.
Where: Gifford Ewing Photographic Studio
800 E. 19th Ave
Denver, CO 80218
When: April 2- March 24
Artist: Gifford Ewing
Cost: Free
In celebration of Month of Photography here in Denver, Gifford Ewing is hosting an exhibit of his own personal print photography. What’s rare about this exhibit is the vast variety of work that will be on display. Ewing’s black-and-white landscape photographs will range in size, but at their largest will amount to 5×7 feet. Ewing has transformed the viewing experience by making bystanders feel as if they are in the physical landscape itself rather than admiring it from afar. His images include shots from across the United States but mainly focuses on the Denver area.
