Nick Cave Gives Exactly What You Want
(Photo by Tyler Beard) Since I put my journalistic hat on the shelf over a year ago I was a bit surprised when I received an invitation to attend the media preview for Nick Cave’s exhibition Sojourn at the Denver Art Museum. Was this a clerical mistake? Inviting a journalistic apostate turned art dealer to a sacred press junkit seemed akin to letting a fox browse the hen house. Still, I felt the early private look at Cave’s work, which I’ve been following for a number of years, was worth any potential embarrassment when the media relations staff saw me and realized their blunder. Besides it wouldn’t be the first time I crashed a party.However, when I arrived ...Read more
Interview with Liz Miller
Liz Miller, who recently visited Denver and filled David B. Smith Gallery with a lively installation, agreed to do an interview with me about her process. Here is what we discovered. Becky Jewell: Your installation at David B. Smith was conducted with Clyfford Still in mind. Have you done other installations like this? Do your installations often take inspiration from artists or sites? Liz Miller: The work of other artists is certainly inspiring to me, but is not usually a direct source of inspiration for my installations. I am much more likely to find inspiration in non-art sources. I’ve recently been fascinated with weapons, and many of my proj...Read more
Adventures in Pixiv
Pixiv is the deviantArt of Japan. Except, it is better. Well, sort of. The cool thing about Pixiv is that its top-ranked illustrators eventually get to throw their own themed art shows, or they get to participate in an attractive, user-generated limelight. Online art communities that swiftly and obsessively encourage brick-and-mortar efforts are uncommon: it’s a business model that should, in effect, work wonders. But it is tough to pull off. Hoping to become more internationally-minded, I joined Pixiv last year to see how the community worked. Immediately I can admit that not everything on the site is clearly navicable for an American, ...Read more
Top Ten Colorado Art Happenings of 2011
It’s almost 2012, and 2011 was an incredible year for art in Colorado. Here’s the list of the best art events of the year. 1. Clyfford Still Museum Opening This museum was a long time in the making. Like the Rothko Chapel in Houston or the Georgia O’Keefe museum in Santa Fe, this Museum will make Denver into an artist’s new home. 2. Huma Bhabha at the Aspen Art Museum This exhibition has barely happened, opening on Dec 22, but it ranks high for 2011. Usually Bhabha does sculpture, but her works on paper hold a mysterious quality. The works seem classically modernist, and they involve a lot more than you w...Read more
filed under: art
tags: Huma Bhabha Xi Zhang Robischon Gallery BMOCA MCA Denver Plus Gallery Henrique Oliveira Jessica Moon Bernstein Ricky Allman David B. Smith Gallery Hermann Nitsch Clyfford Still Clyfford Still Museum
Ricky Allman at David B. Smith Gallery
Probably the best sense of what this show is all about is the cover image on Ricky Allman’s website, which identifies just how big these paintings are. David B. Smith gallery never disappoints. I feel that geometries are overdone in art currently, but I do not gather the “This has been done before” feeling from Ricky Allman’s work. This transcending of trend occurs in the scale of Allman’s work, the controlled palette, and the maximal style. There is much to be learned and explored in these canvasses: Allman shows us that he can not only paint expertly, but that he can create worlds, feelings, and fine orchestrations of shine and shado...Read more
Clyfford Still Museum opens in Denver
Clyfford Still was born in North Dakota, on November 30th of 1904. Like another great American abstract expressionist, Jackson Pollack, he emerged from a remote corner of America, where the sky was as big as it could get. You can see his rural American heritage at work in his art: Clyfford Still’s spaces are huge, spare, and earth-colored with sudden touches of vibrancy. The museum itself is a work of art. The concrete walls are carefully raked into variegated, light-and-shadow-gathering surfaces. On the second floor, an incredible lacework of concrete lets just enough light through to the paintings. On a semi-bright, November day, the effect is marvelous. Even on a su...Read more
REMEMBERING 9/11: Trough the art of children
As we near the the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, we reflect on how this tragic event as inspired art; more specifically how it has influenced the art of the youth. The images in this blog all come from a book titles The Day Our World Changed: Children’s Art of 9/11 featuring paintings by nearly 200 children (toddlers to teens) who lost a loved one in the attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center on February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001. Thus book is was put together thanks to Robin Goodmen the author of this inspiring book. In many way the results of this attack not only effected the adult population as well as created a life changing the feature of the chi...Read more
FOUND: Other People's Stuff
New stuff rocks. What's better than getting the latest, greatest and most expensive Apple product? Who hasn't camped out for the opening of oh say... a new Swedish design store (the meatballs were sooo good)? And how can anyone deny the awesomeness of that new car scent? But as cool as new stuff is, there are some people who would contend that the old stuff rocks more. Yeah dude- I'm serious! The good people at Found Magazine have even dedicated an entire website to their love of previously owned objects. Specifically, as the name implies, the site features old objects found by chance. They eschew the fresh ‘n shiny stuff in favor of items which “give a glimpse ...Read more
TJ Reagan: Happily Ever After
Almost everyone has a soft spot for picture books. Most people also enjoy cats. This could be why TJ Reagan is becoming a favorite new artist among Denverites. Most recently, TJ exhibited a collection of works at Anthology Fine Art. The walls were covered with a striking display of pastel colored prints, tied together with pixelated motifs and Victorian white frames. Tiny porcelain figures sprinkled themselves into the mix, portraying figures with bodies of humans, but heads of animals. The type of imagery TJ uses is often unsettling, but the story book creatures appear whimsical and innocent, doing things like jumping rope and playing games. The show, after all, is entitled &lsq...Read more
filed under: art
tags: TJ Reagan Metro Printmaking Cats Anthology Fine Art Happily Ever After
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"The Stolen Scream"-Theft? or Sharring an Idea
The Stolen Scream: A Story About Noam Galai from FStoppers on Vimeo. The Stolen Scream: A Story About Noam Galai. I thought it important to post here. Wanted your thoughts to be a part of the conversation. This is: Exciting. Scary. Different. Opportunistic. Cannibalistic. Visionary. Divisive. Should we celebrate it or hate it? Lawsuits or a new suit of clothes that recognizes the times? Two obvious sides with no obvious answer. And on and on… It’s our newest classic challenge as a rapidly evolving industry with the rapid deployment and sharing of information. What say you?...Read more