February 27, 2014 Lots to see-Denver art in February

Art used to be hard to find in Denver.  Not any more.  Last Saturday I couldn’t believe the variety in a number of shows in downtown Denver.  The Museum of Contemporary Art, always presenting thought-provoking work, featured two shows.  Joel Swanson’s work in several media, gave visual form to some peculiarities in the English language in a clever and witty way.  His work reminded me of another show at the museum some time ago on conceptual art using language.

Swanson’s entry piece was an entire wall covered with black ampersands, converting a familiar symbol into pattern and surface design.

One “you had to be there” piece, Homophone, 2014, showed various homophones of the word right.  As you moved in front of the piece from left to right, “write” and “rite” appeared in the holographic surface.

The entire second floor of the museum was devoted to work by Rashid Johnson in different media including video, painting, two installations and an installation sculpture.  Several paintings in the series Untitled, Love In Outer Space, 2013, used a process similar to resist processes in dyeing.   He covered the canvas with black eyed peas and lentils, coated the whole surface with black enamel, then removed the lentils and peas resulting in white spaces on the canvas.

In another work, Going To Meet the Man 2013, he combined mirrored tile, black soap books, plants and shea butter.  Other works in the gallery also took part as they were reflected in the mirrored surface.

Phoenix Bird, 2013 was a mark-making tour de force.  Using a branding iron, an implement once used to brand African slaves, he scorched and scored the surface of black soap, spray enamel and wax creating a sgraffito-like surface on scorched wood.  All of these works are wall size.

Not far from the museum at the Robischon Gallery was a group show, Out of Line, that included both wall and sculptural work.  Jason Karolak’s painting, Untitled, one of a series with the same name, had a very 3-D feel created by the use of advancing and retreating colors.  

An actual 3-D piece, coming forward from the wall was Ted Larson’s construction from salvage steel and rivets.

Kate Petley’s work of resin and mixed media on aluminum provided another interpretation of line.

Redline Gallery, hosting Transit of Venus:  Four Decades of Front Range Women in the Visual Arts, showcased painting, glass sculpture and metal work.  Sally Elliott’s gouache on paper, Red Coat Memories, appealed through bright saturated color and intriguing symbols. 

Michele Amateau’s Goia In Meditation was a fierce image in cast glass.

And Barbara Baer’s acrylic and steel sculpture, Scatterbrain, provided a playful ending to an eye-exhausting day of varied and stimulating Denver art.  Next post will be back to the October 2013 Venice Biennale.