Today my husband and I spent the day at the downtown Denver museums. We were at the Museum of Contemporary Art when it opened at 10AM ready for surprise as we never know what to expect there. On the second floor, the exhibit, Pattern: Follow the Rules left us slack-jawed and sore fingered from pushing our shutter buttons non-stop.
The show comprises works by a variety of artists who use variations on some optically repetitive, almost mathematical concept to create highly imaginative and exciting patterned work.
Alyson Shotz creates her designs on computer and then projects them onto a wall to guide her process of hammering nails into the wall and “drawing” her image using white thread. Shadows of the string interplay with the string itself as you move in front of the piece.
Untitled 2013
Detail
Detail
I’m not sure how spirulina algae and chlorophyll are used in creating Tam Van Tran’s bold, shaped canvases but the use of paper punch and staples is clearly evident. The round white holes and metal of the staples complement the vividly painted acrylic background. If anyone knows about spirulina algae as used in art, please tell me.
The Radiance of Awareness III, 2012
Detail
I’ve already shown one work by Rudolph Stingel from the Pompidou and was amazed to find another in this exhibit. His work poses another “how does he do it?” question. Using a highly textured fabric pattern, he reproduces it in oil paint on canvas, generating tension between the flat surface of the background and the highly textured surface of the embossed pattern, a virtuoso performance.
Untitled, 2007
Detail
Pae White has two totally different and equally incredible works in the exhibit. There, 2013, comprised of double-sided mirrors, paper and vinyl, shimmers and dances. At first, I thought the colored reflections were from the clothes of the museum viewers. Wrong! Bending over, I could see that colored shapes were affixed to the undersides of the mirrors and reflected and re-reflected.
Detail
Also by Pae White, Scrap Tapestry, 1-6, 2006 is a series of six large tapestries, the elements of which flow from one into the next. Composed of everyday objects, massively enlarged and collaged together, it is only close-up that you see all the different woven textures. This is only one of six. If you’re anywhere near this exhibit, don’t miss it and see the other five!
Detail
The other museum? Passport To Paris at the Denver Art Museum. No photography permitted but a really good survey of French art from Louis XIV through the Impressionists with a room full of paintings by Claude Monet.
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