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Inklings of change, regrowth and the still-remote coming of spring are all alive in Denver galleries this week, where you’ll see new works, new collections and lots of color.
Give your brain a break, and enjoy the view at these shows.
Megan Morgan, “Deer,” tusche wash painting.
Megan Morgan
Megan Morgan, Embody, January 13 through February 7
Resident Artists Show, January 13 through February 28
Valkarie Gallery, 445 South Saulsbury Street, Belmar, Lakewood
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 16, 5 to 8:30 p.m.
Artist Megan Morgan depicts woodland creatures, portraits and deeply textured still lifes. She uses the medium tusche wash, which she describes as “painting with confectioner’s sugar,” in the works in her show Embody at Valkarie. The gallery is also hosting a show for resident artists, and Aria Fawn’s guest exhibition continues. Can’t (or won’t) make the opening on January 16? You can also view all current shows online.
D’art Members Show: New Beginnings
Jean Pless and Serge Goldberg, 78″x 90,” in the East Gallery
D’art Gallery, 900 Santa Fe Drive
January 14 through February 7
D’art co-op members share the walls for New Beginnings, a hopeful group show with an eye toward expectations for the new year. The gallery is still forgoing opening receptions, but it’s open from noon to 5 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, noon to 7 p.m. Friday, and 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday; works are also available to see online. Jean Pless and Serge Goldberg have reserved the East Gallery for a show focusing on large works.
Tiana Graves, New Works
James C. Jones, Retrospect
Ethan Schultz, Trial and Error
Sync Gallery, 931 Santa Fe Drive
January 14 through February 13
A trio of members have new shows up at Sync Gallery: Tiana Graves offers haunting photographs shot at an estate sale, James. C. Jones mixes digital and traditional mediums with wood-grain imagery, and Ethan Schultz shows jewelry and paintings influenced by art deco and Bauhaus design. The gallery is open for limited hours, Thursday through Sunday.
Chloe Hedden, “Salt Spring Peony 8,” oil on canvas.
Chloe Hedden, Walker Fine Art
Upon Closer Reflection
Walker Fine Art, 300 West 11th Avenue
January 15 through March 6
Opening Reception: Friday, January 15, 5 to 8 p.m., and Saturday, January 16, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
RSVP in advance for a timed-entry slot at the reception
Walker Fine Art turns over a new leaf for 2021, with Upon Closer Reflection, a show that foresees the blooms of spring in luscious floral and still-life imagery from Jane Fulton Alt, Angela Beloian, Brian Comber, Chloe Hedden, Bryan Leister and Eileen Roscina. It’s one of those plain-beautiful shows that will give you the illusion of sitting in a summer garden, though it might be snowing outdoors.
EXPAND
The artist Love Pulp hits the street in paintings for Under My Skin, opening this week at ILA Gallery.
Love Pulp
Love Pulp, Under My Skin
ILA Gallery, 209 Kalamath Street
January 15 through January 29
Opening Reception: January 15, 6 to 10 p.m.
The street writer and artist known as Pulp (or Love Pulp), who started out in Pittsburgh’s alleyways and is now a resident of Denver, brings a body of atmospheric, gritty street-minded paintings to ILA Gallery for the rest of January.
DU shows off a newly acquired painting by Vance Kirkland at the Vicki Myhren Gallery.
Courtesy of University Art Collections, University of Denver
Coming Home
Vicki Myhren Gallery, 2121 East Asbury Avenue
January 16 through February 28
The new year starts with a bang at the University of Denver’s Vicki Myhren Gallery, with a fresh batch of recent acquisitions made by the school’s University Art Collections. The spread of work by former faculty and distinguished alumni ranges from a body of black-and-white photography by Duane Michals, just in time for Month of Photography 2021, to some explosive canvases by Vance Kirkland. Visit the gallery Thursday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.; reserve a time to visit by emailing [email protected].
Flags of Hope (Banderas de Esperanza)
January 15 through February 15
Art District on Santa Fe, 500 to 1200 blocks on Santa Fe Drive
What does hope look like? Flags of Hope (Banderas de Esperanza), a project jump-started in Boulder by University of Colorado Boulder MFA candidates Alejandra Abad and Román Anaya, will show you. It launches January 15 in Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe, where an ever-changing display of fluttering flags bearing hopeful, community-sourced slogans will fly up and down the street for a month. In addition, Lighthouse Writers Workshop will host a Flags of Hope community workshop on January 28 (details here), and to cap the bilingual display’s run, the district is planning a COVID-safe motorcade event at 2 p.m. on February 13, before the flags return to Boulder for a second display at Boulder One Plaza; learn more about the Denver events on Instagram and Facebook.
Trey Egan, Immersion
K Contemporary, 412 Wazee Street
January 16 through February 27
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 16, 2 to 6 p.m.
RSVP in advance for a timed-entry slot for the reception
Trey Egan’s thickly impastoed oils brighten the walls at K Contemporary with visual fireworks to start the year. Egan’s compositions derive energy from the electronic music he listens to as he paints in synesthetic harmony, a process that will make more sense as you eyeball — and perhaps listen to — the work in person.
Jody Guralnick, Prima Lingua: First Words of the Earth , through March 14
Tony Ortega, Raíces y Ramas | Roots and Branches, through February 28
Freyer-Newman Center, Denver Botanic Gardens, 1007 York Street
A couple of shows at the Denver Botanic Gardens have been languishing behind closed doors in the DBG’s new Freyer-Newman Center galleries because to heightened COVID measures. But those doors will now swing back open for viewers on Sunday, January 17. In Prima Lingua: First Words of the Earth, Aspen artist Jody Guralnick’s work — a blend of science and art teeming with imagery borrowed from the microscopic world of fungi and microorganisms in the natural world — will fit right in at the gardens. And Tony Ortega’s Raíces y Ramas | Roots and Branches brings rich color and scenes from the close-knit Chicano community to brighten visits to the gardens in winter. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, and the use of masks and distancing protocols will be enforced.
Interested in having your event appear in this calendar? Send the details to [email protected].
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