Wednesday, October 31, 2012

VOTE FILM! DENVER FILM FESTIVAL COMMENCES NEXT WEEK ADVANCE PREVIEW COVERAGE OF VISUAL-ART RELATED FILMS


The 35th Starz Denver Film Festival, which is set to proceed from November 1st through 11th, has a major distinction this year that separates it from all previous, namely that it straddles the presidential election, one of the closest and most contentious in recent history. This seems like a balsy move, but one that will likely show where the community stands on film in an age in which the public is bombarded by moving images and an overabundance of availability through screens, televisions and hand-held devices.  Purists know, and still thrive on the joy of seeing cinematic achievements presented on a large screen in the company of others, it's never certain how many are out there but the scale of the Film Center, it's excellent location and overall atmosphere should prove to be heavy assets for anyone that is engaged and desires to spend an excessive amount of time watching films.  Rare films. Films that are not available, yet, on netflix, hulu or streaming on their own websites online.  And as for the election, everyone will be biting their nails come next tuesday night so perhaps the best way to tune out the rhetoric and stop your heart from palpitating just might be an evening out at the movie theater.  As the festival has declared this year: Vote Film!

What's similar this year as in previous is the diversity in programming and the selection of several films that are rooted in the visual arts or approaches that are heavily artistic.  We like that, it definitely gets our vote.....so much so that the festival has once again given Plus Gallery access to advance screeners of available films.  Here's a rundown of what to consider going out of your way for, at least as it relates to the art-genre:

There are certainly a few standouts in this year's selection, including at least two masterpieces.  Famed Czech artist, animator and agent provocateur Jan Svankmeyer puts forth one of his best efforts to date with "Surviving Life," a philosophical treatise rooted heavily in the psychology of dreams, sex and winning the lottery. The Svankmeyer spirit is in full bloom here, his trademark sensibilities with both stop-motion and animated living action fuse with the grotesque like never before.  Whether intended or not, Svankmeyer makes a generous nod to Monty Python in both the title and overall visual dynamic, in the best of ways including a slightly excessive eating binge that leads to a stream of spew that needs no greater explanation here.  But this is still pure Svankmeyer, his tongue firmly in cheek whilst plumbing the realm of dreams, the banality of life and the search for the obvious.  There is no doubt that the artist has benefited from the tools and sensibilities of the digital age, the film never looking more than hand-crafted, yet obviously incorporating the change in approach that digital affords every artist and filmmaker now.  His surreal fantasy moves at a rousing clip and is filled with many well edited mind-bending visuals and gags, which will undoubtedly look best on a large screen.  It is also quite crazy and twisted, ending in a virtual "blood-bath," .......but as with most moments captured on film by the imagination,  it's only a dream and pretty darn terrific all the way through.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=row-LlGN--w


A film that's somewhat in parallel with Svankmeyer's, and certainly a more challenging and unusual masterpiece, is "Consuming Spirits" by artist and Chicago School of Arts Institute professor Chris Sullivan.  Not a name to ring too many bells amongst even a dedicated film-going public, Sullivan is actually a highly regarded experimental artist and animator, the kind whose resume includes a lengthy list of both film festival screenings and major museum showcases, not to mention a Guggenheim fellowship award.  The fact that he has been working on this 125 minute animated narrative for over a decade also mandates a work ethic that puts him largely out of the wider spotlight.  But after watching this strange hybrid work, one can only respect the dedication and sheer scale of time necessary to complete something that is obviously not going to be a mainstream hit, if it gets a wider release at all. "Consuming Spirits" is the kind of dark narrative that even if it were shot as a live-action piece, would likely be relegated as a sideshow.  Sullivan, like Svankmeyer, mixes three distinct visual approaches to bring his narrative to life, the majority of both based on, of all things, puppetry.  But puppetry techniques can get a bit tedious in even shorts-length films, let alone 2 hour features, and both artists approach their material through painstaking methods that allow the editing to expand the power of the individual attention span and human brain.  Quite well in Sullivan's case, his secondary compositions consisting of stop-motion animation sets with an affecting visual appeal as well as spellbinding, monochromatic, hallucinatory, shape-shifting drawings that call to mind the profound works of South African artist William Kentridge.  The combination of three distinct visual styles across 5 chapters to tell a story that deals with dysfunctional family, aging, alcohol and small-town life blend to create one whopper of a visual treatise.  It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but it's certainly one of the most ambitious and genuine films at the festival.

No less ambitious, but in my opinion a much tougher film to champion, is the experimental documentary "A Shape of Error," by Abigail Child.  Child's resume is also lengthy and robust, she's been making, exhibiting and personally distributing her experimental artworks for over 40 years, which is probably news to most everyone reading this, if not much of humanity.  But that's a huge achievement and one that should be applauded and supported, which is why this depiction of Frankenstein author Marry Shelly's diaries makes an appearance at the festival.  The basis of the project almost reads better on paper, however, than in film:  "An experimental l6mm feature, A Shape of Error is based on the life of Percy Bysshe Shelley and his second wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - writers whose lives forecast the modern in their concern for women, free love and labor. Child retells their story as an imaginary home movie, using strategies developed in her earlier films.....to shape a new kind of narrative."  This new kind of narrative employs split-screen techniques, non-actors and an outstanding soundtrack to attempt to tell a story that, well, frankly might be best read instead of interpreted visually. 

 Outside of composer Zeena Parkins rather brilliant soundtrack, I felt this to be one of the more tedious exercises in experimental documentary, though by no means a failed effort.....merely a remote one, and one that frankly it felt very hard to connect with, perhaps because it depicts an author,  someone who at one point in the diaries claims that she would like to spend all her time reading.  It's a bit tough getting into such a person's melodrama, even if it involves historic figures such as Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, atheists and historical agitators of great wealth.  The depictions of the main characters simply comes across in a way that is inert and very telling of the need to fashion a more experimental approach to the subject. The visual interpretation succeeds at times - in particular a carousel scene that, had it continued through the entire film, would have been impressive - and primarily somewhere after the half-way mark, so don't fret if you arrive to this screening late!  Whereas the most tested audiences should firmly appreciate the Svankmeyer and Sullivan films, Child's seems distinctly intended for a more narrow and purist following.  And that is precisely what the film festival is about.
Canadian director Denis Cote was introduced to Denver audiences last year at the festival with the standout narrative feature "Curling."   Anyone who viewed that film with as much appreciation as we did has no idea what's in store in the director's follow-up feature "Bestiare," at least I was caught slightly off-gaurd by the exquisite relationship this film has to film as pure art, something one would expect to find in a museum environment rather than a movie theater screen.  That is a good thing, filmmakers and visual artists these days are crossing over or between realms more readily than at any time in history, and unlike Abigail Child's film, Cote's chooses the most pure approach to his subject, one that is largely static, relying on very specific and unusual framing as well as the concept that less is more.  In this case, it's almost impossible to determine what the overall context of his film might be, if there is one.  What is depicted seems to be somewhat obtuse and often unsettling scenes of animals in unnatural environments. "Bestiare" makes it's declaration with the title, commencing with a studio environment where visual artists attempt to render an animal in two dimensional form on paper, and proceeds from there to give us a depiction of animal life rooted in a reality that is uncommon, almost as if to say "how much can you relate to animals from just a static image" as most popular art does? It becomes a meditation for the individual, a true experience that, while certainly not for everyone, is solid and original.

Cote's sensibilities in "Bestiare" are very much akin to the successful and revered contemporary photographer Gregory Crewdson, who gets his own biographic treatment on film this year in "Gregory Crewdson - Brief Encounters."  Crewdson is a photographer that is much happier to have his work based in the mechanics and production aspects of film, and thoroughly happy not have to worry about the other stuff, at one point in the film stating that "Its a privilege to not have to think about plot or storyline, but just be focused on the moment."  This Crewdson does well, his success as an artist is not as massive as other artists to mandate their own, absorbing documents this year such as Richter and Abramovic.  But it absolutely makes sense to deliver a documentary on Crewdson, as well as to show his cinematic prints on a large screen. His artist persona is a bit odd, he's very serious and professional, he swims long distance in murky lakes but just doesn't really look the part of a renowned photographer, at least today, which is great!  Anyone involved in photography will appreciate this look into his history and technique, and as for others, well its a good human interest story and in conjunction with Surviving Life and Consuming Spirits has a lot to say about the psychologic motivations behind most art.  At times it seems to wander a bit, but it's at it's most compelling when Crewdson starts to talk about his career development, revealing thoughts like "anything was possible, we barely knew what we were doing" in relation to his daring early works, and telling stories like how on one early transformative shoot he decided to call the police and tell them that someone was "sodding" the street closed because nobody seemed to care that he was shooting in such a grand manner in a remote residential neighborhood without permits. These are revelations of thought and what it takes to alter the course of art history as an individual.  Crewdson is very pure as an artist, even though he discovered photography as the result of a "girlfriend" originally. His human aspects are engaging both in his work as well as himself, the documentary giving ample time to cover both.  He concludes the film with perhaps one of the strongest, most genuine statements an artist can make when he says "I feel very strongly that every artist has one central story to tell. The struggle is to tell and retell that story over and over again in visual form, and try to challenge that story.  At the core the story is the same. It is the defining story of who you are."



Also of note to the community interested in visual arts is that Colorado's own Stacy Steers, whose most recent film Night Hunter was last shown at the Denver Art Museum in the DAM Contemporaries sponsored Fusebox space, will receive the Stan Brakhage Vision Award at this year's festival, and another opportunity for the public to engage with the back-catalog of her work.  There's also a rather robust program focused on works by local filmmakers this year, including a new feature by the hard-working and talented Alexander Phillipe a well as last year's academy award winning short documentary from Daniel Junge.  Most of the art-related films are sponsored by the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, we should all thank them for supporting this type of programming......and as we all know, the best way to show that support is by attending these films and all of the amazing work the Denver Film Society does year round.
Look for more coverage on the festival in next week's news. And to find out more on all of the films for this year's festival, visit the Denver Film Society website at










SUSAN MEYER'S "PLATO'S RETREAT" NOW ON VIEW AT PLUS GALLERY


Plus Gallery is now featuring Susan Meyer's newest exhibition "Plato's Retreat," which opened last Friday evening with a rousing artists reception.  Meyer's work is a virtual feast for a multitude of sensibilities, her connection to architecture shines through prominently with the recent work as does her penchant for adaptive technologies.  Two small video works showcase the mundane as it relates to her utopian concepts, and the painting "Her" ties it all together in the most sublime and curious way. Visit the gallery now through November 24th to see work by one of Denver's most respected and far-reaching artists.


Plato's Retreat - Partial installation view at Plus Gallery
Meyer will give an artists talk on friday, November 2nd at 7pm, coinciding with the start of Denver Arts Week and First Friday extended hours.  In advance of the talk, we are celebrating Meyer's efforts from the last decade in pictures with this brief history of her second decade as an artist:

Left: Invincible Cohort, partial installation view, 2010
Right: Stack, 2012
Vinyl, 2011









Left: Together, installation view at Plus Gallery, 2009
Right: Together (detail), 2009

Left: The Enterprise III, installation view at MCA Denver, 2006
Right: The Enterprise III (Detail), 2006
Left: Nude-topia, installation view at MCA Denver, 2005
Right: Nude-topia (Detail), 2005
Malfunction Junction, installation view at Plus Gallery, 2004
Private Road, installation view at Ironton, 2002









PLUS GALLERY ARTIST AUSTIN PARKHILL FEATURED IN WESTERN EDITION OF NEW AMERICAN PAINTINGS OUT ON NEWSSTANDS SOON.....SELECT COPIES AVAILABLE AT PLUS GALLERY


The latest issue of New American Paintings, the Western Edition, is out now and offers a great selection of artists from the region who are pushing the envelope in amazing ways with paint, including Plus Gallery artists Austin Parkhill, one of the only artists to be selected this year from Denver proper.  The issues juror was Bill Arning, the esteemed director at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston.  It's obvious from looking through the issue that the caliber is super high for this year's survey of the West, and also clear that Parkhill's work stands out like no other, eschewing the trends in recent contemporary painting for a style that seeks to depict people through realism in a bold and fascinating way.  We congratulate Austin for his first acceptance into the national publication, one that has significantly marked the careers of some of Plus Gallery's most notable artists such as Jenny Morgan, William Betts, Karen McClanahan and several others over the years.  Plus Gallery will present Parkhill's first solo exhibition with the gallery at the end of November in our final exhibition of 2012, stay tuned for more details next month.
Austin Parkhill at work on his latest large-scale painting in studio

DON FODNESS FEATURED IN REDLINE RESIDENT ARTIST EXHIBITION "MATERIAL ENGAGEMENTS" OPENING THIS SATURDAY OCTOBER 27TH 7-9PM

Plus Gallery represented artist Donald Fodness is also one of the new batch of resident artists at our neighboring space Redline, one of the most unique artist studio projects in the country.  Every year Redline hosts a group exhibition to showcase the newest artists to the program, this year under the heading "Material Engagements."  Few artists engage materials as broadly and successfully as Fodness, so the exhibition should resonate strongly with the presence of his latest mixed-media sculptural installation.  Visit Redline this Saturday evening to see Don's work as well as the rest of the artists in residence.  Member preview is from 6-7pm with the public opening to follow from 7-9pm.  The exhibition was put together by independent curator Harmony Hammond and will be on view through December 30th.  Fodness, who was previously introduced to the Plus Gallery audience earlier this year as part of our fabulous "Apocalype? HOW!" exhibition in January, will have his first solo exhibition at Plus in the summer of 2013.

XI ZHANG OFF TO BUENOS AIRES NEXT WEEK FOR MONTH OF NOVEMBER FOR URRA RESIDENCY PROGRAM

Plus Gallery artist Xi Zhang is off to Buenos Aires next week for the month long artists residency program URRA.  Zhang's journey to Argentina is one of the first programs supported by Platform 5280 Denver Biennial of the Americas, a major honor as Xi gets to represent Denver's thriving artistic community abroad and interact with over 13 artists from around the world.  Zhang is also the only US based artist to be selected for the URRA program this year, so he will also be representing the country that recently approved his citizenship. Not a story that one would think of writing, but one that Zhang deserves for his artistic talent, not to mention his supremely cheerful nature.   We'll post some images of Xi in Argentina over the next month, and for now will leave you with three of the most recent works to come out of his studio before his excursion.
Xi worked with Artlab students on holiday ornaments earlier this week at Denver's PlatteForum  as part of the Platform 5280 residency selection program.  Here's a photo of Xi working with the students


DAVE YUST RETROSPECTIVE SET TO OPEN AT LOVELAND MUSEUM GALLERY NOVEMBER 9th

Plus Gallery artist Dave Yust will exhibit approximately 135 works at the Loveland Museum Gallery in the major exhibition "DAVE YUST - 40 + YEARS of PRINTMAKING: A RETROSPECTIVE."  Please join Dave and Plus Gallery in Loveland on Friday, November 9th for the opening festivities.  Members of the Museum are welcome that day from 4-6pm and the public at large from 6-8pm.  Dave will speak that evening at 6pm about the exhibition, one that largely fills in the gaps from his 2008 Arvada Center solo exhibition "Looking Back / Looking Forward"  by presenting a comprehensive view of his emphasis and engagement with printmaking from his 40+ year career in art.  The Loveland Museum Gallery is publishing a 72 page catalog to accompany the exhibition that features interviews with Dave and images of his previous work in print as well as new heart-shaped monotypes on view in the exhibition.
Two of Dave Yust's latest heart-shaped monotypes
The Loveland Museum/Gallery is located at 503 N. Lincoln, Loveland, Colorado.  This exhibition will be on view through February 17th, 2013.
EXHIBIT FREE DAYS:  Saturday, December 29, Sunday, January 13, Thursday, February 7."Because looking through a window or a lens is, often, an all too commonplace choice - I have been compelled to have my art works exemplify objects in the world rather that to become windows to the world." - Dave Yust


PATTI HALLOCK PHOTOGRAPHS FEATURED IN LIGHTLEAK ONLINE

Plus Gallery artist Patti Hallock, who is scheduled for her own Museum exhibition next year at the MCA Denver (details to be confirmed soon), recently had her latest body of work "The West is Here" featured in the online photography journal lightleak.  Patti continues to create some of the most breathtaking images relating to life in the west amongst any artist in the country.

http://www.lightleaked.com/2012/10/photo-friday-patti-hallock.html?m=1


Patti Hallock - Miss Imperial, 2012

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

PLUS GALLERY OPENS THE NEW EXHIBITION "PLATO'S RETREAT" BY SUSAN MEYER THIS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19TH, 7-10PM



Plus Gallery charges up the fall art season with the return of Susan Meyer and her fascinating new installation "Plato's Retreat," on view from October 19th through November 24th. Meyer is one of those rare artists whose focus is almost exclusively on large-scale environments steeped in both general and extremely specific historic reference points.  It has been eight years since her last solo exhibition at Plus Gallery, though she's been super active ever since with multiple showings in prestigious curated exhibitions such as the MCA Denver's
"Biennial Blowout" and "Decades of Influence," two presentations to the Miami's annual December art-fair marketplace, and a host of other significant exhibitions both locally and outside the state.  Plus Gallery most recently shared Meyer's works on our second floor exhibition space as well as 2010's cutting-edge group exhibition "Invincible Cohort."

Those who recall 2004's "Malfunction Junction" as fondly as we do know the extraordinary level of thought, time and detail that Meyer puts into an exhibition. "Plato's Retreat" follows suite, another singular effort that takes her conceptual emphasis of the last seven years on utopian ideals to new heights. Central to her new body of work in "Plato's Retreat" is a looming concrete warren of a structure, at once architectural model and dilapidated ruin suggesting a once sparkling futuristic architectonic utopia now sparsely inhabited, overbuilt, abandoned and overgrown - still functioning, though in a manner that seems to favor the individual over the collective.

"Plato's Retreat" finds Meyer back in full form in Plus Gallery's own "idealized" gallery space.  Please join us this Friday night from 7-10pm as we unveil one of the most stimulating and unusual environments one will find in a commercial gallery all year and celebrate one of Denver's most outstanding artists.

Please mark your calendars for our artist talk with Susan on Friday, November 2nd at 7pm, presented in conjunction with Denver Arts Week.

Read the Westword advance report of the show at

Pick up a copy of the latest issue of Modern In Denver to read an in-depth interview with Meyer about her latest work.

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW FOR UPCOMING LOGAN LECTURES

There are just three Logan Lectures left in the DAM Contemporaries fall series, all of which should be high on your list of art related activities in the coming months.  The lineup includes major international art-stars Larry Bell and Dana Schutz, as well as Plus Gallery's own Bill Amundson, who is widely known for his ability to thrill an audience like no other human being on the planet.  Get your tickets now before it's too late, most likely all of the upcoming lectures will sell-out, rightfully so.


October 24th: Larry Bell

November 7th: Dana Schutz

November 28th: Bill Amundson

Visit http://damcontemporaries.denverartmuseum.org  for additional info

Plus Gallery will host a viewing of new and recent works by Bill Amundson to coincide with his visit back to the state in November, stay tuned for more details.

VISIONS & VIEWPOINTS SUBMISSION DEADLINE THIS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19TH



Call for Entries at the LINCOLN Center in Fort Collins: The Fort Collins Lincoln Center invites visual artists living in the US and working in any media to enter our national juried art exhibit. The exhibition will serve as a
catalyst for new ideas, interpretations & understandings of the times in which we live.

$1700 in cash prizes, including a first prize of $1000, will be awarded.

More information at www.LCtix.com/galleries-opp.php

Apply at www.callforentry.org by October 19

Guest Jurors: Louis Recchia and Zoa Ace

THE INVISIBLE MUSEUM ANNOUNCES 528.0 A REGIONAL, JURIED EXHIBIT OF CONTEMPORARY FINE ART PRINTS

528.0 refers to the length of the radius in miles of a circle with its center in Denver that approximately delineates the region involved. The juried exhibit will take place during the entire month of February, 2013 at Redline in the River North Arts District.


In the interest of avoiding triangulating every entrance address, the exhibition will admit participants from entire adjoining states as well of as parts of other nearby states.  The entire states include Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. Partial states include Northeast Arizona (including, Flagstaff), Texas West of (but, including) Wichita Falls and North of (but, including) Lubbock, Oklahoma west of (but, including) Tulsa. A 30 mile strip of Iowa immediately east of the Missouri River.  (Including Council Bluffs and Sioux City); Southwest North Dakota   (Including Dickinson); Southeast, Montana (including Billings and Bozeman); and South East Idaho (including Pocatello, Idaho Falls, and Twin Falls).

Eligible artworks may include hand-pulled prints created with intaglio, lithography, relief, silkscreen, or experimental methods. No digital reproductions or photography will be accepted. Measurements may not exceed a maximum of 36 x 36 inches, framed.

The entrance fee is $30 and may be made through Café  on the Western States Art Federations (WESTAF), website. No entry may exceed 36 x 36 inches framed and must be sent digitally to the website.  Only 3 images per entrant accepted, and the images cannot be changed or supplemented after the original entry is made.  The entrance must be completed by November 17, 2012, when the call will terminate.  Accepted artists will be notified on December 15, or as soon thereafter as possible.  Acceptance does not mean that more than one of your prints will be shown.  Your ready to be hung prints must arrive at Redline on or before January 25, 2013.  Costs and insurance of delivering and returning the artwork will be by the selected artists.  However, during their stay at Redline, they will be completely insured by Redline.

$2400 in prize money will be awarded.  The Sue Cannon award of $1000 for excellence in the art of printmaking is among them.  Mrs. Cannon or her delegates will select the artist for this award.  Each of the 7 jurors will select two artists as a juror's favorite, and each of those will receive $100 apiece-a total of $1400.  No first, 2nd or 3rd places will be named.

The jurors include : Michael Chavez; Artist and Curator, Public Art Program Manager, Denver, Colorado Ivar Zeile, director and owner of Plus Gallery, Mark Mazuoka, director of  the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, Jill Dawsey, curator at the San Diego Art Museum (formerly head curator of the Utah Museum of Art), Barbara O'Brien, chief curator and director of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Shaurya Kumar, faculty member of the Art Institute in Chicago, formerly at NMU in Albuquerque and Vivianne le Courtois, well known local artist/printmaker, as the selectee of Redline.

All the Prints will be numbered and the artists names will not be attached to images during the jury selection process. The name/number file will be kept privately by Westaf until December 14, the day before entrants are notified.  The information will also be available to officers and staff of the Invisible Museum.

This is the first such regional exhibition.  If concluded successfully the hope is to make it a biennial event!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

FINAL WEEK FOR KAREN McCLANAHAN "STACKS" AT PLUS GALLERY


This is the final week at Plus Gallery for Karen McClanahan's latest solo exhibition "Stacks."  The gallery will be open for regular hours today through Saturday October 13th from noon to 5pm. McClanahan's work shows extraordinary craftsmanship, consistency and an intellectual depth within the realms of color-field, minimalist abstraction that is increasingly rare in today's contemporary art. 
Karen McClanahan - Thread drawings and paintings in the exhibition "Stacks" 

PLUS GALLERY HOSTS NYC'S "THE HOME OF EASY CREDIT" AND DENVER'S "THE PLAYGROUND" THIS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13TH AT 7PM

Plus Gallery presents another outstanding night of music as we host Queen's New York-based duo "The Home of Easy Credit" on their current North-American tour along with Denver's "The Playground."  The Home of Easy Credit challenges the boundaries of free-improvised music, jazz, folk, and pop music with an iconoclastic approach that defies all those who seek to classify music by genre. Taking their name from a department store sign in a dilapidated section of downtown Houston, Texas, the duo seeks to hold up a mirror to contemporary musical tastes to create a dark, beautiful and thrilling sound world that reflects upon the decline of contemporary civilization.
http://northern-spy.com/artists/the-home-of-easy-credit/


"Incredible blending of female voice, saxophone, and gnarly double bass; the instruments are used both as solo voices and ensembles in almost every conceivable way. The duo's work stands strongly apart from any kind of generic so-called free improvisation- both in the roles the instruments play as well as the way they are electronically modified. Dramatic, beautiful but above all very unusual music." - Peter Evans

"Though their name sounds like a junk-mail come-on, the din raised by The Home of Easy Credit is far from ingratiating and would be difficult to simply discardŠ The Danish-born Jensen's primal-Björk howls and electronic drones combine with Blancarte's screeching bowed bass to construct desolate aural landscapes as dense and haunting as an urban ghost town; her wraithlike flute or melancholy sax mixed with his scurrying lines suggest the hope of the surviving stragglers." - The Philadelphia City Paper



Opening the show at Plus Gallery is a set by Conrad Kehn; composer, improviser, performer, educator, writer, artist, and Director of The Playground Ensemble. This solo performance will feature intriguing combinations of 20th century Avant guard composers record loops, spoken word records, programmed drum beats, old American hymn tunes and live (manipulated vocals). Kehn is a Lecturer of Music Technology and Music Theory at the Lamont School of Music, and also the Co-chair, Denver Public Schools Arts Resource Council.

Please join us this Saturday for another terrific evening in our experimental series, one that has provided some of the most memorable moments in the gallery history. 

Doors open at 7pm

PLUS GALLERY HOSTS OPENING RECEPTION FOR SUSAN MEYER AND "PLATO'S RETREAT" FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19TH 7-10PM

Plus Gallery charges up the fall art season with the return of Susan Meyer and her fascinating new installation "Plato's Retreat," on view from October 19th through November 24th.  Meyer is one of those rare artists whose focus is almost exclusively on large-scale environments steeped in both general and extremely specific historic reference points.  Her conceptual emphasis on utopian ideals has been building in complexity over time as she has experimented with the interface of technology and traditional sculpture materials, as well as a dash of new-media. Central to her new body of work in "Plato's Retreat" is a looming concrete warren of a structure, at once architectural model and dilapidated ruin suggesting a once sparkling futuristic architectonic utopia now sparsely inhabited, overbuilt, abandoned and overgrown - still functioning, though in a manner that seems to favor the individual over the collective. "Plato's Retreat" finds Meyer back in rare form in Plus Gallery's own "idealized" gallery space, her first solo exhibition in Denver since 2004's equally ambitious "Malfunction Junction."
Susan Meyer in her Denver studio, 2012

Susan Meyer is featured in the current issue of Moder In Denver, available at fine establishments and bookstores around the region.

JENNY MORGAN IN HER BROOKLYN STUDIO

We had the opportunity last weekend to visit Plus Gallery artist Jenny Morgan in her studio in Brooklyn.  Here's a photo of Jenny with her latest work, including a painting of fellow Plus Gallery artist Xi Zhang in progress!

DONALD FODNESS LECTURES IN NEBRASKA FOR TUGBOAT COLLABORATIVE EXHIBITION


Plus Gallery artist Donald Fodness gave a lecture last week at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in conjunction with his collaborative installation with fellow Colorado artist (and Redline resident artist) Alvin Gregorio.  Striking a "Breaking Bad" themed pose for the lecture, Don and Alvin's collaboration will be on view at the Tugboat Gallery in Lincoln at 116 N. 14th Street, be sure to catch it if you are in the area.
Image by Tobias Fike

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

BLACKTOP FESTIVAL HITS DOWNTOWN DENVER THIS SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 29TH FROM 2-10PM PLUS GALLERY CURATED "SIGHTLINE" REVIVED ON THE LED SCREEN, ALONG WITH "FILMS 4 PEACE"


The Denver Theater District is set to shake up the downtown art and festival scene this weekend with "Blacktop," an all-day lineup of live-music and art, taking place between 13th and 14th on Champa and the DCPA.  Champa street will be closed just south of 14th steet from 2-10pm this saturday for five great band performances as well as the entire "SightLine" program that was previously shown on the LED screen earlier this year for Create Denver week.  Those who came out for that event know that the weather was hardly cooperative that night......but this weekend will hopefully prove different, and with the program being broken up into four 20-minute segments, there's a good chance that it can be seen by many more people over the course of the day no matter what the weather is doing.

In addition, the Puma sponsored "Films 4 Peace" will also be shown on the LED screen, part of the recent World Peace Day initiative in which films commissioned by Puma by renowned artists from across the world (including Gregory Crewdson, Yang Fudong, Isaac Julien, Michael Nyman and more!) have been screened in venues around the world.  Of course, few of those screenings will be as grand as ours, the LED screen at 14th and Champa being one of the best vehicles for public motion-based art in the world. This years commissioned films include 35 mm live action, experimental animation and fine art approaches. Find out more about the project in advance by visiting http://films4peace.com


Films 4 Peace -  Still from Levi van Veluw's short film

Films 4 Peace -  Still from Isaac Julien's short film

"Blacktop" will certainly be the place to be this saturday, don't miss out on this free community event produced by Unit-E and supported by the Denver Theatre District, one that offers something for everyone.  Find out more about Blacktop by visitinghttp://blacktopfestival.com

If you haven't already viewed our short document of "SightLine" yet, view it online at https://vimeo.com/44178071

The band and LED art lineup for the afternoon is as follows:

2-240 SightLine Parts 1 and 2 / LED Screen

3-345 Rubedo / Bandstage

345- 405 SightLine Part 3 / LED Screen

415-5 Wild Pack of Canaries / Bandstage

5-520 SightLine Part 4 / LED Screen

530-615 Luke Wyland / Bandstage

615- 635 Ballet Nuevo

645-745 Nurses / Bandstage
745-805 Films for Peace / LED Screen

815-930 Cody ChesnuTT / Bandstage
We hope to see you there!


RECENT ONLINE POSTS ON PLUS GALLERY ARTIST XI ZHANG


From Tariana Navas-Nieves, former curator at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, comes some terrific commentary on the paintings of Plus Gallery artists Xi Zhang.  Check out her blog at:


and 5280 has also posted a brief interview with Xi online in conjunction with their September issue's article on Denver's thriving art scene:

http://vimeo.com/49780621

ALLIE POHL AT THE BANO GALLERY IN LA, OPENING OCTOBER 4TH

Allie Pohl invites you to join her in the bathroom at LA's Bano Gallery October 4th for the opening of "Hot Seat," which features some terrificly provocative photographs by Allie.  An edition of the photographs from this show are on their way to Plus Gallery this week!

FIND OUT WHAT'S IN STORE FOR UPCOMING DENVER BIENNIAL OF THE AMERICAS THIS FRIDAY NIGHT, SEPTEMBER 28TH AT MCA DENVER: