By Ray Rinaldi, One Good Eye
2017 has started and you should, too. Here are four interesting choices.
Les Petites Choses
Through Feb. 24, Processus.
We see a lot of “miniatures” shows this time of year and, by and large, they are attempts to sell works that are smaller than the usual gallery fare and therefore more affordable at a time when consumers are in a holiday shopping mode. Les Petites Choses, curated by Viviane Le Courtois and limited to objects under 2.5 inches, does indeed offer little works at extraordinarily low prices, but it’s not a sell off. Instead, it’s an examination of our human fascination with tiny objects that are thoughtfully considered by their creators. To call this show adorable, with its dollhouse-sized drawings, ceramics, books and photos, might be to insult it, but it is totally adorable; an understated offering you shouldn’t miss.
In: Christine O’Dea, Justin Beard, Thomas Scharfenberg, Evan Lorenzen, Brandon Martinez, George P. Perez, Kate O’Donnell, Rian Kerrane, Tobias Flores, Derek Ralat, Jordan Knecht, Yoshitomo Saito and goods from the Denver Zine Library.
Address: 955 24th St., Denver (at The Temple)
Info: processusartlife.com
From the Ground Up
New work by Stanley Bell, Through Jan. 21. Michael Warren Contemporary.
Stanley Bell doses his mixed media creations with psychedelic references to everything from anime to anatomy to classical architecture. The works, spread across the walls of Michael Warren Contemporary, are colorful and drippy image collages that feel simultaneously youthful and complicated, confident and confusing. Definitely a good effort for Santa Fe Drive. (Bell gives a talk at the gallery at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 7)
Address: 760 Santa Fe Drive, Denver
Info: michaelwarrencontemporary.com
The Black Power Tarot
Jan. 13-April 1, GOCA 121 Gallery.
Musician King Khan and graphic designer Michael Eaton have gotten a lot of well-deserved attention for their update of the traditional tarot deck, which replaces the card’s traditional, and mostly-white, archetypes with familiar faces from contemporary African-American culture. Imagine Tina Turner as he face of “fortitude” and Richard Pryor as “the fool.” It’s been traveling around and makes its first Colorado stop at GOCA121, the most interesting place for art in downtown Colorado Springs.
Address: 121 S. Tejon Street, Colorado Springs
Info: uccs.edu
Relationship Show
Jan. 20 – Feb. 25, 2017, Colorado Photographic Arts Center.
The Colorado Photographic Arts Center, you know it as CPAC, is once again moving, this time to a storefront on Bannock Street in the Golden Triangle. It’s still not the luxe headquarters Denver’s most prominent photo gallery needs or deserves but at least it’s in the museum district, and that is likely to lure new visitors. The first exhibit, titled Relationship Show, holds some promise. The descriptor — “four artists’ viewpoints on the beginning, end, and isolation within current relationships” — is a bit soapy, but the promo shots look refreshingly unsentimental and the four out-of-towners in the mix each present some challenge to photography-as-usual. Maureen Drennan, Laura Beth Reese, Matthew Swarts and Allison L. Wade take part.
Address: 1070 Bannock St, Denver.
Info: cpacphoto.org
