2017 Contemporary Art Exhibitions
Explore RedLine’s 2017 art exhibitions, featuring emerging contemporary Colorado artists.
When Fiber Meets Glass
November 10 - December 3, 2017
Featuring both solo work and works in collaboration, Joan Burleson and Jandel Allen-Davis explored consonance and dissonance in their materials and process.
What happens when hard and soft media merge? Is it possible to be more beautiful than either media alone? When mediums are so vastly different, as with so many exchanges in these divisive times, it is hard to see how they can coexist, much less advance a real conversation. Discord from opposing opinions, strong emotions and high stakes seem to drive the polarization of our world. We examined this challenge with When Fiber Meets Glass: A Conversation.
Image Title: Discovery by Joan Burleson & Jandel Allen-Davis
Image Credit: Wes Magyar
By Any Means Necessary: RedLine's 4th-Annual Juried Exhibition
September 15 - October 7, 2017
Curated by Jessica Kooiman Parker
Artists in the 21st century have to be shrewd to stand out. They often employ multiple disciplines to produce notable work. They challenge the world around them and explore unusual notions. This collection exemplified artists using any means necessary to express themselves. Subject, medium and/or technique are pushed in innovative ways and combinations. Space is redefined, color bends and flows, marks become obsessive, organic life is raw and distorted. These visual entrepreneurs transcended the norm by provoking innovation and wonder.
Image credit: Drew Austin, Unsolicited Collaboration with Jonathan Saiz
Latin America: Endless Transformation
September 8 - October 29, 2017
A collaborative exhibit co-presented by RedLine, Contemporary Expressions of Art, Latino Community Foundation of Colorado, and Building Bridges Art Exchange.
Participating Artists: Yana Clark, Ángel Delgado, Diana Drews, Carlos Estévez, Rodolfo de Florencia, Andrea Juan, Norton Maza, Marco Miranda, Eugenia Vargas Pereira, Angel Ricardo Ricardo Rios, Ricardo Rodríguez, Betsabeé Romero.
Coming from many lands, races, and perspectives, Latin America: Endless Transformation explored the constant social, political, and cultural reconfiguration that occurs in Latin America. In this exhibit, artists were investigating the ways in which communities reshape their own collective identity and reveal a continuous transformation that is visible in the artistic movements taking place throughout the Americas.
Through performances, installations, videos, paintings, and photography, this Latin America: Endless Transformation acted as a dynamic laboratory for each artist to examine and experiment with different aspects of identity as patriotism, community, citizenship, the pursuit of happiness, freedom, equal rights, and activism.
Latin America: Endless Transformation is the fourth exhibition in (dis)Place.
LAND TRUST
August 11 - August 27, 2017
LAND TRUST was an attempt to slow down and get our feet back on solid ground, to explore the cultural practices that connect us physically and spiritually to the world, and to look squarely at the human effects of environmental change. From urban agriculture to utopian aspirations, and environmentally initiated displacement to artistic approaches for protecting resources, LAND TRUST was an exploration of the multifarious connections between people and the living landscape. Presenting socially engaged art exploring land and place, the exhibition includes artwork by artists Ryan Feddersen, Megan Gafford, Brian House, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Daisy Patton, Becky Wareing Steele, Tory Tepp and the Rocky Mountain Land Library.
Brian Napier: Crooked Timber
June 30 - July 28, 2017
Curated by: Odessa
Crooked Timber investigated the relationship between human beings and the Earth; deconstructing the paradoxes between consciousness and ecology. Brian Napier's sculptural works draw parallels between natural object and the intervention of societal growth. The making of these objects is, by nature, a disruption of the processes which the work examines. In this way, the exhibition space served as an open casket to what was, and a monument to the eternal. Quasi-classical still life paintings incorporate subtle elements of design and bright color blocking, which employ a sense of quiet unrest and dread through a stunning juxtaposition of skeletal forms. Shrouded in plastic, the subjects in Napier's paintings tussle with Antonio Corradini’s veiled figures and demand reflection on death, time, and debris.
Downshifting
June 30 - July 23, 2017
Curated by Ramón Bonilla.
Downshifting was a group exhibition that calls attention to the meditative quality of reductive art, which can provide a sanctuary from the hyperactivity and sensory-flooding that has come to be our everyday reality. Featuring 12 internationally-based abstract and minimalist artists, Downshifting transformed RedLine’s 6,000-square-foot exhibition hall into a sanctuary of abstract works with programming that explores sensory deprivation rather than spectacle and provocation.
This exhibition was only possible thanks to the generous support provided by The Danish Embassy, the David & Laura Merage Foundation, the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District, and members like you.
Every Breath We Drew: Jess T. Dugan
March 11 - April 9, 2017
Guaranteed to be a highlight of Month of Photography (MoP) Denver, the Colorado Photographic Arts Center and RedLine were pleased to present Every Breath We Drew, a solo show by acclaimed artist Jess T. Dugan.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Every Breath We Drew explores the power of identity, desire, and connection through portraits of myself and others. Working within the framework of queer experience and from my actively constructed sense of masculinity, my portraits examine the intersection between private, individual identity and the search for intimate connection with others. I photograph people in their homes, often in their bedrooms, using medium and large format cameras to create a deep, sustained engagement, resulting in an intimate and detailed portrait.
I combine formal portraits, images of couples, self-portraits, and photographs of my own romantic relationship to investigate broader themes of identity and connection while also speaking to my private, individual experience. The photographs of men and masculine individuals act as a kind of mirror; they depict the type of gentle masculinity I am attracted to, yet also the kind I want to embody. Similarly, the photographs of relationships speak to a drive to be seen, understood, and desired through the eyes of a another person; a reflection of the self as the ultimate intimate connection.
By asking others to be vulnerable with me through the act of being photographed, I am laying claim to what I find beautiful and powerful while asking larger questions about how identity is formed, desire is expressed, and intimate connection is sought.
EXHIBITION PARTNERS
COLORADO PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS CENTER (CPAC) | CPACPHOTO.ORG | Founded in 1963, CPAC is dedicated to fostering the understanding and appreciation of photography through education, exhibitions, and community outreach. CPAC is supported by the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, The Bonfils Stanton Foundation, Colorado Creative Industries, members, members, and individuals.
Between the Medium: Seeing Photographically
March 13 - April 9, 2017
Curated by Mark Sink
Between the Medium: Seeing Photographically is a survey of the far-reaching applications and concepts emerging in photography today. This exhibition featured artists that are expanding their practice by integrating methods and tools first introduced by photographic processes. However, these artists may or may not identify as photographers because less and less does the use of photographic process belong to a specific medium or label, but rather is an expansion in the multitudes of approaches to contemporary art practice. Photography itself is often described as particularly sensitive to changes in technology, art, and society-at-large. As a result, what matters for the medium has shifted many times throughout the course of its history and will continue to do so. This exhibition acted as a collective, nuanced and visual definition of what matters for photograph today.
Image Credit: Margeaux Walter "Patch Work"
Nice Work If You Can Get It: RedLine's Annual Resident Artist Exhibition
January 20 - February 26, 2017
Curated by Daisy McGowan
Since opening in 2008, RedLine Contemporary Art Center has held an annual exhibition featuring work by artists in the residency program. 2017 launched with Nice Work If You Can Get It featuring RedLine Resident Artists and curated by Daisy McGowan – Gallery Director & Curator for the Gallery of Contemporary Art, Colorado Springs. This exhibit explored the reality of “making it” as an artist demands hard work, space and funding.
Nice Work If You Can Get It was the first exhibition in a five-part series entitled (dis)Place, a year-long platform of programs, exhibitions, events, and socially-engaged art projects that will explore the many complicated layers of what makes a "place." This series was made possible thanks to the generous support of Denver Arts & Venues, Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, David & Laura Merage Foundation, and Scientific & Cultural Facilities District.
Image Credit: Frankie Toan "Paper Cuts," 2017
