Stepping off of a snowy street on a gray winter day, one is grateful for the two vibrant shows currently on view at Visions West Contemporary. Pioneer Project by Jennifer Nehrbass and Mothers and Daughters by Madeleine Bialke create intriguing and colorful worlds to enter into. Pioneer Project by Jennifer Nehrbass is a collection of landscape paintings, portraits of women, and small sculptures. Mothers and Daughters by Madeleine Bialke, is another world unto itself with contrasting complementary colors blue and orange.

Dear Future… at University of Northern Colorado’s Campus Commons Gallery in Greeley exhibits the work of artists Jessica Houston, Ariel René Jackson, Jen Liu, and Sherwin Rio. Entering the dark and gloomy gallery space located off of a student commons area devoid of students due to a global pandemic, the space evokes an eerie and somber feeling, though perhaps not for the reasons originally intended.

Phase Change, at the Curtis Center for the Arts in Greenwood Village, is the fruitful result of a collaborative effort between K Rhynus Cesark, Andrea Gordon, Annakatrin Kraus, Bruce Price, Sara Ransford, Chandler Romeo, Martha Russo, and Tina Suszynski—a group of ceramic artists who completed the “Artists Invite Artists” residency at Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, Montana. The title of the exhibition, Phase Change, nominally highlights the artists’ investigation of ceramic materiality, surfaces, and firing styles. However, the scope of their exploration is much more holistic, encompassing the treatment of the gallery space and the way the objects were made as well as how they interact with the viewer.