Made in Colorado

CU Denver Experience Gallery, 1025 13th Street, Denver, CO 80202

Emmanuel Gallery, 1205 10th Street Plaza, Denver, CO 80204

May 20-July 21, 2023

Curated by Kerry Brougher and Nora Halpern

Admission: free

Review by Laura I. Miller

The juried Made in Colorado exhibition at the University of Colorado Denver's Emmanuel and Experience Galleries features artists currently living in the state and typically was held every two years. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show has been on hiatus since 2018, but the 45 artists now on display haven’t been idle. [1] They’ve been busy painting, sculpting, sewing, photographing, videographing, building, and making. If the exhibit is any indication of how we’ve evolved over the past five years, then it appears that we’re in the midst of an artistic renaissance. Made in Colorado thrums with vibrancy and awareness of the artist’s role in society.

A view of the exhibition *Made in Colorado* at the CU Denver Experience Gallery. Image by *DARIA*.

In selecting these pieces from a pool of over 1,400 applications, internationally-renowned jurors Kerry Brougher and Nora Halpern looked for a variety of media as well as works that engage with social commentary. [2] I think it’s fair to say that they achieved their goal. Though the approaches are far-reaching, the theme of man’s relationship to nature takes center stage, with social justice and the importance of playfulness rounding out the cast.

A view of *Made in Colorado* at the Emmanuel Gallery. Image by Tomas Bernal, courtesy of the gallery.

“Because of my background working at the juncture of social justice and art, the works that engaged social commentary really spoke to me,” says Halpern in her juror’s statement. “We found art with social commentary that was powerful but universal. There are a number of artists who are bringing up really important social issues visually.”

Melissa Furness, *Fair Game*, 2022, oil on linen. Image by *DARIA*.

The portion of the exhibition at CU Denver Experience Gallery features 12 artists working in sculpture, video, photography, textile, and paint. In her oil painting Fair Game, Melissa Furness tangles with the untamable nature of weeds. A dense thicket of black and white overgrowth in the foreground contrasts with a brightly-colored floral wallpaper in the background. Fairies, imaginary animals, and an anatomical heart are entwined with the thicket, suggesting a struggle, but also the inescapable dichotomies of light and dark, chaos and control. The gothic ethos of this painting encapsulates the modern tug-of-war between saving and destroying nature.

Gregory Ellis, *You Are Waiting… Should You Be Waiting?*, 2023, oil on canvas. Image by *DARIA*.

One of the most visually striking paintings in the exhibition, Gregory Ellis’s You Are Waiting… Should You Be Waiting? makes explicit the troubled relationship between man’s environmental footprint and other species. The painting depicts a Ziploc® bag and the critically endangered monarch butterfly floating against a black backdrop. In this context, the ghostlike bag has an uncanny beauty. “Like [Georgia] O’Keeffe’s flower images, the bags fold and unfold alluringly,” Ellis writes, “...the welcoming, seductive, womb-like surfaces and the sterility of the material is paradoxical.” [3]

For its innovative use of materials, Margaret Kasahara’s Notation series surprises me the most. On display are two framed portions of security envelopes with silver thread and pencil markings that resemble hair (“artist’s hair” is listed among the materials used to create these pieces). Kasahara’s statement proves essential to gaining a deeper understanding of these works: “After my parents’ recent passing, I began to receive various documents mailed in security envelopes. The interiors of the envelopes present a variety of colors, patterns, and window sizes, and I have been struck by the layers of meaning and metaphorical possibilities…” This is one of the few pieces that has an expressed relationship to death—the death of her parents, but also the death of the trees that resulted in the envelopes, once again intertwining the natural world and the lives of people in unexpected but inevitable ways.

Lauri Lynnxe Murphy, *Fra Angelico’s Secret*, 2023, found object, honeycomb, plaster, brass, and tree root. Image courtesy of the artist.

Over Emmanuel Gallery, where works from the remaining 33 artists are displayed, themes of nature abound. Lauri Lynnxe Murphy’s Fra Angelico’s Secret combines a found object resembling a top with a multicolored honeycomb, plaster hand, brass wire, and tree root. As the only miniature on display, it stands apart from the other sculptures, yet still boldly illustrates the inexorable relationship between man and nature, as shown by the human hand embedded in the honeycomb. Honey bee populations continue to remain vulnerable, according to the World Animal Foundation, due to manmade factors such as climate change and pesticides. [4]

Albert Chong, *Throne for the Gorilla Spirits*, 1993, chromogenic color print. Image courtesy of the artist.

Artist Albert Chong’s photograph Throne for the Gorilla Spirits centers another endangered species, the gorilla. In the photograph, an altar contains fruit such as bananas, apples, and coconuts, as well as cigars, dried grass, and a chair on which rests a gorilla skull. A brass-looking mat etched with human and animal figures and religious/spiritual phrases borders the photograph, placing the gorilla’s spirit on equal footing with man’s. Several more pieces in the exhibition express a reverence for nature, including Bailey Constas’ Time Runs Through It and JayCee Beyale and Porfidia Beuke’s Ha’ahóni (Perseverance), both of which call attention to the vitality of water.

Danielle SeeWalker, *LAND | HOSTAGE*, 2023, acrylic, oil stick, and uncashed government checks on canvas. Image courtesy of the artist.

Marking a thematic shift from environmental to social justice, Danielle SeeWalker’s abstract portrait LAND | HOSTAGE calls attention to the unjust seizure of Native American reservation lands. Her statement says, “Today, more than 56 million acres of Indian lands are held in trust by the U.S. government… The artist inherited tribal lands from her family, yet the federal government is the actual ‘owner’ by way of the trust system.” She goes on to describe incorporating the “very small” and “insulting” government checks into her artwork. In this work the checks appear in the figure’s braids. Similar to Margaret Kasahara’s security envelopes, the government checks show the dehumanization that occurs when lives are reduced to documents.

Levi Fischer, *The Tub*, 2022, giclée print. Image courtesy of the artist.

Artist Levi Fischer is known for his digital paintings and graphics that incorporate modern art technology such as AI. [5] Here, he approaches social justice through a more utopian lens. His work The Tub, a giclée print depicting a dreamlike bath setting in the “tsubo-niwa and naka-niwo garden style from Japan,” presumably crafted with the aid of AI, combines hard- and softscapes, creating a reality that incorporates both feminine and masculine ideals. [6] It’s worth noting that several artists on display have incorporated technology in their works, often in ways that reimagine aspects of the natural world.

Laura Merage, *Nausy Nausy*, 2018, fabric and Polyfill fiber. Image courtesy of the artist.

Floyd D. Tunson, *Universal Bunny*, 2022, mixed media. Image by Tomas Bernal, courtesy of the gallery.

While it could be said that all of these works engage with the theme of playfulness, several pieces on display particularly emphasize the power of imagination. Laura Merage’s Nausy Nausy, brightly-colored fabric sculptures that decorate the overhead window, and Floyd D. Tunson’s Universal Bunny, a large-scale robot-looking sculpture with a close-up image of a nose and lips for its face, are the most obvious examples of this. Undoubtedly, these two sculptures would stand brilliantly on their own, but in context with more somber subject-matter, they provide the viewer with a holistic experience of the artistic sensibilities currently in practice in Colorado.

A view of Laura Merage’s *Nausy Nausy* and Floyd D. Tunson’s *Universal Bunny*. Image by *DARIA*.

Should you visit only one exhibition this summer, let Made in Colorado be among the contenders. Juror Kerry Brougher writes of the show, “It is a strong group across the board,” and I’m inclined to agree. The sheer volume of media, accompanied by powerful through-lines, secures this exhibition’s place among the best in Denver this year.

Laura I. Miller (she/her) is a Denver-based writer and editor. Her articles, reviews, and short stories appear widely. She received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arizona.

[1] Featured artists include: Michael Agyepong, JayCee Beyale, Matthew Bollinger, Trine Bumiller, Al Canner, Sandra Ceas, Albert Chong, Amber Cobb, Christopher Coleman, Bailey Constas, Sarah Darlene, Alissa Davies, Gregg Deal, Nicholas Emery, Sasha de Koninck, Gregory Ellis, Suzanne Faris, Tobias Fike, Tom Finke, Levi Fischer, Charis Fleshner, Melissa Furness, Eric Hagemann, Matthew Harris, Chelsea James, Margaret Kasahara, Paul Kenneth, Rian Kerrane, Sammy Lee, Sally Mankus, Laura Merage, Lauri Lynnxe Murphy, Katelyn Odenheimer, Kevin Oehler, Kyoko Ono, Jennifer Pettus, Jay Phillips, Noah Phillips, Gretchen Schaefer, Danielle SeeWalker, Brenda Stumpf, Mak Tucker, Floyd Tunson, Emilie Upczak, Belgin Yucelen.

[2] From the jurors’ statements posted in the galleries.

[3] From the artist’s statement.

[4] Visit worldanimalfoundation.org/advocate/bee-statistics/ for more information.

[5] See levifischer.art/bio.

[6] From the artist’s statement.