The creative process is ever-changing and often requires taking a look back to locate the way forward. The Arvada Center’s three summer exhibitions celebrate this fact by using the past as a guide to finding a way to and through modern times.
“I hope people come away from the galleries with a new understanding of what they can perceive,” said Olive Witwer-Jarvis, exhibitions manager and associate curator at the Center. “The personal stories and struggles on display provide a new look at what’s important.”
Melissa Furness — Embedded: A Mid-Career Survey, Haley Hasler — Origin Stories and Past is Present is Past is Present are all on display at the Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., through Aug. 24.
Set up in the Main Gallery, Embedded is an engrossing look at the career of an artist who is constantly finding new ways to explore themselves and the world around them. Broken up into subsections like In Ruins and Gathering Moss, Furness’ shows that she’s a conceptual artist of the highest order. Guests will see work that was created in places as disparate as Ireland and China, each with unique subjects and mediums worked into beautiful paintings.
History and its impact on our current times is a subject Furness — a professor at the University of Colorado Denver — returns to in fascinating ways, from making surreal recreations of well-known works to displaying discarded bricks from China.
“My work explores human nature and struggle as it manifests itself in relation to contemporary society and the remains of the past,” Furness said in a provided statement. “I am interested in what one culture upholds as significant — objects and ideals that we revere versus those that we discard or discount as unimportant. What does what we throw away say about us as a people versus what we place on a pedestal or seek to preserve?”
The Upper Gallery is home to Origin Stories, where Fort Collins artist Haley Hasler paints portraits that take her friends and family and put them in elaborately staged settings. The end results are transporting, at once familiar and slightly foreign.
“This show includes work from the past as well as my newest body of work,” Hasler said in a provided statement. “The beloved, everyday people around me are transformed in my paintings into gods and goddesses of the everyday realm.”
In Past is Present is Past is Present, located in the Theatre Gallery, visitors can see how Colorado artists use their ancestry, religious and cultural iconography, and mythology to shed a light on contemporary concerns, like our tumultuous political climate and missing Native women and children. The works are fascinating examinations of the artists’ relationship with the past and provide a window into the things that matter most.
“These exhibitions question what’s important and why,” Witwer-Jarvis said. “What makes something like the Mona Lisa so important, when there is so much happening in people’s day-to-day life?”
For more information, visit https://arvadacenter.org/galleries/current-exhibitions.
Go for a Moonlit Ride in Castle Rock
Castle Rock’s Pedal the Moon bike ride goes from 6:30 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, July 12 and departs from Castle View High School, 5254 N. Meadows Drive, at 7 p.m. As dusk starts, riders will follow the East Plum Creek Trail for about 6 miles to Festival Park.
According to provided information, the terrain is suitable for all riders and participants are encouraged to decorate their bikes with lights and other items. There will be a decorating station for those who want some glow-in-the-dark decorations. At Festival Park, riders can relax and enjoy some music while participating in some giveaways.
Full details and registration information is available at https://www.crgov.com/3184/Pedal-the-Moon.
Feel the Artistic Power of ‘Mutual Terrain’
RedLine Contemporary Art Center is celebrating Denver Month of Video with Mutual Terrain, curated by Adán De La Garza and Jenna Maurice. The show is on display at the Center, 2350 Arapahoe St. in Denver, from Friday, July 11 through Sunday, Aug. 3.
According to a provided statement from the curators, “Mutual Terrain’ brings together six artists whose works reveal the land as a living presence — one that remembers, resists, and responds. This exhibition invites viewers to reconsider their relationship to the natural world, not as separate from it, but as deeply entangled within it.”
The show encourages and rewards patience, so be ready to take your time. Find more information at https://www.redlineart.org/mutual-terrain-denver-month-of-video-mov.
Clarke’s Concert of the Week — Car Seat Headrest at Mission Ballroom
Virginia’s Car Seat Headrest are one of the most ambitious bands in the indie rock world. Over the course of their career, they’ve experimented with all kinds of stylistic approaches, from kind-of rock operas to just straight up ripping rock albums. You never quite know what you’re going to get, but the lyrics are always extremely literate and the music is top-notch.
In support this their latest release, The Scholars, the band is coming to the Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St. at 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 12. They’ll be joined by openers Slow Fiction for what’s sure to be an evening of great, adventurous live music. Get tickets at www.axs.com.
Clarke Reader’s column on culture appears on a weekly basis. He can be reached at Clarke.Reader@hotmail.com.