The Month of Photography takes a different shape every time it comes around on Colorado’s cultural calendar. This year, the biennial event will be sprawling: 65 venues, 76 exhibitions, 126 events. The extravaganza is centered in Denver but stretches north to Boulder and Fort Collins and as far south as Pueblo.
March is the “official” month but things start early and can last weeks after as the various participating galleries and museums (and the coffee shops, retail stores, universities, libraries, theaters, outdoor spaces and community centers) get their shows up and running. There are no rules for what they do or how they do it, except that they need to have their wares available for public consumption at least one day in March.
That leaves the roster of shows wide open, and that is really the charm of the event. It shows off the art form in all of its creative ways, landscape and nature photography, portraits, photojournalism and street photography, right through to its more experimental incarnations. There seems to be no bounds, except that some sort of camera work is involved in each endeavor.
MOP, as its is called, is always a challenge to sort out, despite the fact that there is a comprehensive calendar of events on the website of the Colorado Photographic Arts Center, which organizes the operation. As for where to start, CPAC’s Megan Ross suggests popping into the organization’s headquarters in Denver’s Golden Triangle early on, where visitors can see its own signature exhibition and pick up a printed guide to all of the other happenings.
I always center my MOP around a few key events and then let the guide lead me from there. But I pay particular attention to local artists, because this is a way to discover new names and catch up with the ones that are familiar. Here are some offerings that look promising from the start.
“typed live, excuse errors: A Mark Sink Retrospective”
RedLine Contemporary Art Center, March 11-April 9
Mark Sink is the founder of MOP and a legend in the photo community of Colorado and beyond. No one has been more supportive of the art form — or other photographers — than Sink; he is both the keeper of local photo history and an important figure within it. He is also an artist with great imagination who has created a massive body of work over his lifetime, and it will be swell to see it displayed in RedLine’s vast gallery space.
RedLine is at 2350 Arapahoe St. Info: redlineart.org
“Looking Back, Moving Forward”
Colorado Photographic Arts Center, through April 15
The nonprofit CPAC has one of Colorado’s best art collections in its archives, though it is something of a secret. That is because the organization has not staged a thorough show of its own holdings since the 1970s, focusing instead on presenting exhibitions of working photographers across the globe. That changes, dramatically, with this presentation of 45 of its most treasured possessions, which includes work from names like Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham. This event celebrates CPAC’s 60th anniversary.
CPAC is at 1070 Bannock St. Info: cpacphoto.org
“A Cloud of Unknowing Apparitions and Manifestations, New Work by Andrew Beckham”
Michael Warren Contemporary, through March 11
Andrew Beckham is a photographer who takes on big universal questions through a very personal lens. This body of work, very Colorado in its way, looks at Beckhams’s relationship to the mountains, where he wanders frequently. These are landscape images, but heightened through the artist’s own hand, including the addition of micaceous glitter, which he makes in his studio from rocks collected on his journeys. It is innovative, ambitious and stunning.
Michael Warren is at 760 Santa Fe Drive. Info: michaelwarrencontemporary.com
“Denver Collage Club Returns to Alto Gallery”
March 3-April 1
There is always a happy feeling in the room when the Denver Collage Club shows its stuff to the public. The club is a loose affiliation of artists at every level of their careers who come together over their love of putting this thing with that things and seeing what happens in the end. It’s all experimental, and it feels that way. Sometimes the works are elegant and formal; other times they are little more than scraps of paper tacked to the wall. It’s relaxed and artful and super casual and just the right kind of event that community-minded Alto Gallery does best.
Alto Gallery is a small space in the RiNo Art Park at 1900 35th St. Suite A. Info: altogallery.com
“Night Lights Denver Celebrates Month of Photography”
March 1-31
The irony of the Night Lights gallery is that it is probably the biggest venue the state has to offer for art, but it is also one of the most overlooked. Night Lights has been going for years now as the Denver Theatre District has consistently projected artists’ work digitally on the side of the historic Daniels & Fisher Tower downtown. This show, curated by CPAC’s Samantha Johnston, is a chance to take a fresh look at the wares. She selected work by 60 photographers for the event and each will contribute a unique voice to the changing scenery. Wait for a warm-ish night, pack a snack, and gaze.
Night Lights Denver is at 1601 Arapahoe St. Info: denvertheatredistrict.com
Brenda Biondo, Angela Faris Belt, Gwen Laine
Michael Warren Contemporary, March 14-April 15
Michael Warren Gallery scores again during MOP with three concurrent shows featuring a trio of the region’s most talented and innovative photographers, all with reputations that reach beyond the local scene. They have diverse styles, but these exhibitions find the link in each artist’s explorations of science, astronomy, weather and other natural phenomena. Expect dreamy images, based on fact, but pushed into fiction.
Michael Warren is at 760 Santa Fe Drive. Info: michaelwarrencontemporary.com
