PAST SHOWS 2022
Kandy Kultur
December 9 - December 24, 2022
Opening Reception: Friday, December 9th, 5-10pm
Kandy Kultur
This exhibit features anime, manga, comics, skateboard art and sculptures as well as the pretty & peculiar, the beautifully bizarre and all things found under the counter culture. Artists who savor the satiric and sarcastic, revel in the rad, seek the geek and are fluid like Frida in unifying the low brow, middle brow, and the no brow were juried into this contemporary and unconventional show. Juror Susan Froyd is a freelance arts journalist for Westword.
Core Members Solo Exhibits - Michelle Lamb, Christine O'Dea & Chris Hudson
November 18 - December 4
Artist’s Reception, Friday, Nov. 18th, 5-10 pm
First Friday: Dec. 2nd, 5-10pm
Re:Defined - Michelle Lamb
While assemblage artist Michelle Lamb does re-purpose, re-use, re-assemble, and re-animate found objects, it isn’t really about recycling. She feels she is doing something more noble than recycling when she deconstructs, modifies and "recontextualizes" things. She prefers quite common objects such as garden implements, kitchen gadgets and has a fondness for obsolete machinery whose engineering is still a marvel to her. Lamb feels transforming seemingly worthless elements into something valuable is a type of alchemy and she upcycles and redefines their original purpose, so they become integral to the curious new narratives or designs she meticulously creates.
TRANSMUTE - CHRISTINE O’DEA
Changing wounds into our greatest gifts, pain into freedom, mistakes into magic, defeat into empowerment, and loss into creation—seems to be essential if we are to move through these seasons in life and recover the core of what we cherish. On this sometimes grueling, sometimes effortless journey, we hopefully support, love, guide, help ourselves and one another along the way during such transitions.
It is the expressive elements of light and dark, feminine and masculine, moon and sun, sickness and wellness, and ultimately wholeness, which inspire and inhabit this new work by O’Dea, all of which contain her personal signature of subtle strength.
MAÑANA - CHRIS HUDSON
"Sure baby, mañana. It was always mañana. For the next few weeks that was all I heard––mañana, a lovely word and one that probably means heaven." Jack Kerouac - On the Road
That word, mañana, resonated in Hudson's head while painting his latest work which is an explosion of color and movement. "I had some ideas or colors in mind when I started, however, most of the pieces traveled in unintended directions that took on new forms while retaining some sense of uncertainty. I'm always curious if “mañana” literally means tomorrow, sometime in the indefinite future, or heaven? Similarly, I’m fascinated when a single painting provides a spectrum of interpretations or emotions amongst different viewers, as if ambiguity enveloped in lucidity."
Hudson's works are complex, layered, and pulsate with an energy that contains hints of Klee, Richter, Monet, and street art blended together at full-speed with delicious results that should be enjoyed, today…not mañana.
Gina Caswell and Kathy Mitchel - Garton
October 28 - November 13, 2022
Artist’s Reception Friday, October 28
First Friday, November 4
Modern Farm - Gina Caswell
“Modern Farm” recent paintings by Gina Smith Caswell were inspired by her visits to her daughter’s rural farm in Tennessee. Portraiture took on a new meaning with images of not humans, but animals, willing to engage directly with the viewer. She was surprised at the curiosity the animals have for humans. She had never looked at bird life, but the abundance of birds at the farm made her observe and then translate into paint the variety of birds with differing coloring, texture and size. Then there were the sheep and horses who directly engage with the viewer. To keep with the artists’ own themes, many of the paintings have decorative floral backgrounds. The show would not be complete without a painting of her daughter with a Canadian goose, a modern American gothic image. All images of a modern farm.
Stitching in Time - Kathy Mitchel - Garton
In this new body of work, Kathy Mitchell-Garton uses heirloom linens and lace, antique buttons, beads and thread to create embroidered and collaged pieces that explore themes of domesticity and femininity and the confluence between creation and preservation. Working with fragments of lace and stained or torn linens creates a connection with the ancestors who created and preserved these materials. “I feel like I’m collaborating with the women, many from my family but also strangers, who created and saved these things,” she says of her process. The pieces speak to the work of hands, referencing touch through gloves, stitching and imagery. Button holes, buttons, silk scarves, handkerchiefs, lace cuffs—all evoke the intimacy and specificity of individual people, the ancestors who connect us to our past.
Earl Chuvarsky and Sam Smith
October 7 -23, 2022
Artist’s Reception / First Friday, October 7
Ghosts of Old Denver Part II - Earl Chuvarsky
Continuing the exploration of historic people and places that have a connection to Colorado, Chuvarsky expands on the idea of Denver being a city of booms and busts. From its beginnings as cottonwood logs on a bluff overlooking the confluence of the South Platte river and Cherry Creek to the metropolitan hub it is today.
"There's a lot of correlation between creating art and the boomtowns of the American west. When the mines stopped producing, the towns would eventually dry up and people would move on. Just because you have a successful response to a show one year doesn't necessarily mean that will be the next. Hopefully I captured a sense of strangeness, a sense of the wild west but with a contemporary twist"
A Crime Against Humanity - SAM SMITH
Sam Smith takes an unexpected turn and delves into assemblage and conceptual ready-mades as he explores the tragedy of the Uvalde, Texas school shooting. Rather than create art intended to decorate living space, Smith puts forth a challenging body of work that wrestles with American gun culture and the painful consequences it forces so many to suffer through. It is timely social commentary that fortunately manages to avoid the grotesque. The work is compelling visually, but can be challenging to contemplate. Viewer discretion is advised.
Danid Karim & Susie Biehl
September 16th – October 2nd
Artist Reception: Sep 16th, 5 – 10pm
Material World - Susie Biehl
Susie Biehl's latest collection is an explosion of color, pattern, energy and beauty. It is an eclectic mix of assemblage, collage, exploration and accumulation. Biehl has a knack for
combining rejected debris people leave behind for future cultural anthropologists with the stunning beauty of objects only Mother Nature herself can create.
Much of what is manufactured today serves a single use and is designed for an ephemeral existence before heading straight to the landfill. Biehl finds beauty in these discarded objects by bringing them back to life and elevating them into fine art. Her work is imaginative, surprising and beautiful. In its own way, it bridges consumerism and environmentalism into what modern life has effectively wrought - a compromise between the forces of human progress and the natural world.
Third Time's A Charm - Danid Karim
Karim believes art permeates all aspects of life and of being. Her sumptuous paintings contain a richness and depth that captures the extraordinary in the ordinary, as well as the extraordinary in the mundane.
“I paint pictures of unique people and places, and of diverse objects that hold some allure for me. It is that certain appealing something - that “je ne sais quoi" quality - which is impossible to explain but which inspires me to paint them.”
Richard Neff and Julie Vaught
August 26 – September 11
Artist Reception: Aug 26th, 5 – 10pm
First Friday: Sept 6th, 5 – 10pm
Purity of Form - Richard Neff
Working in acrylic on canvas, Richard Neff expands on the concept of geometric shapes in every dimension. Big and bold in size and color, his canvases feature impossible interactions between form and mind.
Neff is an absolute master of detail and illusion. It is hard to believe these are hand painted pieces, they look like the work of some sentient computer. Wile engaging with this work, you can’t help but feel you are inside an alternate universe where mathematical perfection obliterates human frailty and doubt. Neff’s “Purity of Form” will take you on a calming, mindful journey to a place where everything is just right and makes perfect sense. It is the kind of uplifting counter programming we can all appreciate and crave more of.
Impermanence and Light - Julie Vaught
Julie Vaught's new work explores the play of light as both a source of imagery within a painting, an external source, as well as, a metaphorical light of our human soul. The interaction of video art with a static painting create an ever changing reality for the viewer. Through mixed media, photography, paint, and video art she takes us on a visual journey of healing from abuse and trauma as a female in todays society. Her work explores the imagination and fantasy as an expression of feminine beauty and power. Her healing work has included studying with the Five Wisdoms Institute, transpersonal counseling, Hakomi method somatic body centered trauma therapy, and Tibetan Buddhist meditation practices. The artist explores the idea that our ability to heal stems from embracing both the darkness and the light within us.
The use of video art projected onto the static art pieces attempts to capture the inability to grasp or hold onto moments, however fleeting, beautiful, tragic, and or powerful. Healing comes truly through being present. Through exploring with fantasy, masks, movement, and body paint the artist explores themes of healing, personal power, sexuality, and self love. Live visuals by @blastoffvisuals at the opening. Artist Instagram: @vaughtjulie79
Kathryn Cole and Edgar Dumas
August 5 - August 21
First Friday and Artist’s Reception August 5
Plus Minus One - Kathryn Cole
Cole’s latest body of work stays true to her simplistic figurative genre. Removing extraneous detail and color to focus on the figure, encourages the viewer to create their own narrative related to the subject matter. Her giving only the merest of detail while also using a minimalist palette, is a fresh antidote for ostentation, meant to focus the viewers attention on the subject.
Cole’s works embark on a singular journey where having people and things removed from one’s life can be a thoughtful adventure and a unique perspective on finding fulfillment in “being”. “Art can speak where words can’t explain. Remember to pay attention, be kind, laugh and find joy in the simple things. Most importantly don’t take yourself too seriously.”
Edgar Dumas
“Who’s Looking at Who?” - Dumas’s oil paintings use figurative compositions to explore life’s situations; internal and external. His work gives the viewer a chance to look behind the human curtain and see a possible view of themselves. He paints with vivid colors and his use of thick impasto oil paint, applied with a palette knife and brush, achieve colorful and richly textured canvases. His both visceral and viscous approach to painting conspire to achieve a “fine mess ”.
WOW! Anything Goes Colorado
July 15 - July 31, 2022
Opening Reception Friday, July 15 5:00 - 10:00 PM
Barbara Veatch and Maria Sheets
June 24 -July 10, 2022
Artist’s Reception, June 24. First Friday, July 1, 2022
ENLIGHTENMENT - Maria Valentina Sheets
In, “Enlightenment,” artist Maria Valentina Sheets creates a contemporary homage by placing characters amidst the symbolic, often chaotic, detritus of modern environments. Prior to becoming a master glass painter and art conservator, Sheets spent her childhood within the top story of a Russian Orthodox Church in San
Francisco where her grandmother (a pharmacist/nurse for retirement homes), great aunt and great Uncle (a Russian Orthodox priest and Iconographer) resided while her parents took part in the counterculture activities of Haight-Ashbury. Amidst the social/familial upheaval, early impressions of liturgical arts were made as she watched her great uncle meditatively paint icons in centuries old techniques using materials such as oil, natural gesso, clay bole, egg tempera, ground pigments and gold. Traditionally, each layer of the icon making process represents liturgical stories which start from the early “ether of nothingness” represented by the white of a gesso layer, to the “creation of earth” in the application of ground colored pigments mixed with egg yolk, and finally, to the “holy spirit” represented in the reflections of a gilded surface. Halo’s, evoked often in Sheet’s work, have been used since the early Roman era to signify political or philosophically “enlightened” figures of importance. As a female child in a, not so “enlightened”, conservative Orthodox environment, the artist was initially prohibited from actively painting icons. But after decades of mastering grisaille, a combination of “earth” (pigment) and “fire”(kiln), Sheets now takes ownership of these symbolic layers in her own richly saturated, contemporary stained glass portraiture. Holding a Masters of Humanities from UT Dallas and a Professional Associates Status Certificate from the American Institute for Conservation, Sheets was contracted as chief conservator for the fire recovery project at the Museum of Biblical Art and the National Jewish Collection in Dallas, Texas. In addition to treating contemporary, historic, liturgic, and archaeological artifacts for private collections, galleries, museums for over two decades, she teaches courses on collections care, painting, and traditional liturgical arts such as gilding, pysanky, traditional iconography, and glass painting/fusing. Maria Valentina Sheets Glassworks has been contracted by large glass firms for numerous architectural glass commissions which include universities, houses of worship, businesses and private residences nationally. Her work was chosen in recent juried exhibitions such as American Glass Guild NOW 2016(juror, contemporary artist Judith Schaecter), Texas National 2018 (juror Jed Perl, international art critic), and Materials Hard and Soft International Craft Exhibition 2019(2nd place of 1100 entries). In 2021, Sheets, in conjunction with Scottish Stained Glass of Denver, designed and painted the new “Legacy Window” installed at historic Vernon AME in the Greenwood, District of Tulsa, depicting over 120 years of the church’s history and its survival through the Tulsa
Race Massacre. Sheets studio is located in Evergreen, Colorado.
Landforms and Whimsy - Barbara Veatch
Perceptions are never fettered by reality. They are free, spontaneous, instant, and lasting. Continuing her dive into abstractions of nature, Barbara Veatch captures
movement that might define sky or wind, ridgelines with lift and elevation, and color that elevates the spirit. Mixed media on wood and paper supplies the vehicle to bring perceptions of the natural world to a tangible reality, often with a playful touch. After receiving her MFA from The Ohio State University, Barbara’s life journey has given her the opportunity of living in Alaska, California, and Colorado, all states that are blessed with abundant natural beauty. It’s evident that the
exposure to the glories of nature hold a prominent place in her aesthetic.
Robert Davis Garner and Fred Voigt Becker
June 3 - June 19, 2022
Artist Reception: Friday June 3, 5 - 10 pm
Tests, Allies and Enemies - Robert Davis Garner
Robert Davis Garner consistently paints some of the most skillful, thought-provoking canvases in Colorado. He's a storyteller whose massive, mural-sized work never stops pulling us into the deepest reaches of memory, emotion, dreams and nightmares. Garner explains: "This body of work is one part of my journey. The stepping through and learning from the suffering of my own consequences. Confronting allies, enemies, and past tests, literal and figurative. It is our past that defines who we are today. Better understanding of the past gives us strength to win the battles of today. Tests, Allies & Enemies is the crossing of the threshold and facing tests: tests of strength; tests of will; meeting of friend; meeting of foe. They don’t just measure readiness, but a connection with our heart to better understand emotions and values and develop practices. It’s always been my hope that by understanding my own past struggles, I can be better prepared to understand the suffering of today."
Garner's journey is our own. His personal stories are the human struggle writ large. While his work is rooted in personal history, it questions the direction of civilization itself. Will humanity meet the challenges of the present and future? I see hope and redemption in his work. And the world could use a lot of that right now.
Original/Nature - Fred Voigt Becker
Art that arises from an inviolable source, which has its own reality, without referring to objects, is an authentic expression. Art with this kind of integrity fits any situation without flinching.
The artist seeks to let their work be itself--uncontrived and intuitive. Art that is allowed to be itself creates itself and the artist becomes the agent. Art that creates itself in this way does not need to fit any stylistic school. It springs from an instinctive place that synthesizes all the information absorbed to date by the artist and yields a product that is fresh and spontaneous. This work when it appears needs nothing added or subtracted, and thus is itself, inviolable.
Becker notes, "Of course, I am not always able to make art from this native ground. Often, I get in the way. So, this is a statement of intent to create from a space that I have sometimes been able to access, and sometimes not."
Fred's newest work is a testament to his continuing growth as a professional artist. He keeps building on to his brilliant repertoire of color, pattern, movement, and abstract design with no end in sight. His latest works combine his love for layered shape and color with wax, monotype, silk screen, plaster and graphite line work. Displayed in this show is some of the most vibrant beauty you can find in non-objective, two-dimensional artwork. You can't help but feel good looking at it. And you'll want to take it home.
Spring Break
Friday, May 13 – Sunday, May 29, 2022
Artist Reception: Friday May 13, 5-10pm
Spring is in the air and it’s time for a break. We could all use one after another strange winter! It’s time for CORE’s ode to the joyful renewal marked by the vernal equinox. Spring Break is an open call to artists across America. The rebirth that is springtime has been celebrated with festivals and depicted by artists of nearly every civilization, ancient to contemporary. It’s hard not to love this time of year. The days grow longer and warmer, flowers bloom and birds seem to sing with more flamboyant confidence. No wonder people worldwide make merry in spring.
The modern Spring Break phenomenon as we know it began in the 1930s when a collegiate swim coach from upstate New York took his team to Ft. Lauderdale for some preseason training. What this has to do with the over-consumption of jungle juice and beachside property damage is open to interpretation. This group show asks artists to show what Spring Break means to them. Juvenile bacchanalia or rejuvenating hiatus? Rebirth and new life or restful downtime? Whatever you think, we’d love to see it!
Architecture Of Form III
Friday, April 22 -Sunday, May 8
Opening Reception: April 22nd 5-10pm
First Friday: May 6th 5-10pm
Architecture of Form 3
Conceived and curated by Jude Barton in 2020, the Architecture of Form exhibition honors the self-referential vocabulary of geometry. Geometry intrinsically rejects contemporary transient socio-political, and cultural involvement as well as the interpretive bias of the viewer. Shape, color, composition, and form emerge through the artists' dialog and interaction with the vocabulary of geometry, and a commitment to expressions of beauty, balance, structure, and tension.
During the initial conception of Architecture of Form, Barton invited colleagues who were like-minded in their approach to non-objective art to explore the possibility of exhibiting together. Over a period of months and several meetings, the participating artists discussed the historical relevance, inspiration and various styles embraced in the movement, frequently citing artists and historical references such as Theo Van Doesburg, Malevich, Kandinsky, Minimalism, DeStijl, Suprematism, Art Concret, Constructivism, Bauhaus and the early Russian avant-garde.
Now in its third year, Architecture of Form will once again show works of 14 artists at Core Art Space in the 40 West art district in Lakewood, Colorado.
Participating artists:
Jude Barton (curator) , Richard Chamberlain, Denise Demby, Nicholas Figel, Leo Franco, John Kjos, Chuck McCoy, Tim McKay, Richard Neff, Roger Rapp, Craig Robb, Craig Rouse, Jean Smith, and J. Bruce Wilcox
friends Like these
Friday, April 1 - Sunday, April 17, 2022
Artist’s Opening and First Friday, April 1, 2022
Friends Like These - Core Members & their Friends
The creative and artistic body of members at Core New Art Space celebrates our creative and artistic friends who are not members of the gallery.
This exhibit displays a wide variety of talent in a variety of mediums. Please enjoy this collaboration of Core members along with their talented friends. Explore the vast array of color, texture and structure. A most exciting visual to be experienced and enjoyed by all. There’s nothing better than Friends Like These!
Surface In/Sight: Printmaking Today
March 11 - March 27, 2022
Artist reception: Friday, March 11th, 2022, 5p – 10p
This juried exhibition explores how the artist perceives printmaking today. From tried-and-true traditional techniques to a widening array of new technologies, printmakers are encouraged to entrust their insights using unique approaches and skills to enable their imagery to emerge on the surface. All print techniques and substrates, ranging from traditional to experimental and digital are allowed (except giclee reproductions).
Juror: Joe Higgins. A well-respected Colorado artist working primarily in monotypes. “I work in monotype and my pictures deal with place, spiritual presence and the vexations of making connections of the spirit. The images are representational, but also conceptual and symbolic." Higgins has taught classes in monotype at the Art Students League of Denver since 2010.
Chuck McCoy and Jude Barton
February 18 - March 6, 2022
Opening Reception, February 18
As I See It - Chuck McCoy
Sometimes you have your head in the clouds, sometimes you have your eyes glued to a screen. In both cases you are looking. Looking awestruck at what nature creates or puzzling out what lays behind your eyes, in your brain, in your mind's eye.
In this exhibition Chuck McCoy pulls out some older work inspired by clouds he saw over Rocky Mountain Park in 2018 and new work continuing his configurations of abstract shapes as well as works on paper. He combines inkjet, paint and paper on various substrates to create forms and images that break out of rational formats into spontaneous expressions.
Order & Entropy - Jude Barton
Artist Jude Barton has, over the last decade, developed a proclivity towards architectural and geometric forms, imparting the notion of truth and beauty; of axiomatic principles and defined rational order. "I find order to be comforting, a perfect cornerstone upon which all other stones can be placed to keep everything true and straight. The Logos. The Rational Word."
On the other hand - entropy with its tendency toward randomness, drift and decay, is the expression of chaos and disorder. Barton feels while entropy describes an observable process involving energy, thermodynamics and such things that fill the heads of physicists and engineers, she also believes it applies to societal decay and a moral drift toward randomness and deconstruction.
Barton's most recent work represents an observation of, and meditation on, the deconstruction of order, and a point of departure from the hard-edged geometric shapes to explore issues of entropy in both the physical and philosophical realm.
“Over, Under, Further, Forever “ Women's Caucus for Art Members Exhibition
Jan 28th - Feb 13th, 2022
Opening Reception: Jan. 28th, 2022
Over, Under, Further, Forever - Women's Caucus for Art Members Exhibition
2022 marks the 33rd year of the Colorado Chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art. Our members exhibition this year celebrates womxn's accomplishments and the ways that their fight for equal rights, power, and respect has improved our world. And just as womxn's work and accomplishments have seeped into almost every aspect of culture, this show features work that pervades the gallery space and appears everywhere: overhead, under our noses, pushing the idea of art further, and imagining a bright future where womxn's contributions continue on forever.
New Year’s Core Member’s Show
Friday, January 7 - Sunday, January 23, 2022
First Friday Opening Reception: 1/7 5-10pm
Members Show
Core bids farewell to 2021, a year of upheaval and change, and celebrates a fresh new year! A year filled with newfound optimism and forward thinking. Come see works from all the members which encompasses a vast array of art forms. There will be paintings that cover abstract, representational, classical, minimalist, expressionism and graphically modern. Sculptures and mixed media include ceramics, metal, upcycling, collage, fiber/beading and assemblage.
