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Volume 3, Issue 15
July 5 - July 18, 2001
ART
ART CARNIVAL,
MAGIC THEATRE
@
ANDENKEN
GALLERY & DESIGN
2110 Market St., 720-291-4567
Through September
You know that utter satisfaction of a really excellent meal that engages
all your senses and is totally nourishing as well? Shouldn't art do that, too?
That's the sensation I got entering
Andenken Gallery on its opening night.
Yes, art can still be presented in exciting
ways-- ways that spark the senses and
nourish the imagination.
First off, the gallery is humongous, about
6,000 square feet; studios and office areas
double that number. Resurrecting an old
coffee-and-spice warehouse he describes
as "totally trashed," Hyland Mather has
worked for months, along with Malia Tata
and Jeff Moe, effecting this transformation.
It's a breath-taking amount of space.
Happily, a focus of the gallery partnership
is design, and that sensibility infuses
Andenken, which the current show fills to
great advantage.
Time your visit for sundown. (Or later,
Andenken is open until midnight on
Fridays.) Many of the pieces use built-in
illumination and these works come into
their own as the gallery naturally darkens.
Soon the space is lit only by the pieces
themselves, and small spotlights on those
that don't provide their own glow. The
effect is magical. The small areas of light
create a sense of privacy--
just you and that artwork. By
keeping the rest of the large space in
subdued light, each piece becomes intimate
and attention-focusing.
With exposed brick
walls, ceiling conduits,
cement floors
and ramps for now-vanished
warehouse
forklifts, the gallery
retains a raw industrial
feel. Individual
artworks either contrast
or harmonize
with this aesthetic.
Joseph Riché's
"Error & Ingenuity" takes the latter route.
Step on a foot pedal and a vast arm starts
to spin within a wide steel hoop, creating
10,000 volts of blue-sparking current,
thanks to some electrical components.
Step right up to the art carnival!
This premier exhibit presents nearly 60
works, many of them installations, some
of them massive. Josh Levy's high and
wide "Mitosis: Episode Two" occupies an
entire two-story wall, cell division rendered
vast and elegant. Bonnie Ferrill
Roman's visceral constructions of handmade
paper and branches read as
primeval lanterns and giant glowing
pods. Kelly Shroads supplies
type C prints, feathers and skeletal
leaves mounted in industrial-strength
steel light-boxes.
Craig Coleman's pieces both use
projected light. One shoots a shifting
image downward onto salt
piled on the gallery floor. In the
other, transistors
and resistors float in a fish tank, constantly
shifting, as an overhead projector
throws their images up on a wall, a surreal
but mesmerizing "movie," complete
with chairs for relaxed viewing. (In fact,
there are chairs throughout Andenken,
encouraging visitors to take their time
with the art and each other, for a pleasingly
civilized ambience.)
Fine paintings by Louis Recchia,
"American Dream Machine" and "Mirror
Mirror," are some of the only figurative
pieces here. They look great in this setting.
Other terrific paintings, abstract
pieces, come from Charlotte Reid and
Jason McCullough.
Upstairs again via a story-high concrete
ramp, the back room on the main floor is
lit by giant spheres suspended at various
heights from the ceiling "Globes" by Josh
Levy. Each measures some three feet
across and glows with red light. Viewers
must navigate around them to cross the
room. Andenken suddenly feels like a surrealistic
night club, ready for performances,
installations, circuses, you name it.
Fittingly, the partners say they anticipate
hosting a variety of events.
'Andenken' is a German word that translates
as "to think of a friend with kind
regard in relation to an object they've
given you." I left without objects, but with
haunting mental images and plenty of
kind regard. Andenken is an intelligent
sensory delight.
--Renna Shesso
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