More than a dozen RMCAD staff, faculty and alumni will participate in Denver’s art event of the summer: Biennial of the Americas. The event will include exhibitions, symposia, clinicas, receptions and public festivals, July 16- 19. Installations and exhibitions run through September 2.
RMCAD community members will participate in First Draft, an exhibition at the McNichols Building in Civic Center Park; Draft Urbanism, an exhibition of public art and architecture installations throughout the city; Imagined Realities, a temporary sculpture exhibition at Sustainability Park and #childhood, an outdoor installation that examines the abstract imagination of children in comparison to surrounding corporate structures.
First Draft , curated by Cortney Lane Stell
First Draft is an exhibition by artists living and working in the Denver-metro region. RMCAD gallery director, Cortney Lane Stell, will curate the exhibition. (Stell also serves as an associate curator for Draft Urbanism). First Draft will take place in the McNichols Building at Civic Center Park, July 16 – September 2. An opening reception will be held Tuesday evening, July 16.
Contributing RMCAD faculty and staff members include Jamie Carrejo, Rebecca Vaughan, Gretchen Marie Schaefer, Matt Harris and Amber Cobb. RMCAD alumni Brandon Bultman and Alicia Ordal will also show their work in the exhibition.
First Draft , will focus on the concept of “iteration” or “draft” in a pluralistic sense and also as a pervasive condition to the world in which we live. Everything that we experience appears at a stage and exists in relation to preceding appearances. By thinking about how prevalent change is, and how alteration, iteration, or versions are an inescapable part of our lives, these works engage in a dynamic conversation about the artistic process, acknowledging that the world in which we live is intrinsically temporary.
Urban Signage
Urban Signage is a portion of the Draft Urbanism exhibition. It features artwork on billboards, posters and other signage that is already part of downtown’s visual context.
RMCAD alumni Dmitri Obergfell, Zach Reini and Travis Egedy, and former RMCAD staff member Mario Sanchez will participate in this exhibition.
Urban Signage will be an activation of non-traditional settings. The sites for this project will create a new way for the broader public to experience art in the city as they go about their day-to-day lives. The exhibition will be viewable by pedestrian and vehicular traffic, thus inviting the public to visit each work and transforming the city itself into a living, urban museum.
Draft Urbanism is a celebration of the diverse ways we can address the urban future through the arts, while maintaining a deep understanding and respect for the city’s rich, fluid history. Schoolhouses are now hotels, department stores make way for parks, warehouses become lofts, and where proud buildings once stood, we find an empty lot. Draft Urbanism explores these changing spaces using architectural and artistic installations.
Imagined Realities, curated by Cortney Lane Stell
Imagined Realities is a temporary exhibition at Sustainability Park (SPark) that examines the artistic research related to the intertwined concepts of energy and sustainability. The exhibition considers both the challenges and solutions related to sustainable living, ranging from envisioned utopia to the apocalyptic potentials that often drive sustainable endeavors. Imagined Realities will open on Biennial of the America’s Canada Night, which features a block party in SPark, July 17, 7:00-10:00 p.m. The exhibition will run through September 6.
Participating RMCAD artists and designers include Donald Fodness, Matthew Harris, Lisa Moses, Alvin Gregorio, Brian Evans, Trine Bumiller, M12 Collective, Daniel Hipolito and Corwin Lacert. Click here for more information aboutImagined Realities
#childhood
#childhood was created for this yearʼs Design and Build Project conducted by the Museum of Outdoor Arts. The abstract, outdoor sculptural exhibition is located in the McNichols Building Courtyard. #childhood challenges viewers to revert back to their childhood days of abstract thinking. The exhibition’s location within the Capitol Building’s corporate environment, juxtaposed with the sculpture’s imaginative and abstract theme, leads viewers to embrace the freedom of imagination, escape the realistic landscape and enter an alternate reality. For more information about #childhood.
#childhood was created by RMCAD alumni Tyler Wayne McCall and Jo Welborn and current student Carolyn Shea Burgin.
Visit biennialoftheamericas.org for more information.
