This past weekend featured two openings that elicited very different emotions.
On Friday night, Goodwin Fine Art opened “Coalesce,” a group exhibition of the gallery’s stable of artists. The show is strong, but there’s just one dark cloud: This is the last show for Goodwin Fine Art. Tina Goodwin, who opened the gallery in 2011 at 1255 Delaware Street, apparently decided it was time to bow out (for now only, I hope) because of escalating rent. For several years, Goodwin managed William Matthews’ gallery on Wazee Street. She is a pro.
The artists represented in this show are talented and diverse, but one caught my eye that sort of summed up what I was thinking: Lino Lago’s Blue Paint on Ingres, (Portrait of Carolyn Rievere) depicts a woman being painted out of the picture, sort of, well, vanishing, as this gallery will after the show closes on Dec. 22.
I also wonder if the string of low-rise buildings like 1255 Delaware is endangered. Gallery 1261, at 1261 Delaware, a while ago decamped to a collective at 1412 Wazee Street, where K Contemporary, Gallery 1261, and Abend Gallery have spaces. (This is like some sort of reversal of time, since I remember that Core New Art Space used to be at 1412 Wazee years ago — another example of the flexible nature of galleries trying to stay alive.)
The Golden Triangle is going through massive redevelopment, with new apartment high rises throughout the neighborhood, including one right across from Goodwin Fine Art. It looks like it will be about 14 stories tall. But what happens to that row of buildings on the west side of Delaware may become part of another chapter oo that block. In Denver, anything can happen, and sometimes it seems as if almost everything is up for grabs.
As for Goodwin Fine Art, go visit: “Coalesce” is a really fine exhibition, but then Tina Goodwin has a really good eye.
On a happier note:
There was another opening this past weekend, on Saturday night at RedLine, with the debut of a retrospective of work by veteran artist Margaret Neumann. “Margaret Neumann: What Lies Between: A Retrospective” was curated by Simon Zalkind, another veteran of Denver’s strong art community.
I’ve seen a fair amount of Neumann’s work, since she has been exhibiting her work for many years – including back in the 1960s (I think I first saw her work in the early 1990s). But “What Lies Between” includes many pieces that are new to me. They are strong paintings, probing the recesses of the mind and the shadows we chase.
The exhibition is up through Jan. 6, 2019. Go look.
For more on Neumann and her show, learn more on Westword online, in one of a series of Colorado Creatives, by writer Susan Froyd. It posted today:
https://www.westword.com/arts/margaret-neumann-honored-as-a-colorado-creative-10996125
For more on RedLine, at 2350 Arapahoe Street, go to https://www.redlineart.org
And for Goodwin Fine Art, go to http://www.goodwinfineart.com
Chandler in Denver 