No gallery vets and nurtures local talent as thoroughly as Denver’s RedLine. Each year it plucks a promising variety of emerging artists from the local ranks and invites a lucky handful to take up residence in its rent-subsidized studio spaces.
RedLine doesn’t really give a seal of approval; it’s more like a nod of recognition and an invitation to join the social circle. But it’s enough that people look to its annual exhibit of affiliated artists for a word about where the city is headed as an art scene.
This year’s word: forward.
Thoughtful pieces from familiar names and promising newcomers are wisely wound together under the curatorial touch of Harmony Hammond, who chose the works from present RedLiners and alumni that have passed through over its five years. The artists are intellectually engaged, and the gallery itself, reconfigured to accommodate 33 items, looks new again.
As a geomapping of the genre’s future direction, the show has its limits. A surprising little of it is tech-based or awesomely conceptual, or uses video or is interactive — this is where art is going in other places.
The work overall feels politically out of sync. Commentary runs throughout the room, though it comes off muted and removed in a year when the creative community has been screaming at the top of its lungs to be heard.
And, personally, I wish it felt more regional. Not local exactly, no one is interested in that. But the work on display has tenuous roots in its own time zone, a missed opportunity when a lot of Colorado galleries are working hard to redefine the art of the West.
That said, the event does not claim to represent anything larger than itself. (If I’m projecting, that’s probably out of a belief in what’s possible.) In just wants to celebrate its own hard-working artists and give their talents a chance to shine. It that way, it is succeeds optimistically.
There are many thoughtful moments, even if they are fixated on the stuff of everywhere. A part of each of us takes comfort in knowing we will find a Home Depot or Chipotle wherever we go, and the references are just as broad at RedLine. Mickey Mouse, Apple products, jugs of laundry detergent, they’re all reconsidered.
There’s little mystery why Hammond assembled it all around the theme of “Material Engagements.” This show is obsessed with commercial products and cultural detritus.
Derrick Velasquez reconfigures soft strips of vinyl, layering them into a multicolored, wall-mounted solid with qualities the manufacturer never had in mind. Joel Swanson steals the hand-written words “I Love You” from found personal letters, enlarges them and stacks them in a column. The sentiment remains sincere — sort of — though it is transformed into something exaggerated and by-the-numbers.
Those pieces play well with Katie Watson’s “Adapt,” plaster molds of power cords, earphones and other personal electronic accessories. She places them in a glass case that is simultaneously a retail counter and a museum case — these hot commodities are already artifacts of our era.
This artistic recycling reaches its heights when it is kept simple. Amber Cobb presents what appears to be nothing more than a used mattress cover mounted on wood. It is stained, unsightly, unsanitary. Her title “Amid the Ruins of Rest” gets right at it. Our gentle sleep is filled with trauma — nightmares, illness, bad sex — the evidence speaks for itself.
Joel Swanson takes this idea of isolating a single object even higher with his second piece, “Spacebar.” He removes a space bar from a white keyboard, photographs it and enlarges it into 24″ by 32″ digital print. By elevating a supporting linguistic player to a starring role, he venerates the voids in our world, giving them their due for allowing the solids to make sense.
There are other material references. Jaime Carrejo reconsiders the zigzag patterns and colors of a donkey blanket with “Variegated Ass,” while Chinn Wang prints silhouetted flora over the shadows of ski caps for his “Closely Knit” series. Both works are youthful, and they do speak to a regional audience.
Several of the show’s installations reward viewers who take the time to explore them. Offerings from Heather Doyle-Maier, Nikki Pike, Katie Caron — all new to RedLine — push closer to the edge. Zach Reini provides the biggest chuckle, lining up 117 VHS copies of the movie “Independence Day” along a wall. It’s labeled a work “in progress,” and one suspects he’ll take donations if you have an old tape laying round.
Without devolving too far into a list here, there are well-considered assemblages in the mix from Gretchen Marie Schaefer, Theresa Clowes and RedLine founder Laura Merage, as well as a large and potent oil painting from Terry Campbell ( Painting. Remember that?).
There’s a lot to like, and the quantity is a tribute to RedLine. The operation has expanded lately, into innovative community outreach and education programs and recently it has served as a host gallery for touring exhibits that give us more to look at here. The work it does with residents is only part of the mission now, though still its showiest.
Just five years in, RedLine has become an important institution, living up to the fair expectation that it promote art as a path to communal and individual growth. This show provides evidence for both.
Ray Mark Rinaldi: 303-954-1540, rrinaldi@denverpost.com or twitter.com/rayrinaldi
MATERIAL ENGAGEMENTS RedLine’s annual resident artists’ exhibition, curated by Harmony Hammond. Through Dec. 30. 2350 Arapahoe St. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m Tuesday-Friday; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. 303-296-4448 or redlineart.org.
