Robert Adams "The Places We Live" at the Denver Art Museum
First, is the retrospective exhibition by Colorado photographer Robert Adams titled "The Places we Live" which was on view at the Denver Art Museum September 23-
January 1. This quite expansive exhibition presented an impressive representation of Adams' understated, at times saddening, and often devastatingly beautiful photographs. The show offered a range of Adam's subject matter, including a collection of ocean photographs, a series of photos taken over the course of several years of a single cottonwood tree near Longmont, CO, and various images of Colorado's ghostly small towns. The most impressive images were those that exhibited what Adam's does best- create beautiful, subtle portraits of the tenuous relationship between people and the environment they inhabit.
The show, unfortunately, is over. However, Adam's photo books are available in bookstores and should not be overlooked by any resident of this land. The most recently published of Adams' books is a photographic retrospective of the same title as the DAM exhibition. A couple of our other favorites are Robert Adams: The New West and What We Bought: The New World, Scenes From the Denver Metropolitan Area, 1970-74. There is also a great episode of the PBS contemporary art series, Art 21, that features Robert Adams. Click here for a link.
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| Robert Adams ‘Colorado Springs, Colorado’1968 gelatin silver print Yale University Art Gallery Purchased with a gift from Saundra B. Lane, a grant from Trellis Fund, and the Janet and Simeon Braguin Fund |
Chris Antemann and Kendrick Moholt's "Let Them Eat Cake" + Terry Maker and David Zimmer at Robischon Gallery
The second show that we saw recently in Denver and thought was worth mentioning is the exhibition that was on view at the Robischon Gallery from November 10 to December 31. This multi-room exhibit contained the works of several interesting artists. Three of them particularly tickled our fancy
The main gallery was dedicated to ceramicist Chris Antemann and photographer Kendrick Moholt's collaborative effort, titled "Let Them Eat Cake," a series of color photographs that presented carefully framed vignettes made up of Antemann's provocative porcelain figurines. Reminiscent of the sexual (and financial) frivolity presented by 18th century Rococo painters such as Watteau, Antemann's delicate and luxuriously adorned figures twist, taunt, and flirt in provocative sensual tension. Intricately detailed porcelain fetes complete with hand-decorated dishes full of delectable fare and naked, or nearly naked intertwined merrymakers reveal improprietous trysts and a frivolity that in today's economic situation can only seem immoral at best. Even without considering the show's title, "Let Them Eat Cake," the unmistakable link between the excesses revealed in these 18th century vignettes and those outrageous luxuries enjoyed by today's elite couldn't be missed. The amazing attention to narrative and visual detail allowed us to overlook the fact that these 18th century characters left us a bit hungry for a little more concrete contemporary connection. Moholt's color photographs framed these porcelain figures in fashion-ad like style; only heightening the vanity and sexual tension, and bringing particular attention to individual interactions within the larger composition of the three-dimensional object. We think that this collaboration between Chris Antemann and Kendrick Moholt is worth a look. Click here for a link to images of the show on the Robischon Gallery website. Chris Antemann's website can be found here.
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| Chris Antemann and Kendrick Moholt, Tea Party |
Displayed in the adjacent gallery spaces was the work of Colorado artists Terry Maker and David Zimmer. Terry Maker's cast resin suitcases had a childhood fantasy-like attraction that we just couldn't resist, while David Zimmer's mad-scientist video constructions were so cool they left us wanting more.
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| Terry Maker, Ascension (Boy) |
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| David Zimmer, Blue Bird Box |
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