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Suchitra Mattai

Re-Imagine Historical Narratives

Suchitra Mattai, a multi-disciplinary artist of Indo-Caribbean descent, uses a mixed-media approach to explore how memory and myth allow us to unravel and re-imagine historical narratives.

Andrew Jensdotter - Artist as Explorer

Andrew Jensdotter’s paintings and drawings depict the visual static of collective imagery. Mining the glossy pages of magazines and online search queries, the artist transforms sets of related photographic content into physical layers of representational paintings on a single surface. This transfer from dematerialized imagery into physical layers of stacked paint serves as a means to a larger end. Upon building up numerous rendered layers onto a single canvas, the artist eviscerates the thick surface revealing a highly energetic composite made from a chosen subject matter’s accumulated color palette. Where once the eye had a specific subject to focus on, what remains is an all-over composition devoid of any focal point, forcing the eye to either race across its surface or relax into a psychedelic trance. The relationship between additive and subtractive processes, and the disintegration of the specific into the abstract presents a visual analog for the nature of processing information in the age of mass media.

Jonathan Saiz #WhatIsUtopia and Colorado Costal

Artist Jonathan Saiz and Denver Art Museum Curator Becky Heart discuss His concurrent exhibitions , “Colorado Coastal” at K Contemporary and #WhatIsUtopia at the Denver Art Museum

The often-apocalyptic themes in Jonathan Saiz’s work reflect the duality of the artist’s fascination with optimistic irreverence and a foreshadowing of darker things to come. Man-made climate-change, supernatural unknowns and all the social and spiritual upheaval that accompanies them.

His varied subject matter, explored like an intuitive stream-of-consciousness with scores of miniature paintings, drawings and sculptures, add up to glossy, candy-coated visual narratives imbued with existential dread.

“Saiz makes our terrors tangible in his artwork. By acknowledging fears in the periphery of our daily lives or the dark corners of our minds, the mechanisms of control — whether god or government — are disrupted. The gaze is powerful.” - 2016 @hyperallergic.com

Daisy Patton - This is Not Goodbye / A Rewilded Arcadia

Artist Daisy Patton and CU Art Museum Director Sandra Firmin offer exclusive insight about Daisy's work and her upcoming exhibitions at the University of Colorado Boulder and at K Contemporary.

Patton’s practice is focused on history, memory, and social commentary stemming from this youth, soaked in such specific cultural landscapes. Her work explores the meaning and social conventions of families, little discussed or hidden histories, and what it is to be a person living in our contemporary world. One such series is Forgetting is so long, reviewed in Hyperallergic and The Denver Post, as well as featured in Create! Magazine, The Jealous Curator, Vasari21, Fraction Magazine, Full Blede, and Backroom Caracas.

Kevin Sloan - A Wanderer's Garden

Artist Kevin Sloan discusses the concepts behind his Solo exhibition "A Wanderer's Garden" at K Contemporary. His work is ongoing inquiry into whether a painting can hold the qualities of wonder and awe amid the mundane and overlooked. This duality is reflective of our contemporary condition, one marked by dislocation and loss in the midst of the overwhelming and spectacular.

Additionally, he is interested in what it means to be a painter of the natural world in a time of such extraordinary change environmentally, politically and socially. Remaining aware of all happening around while avoiding topical reportage and editorializing, he assumes the role of a compassionate witness. Sloan’s hope is that compassion allows for empathy, which pushes away cynicism, which in turn allows curiosity and wonder to find a place in the work.

Sarah Winkler / Moment

“We need the experience of being romantically and poetically lost in the wilderness, and being found again” -Sarah Winkler

MOMENT was Directed and edited by Jesse Brass

Cinematography by Jesse Brass & Tim Brass

Music courtesy of Kai Engel, Lee Rosevere and Pictures of a Floating World

MAKING ART FILMS

Thank you Tom Vasselli, Diane McGregor, Nina Tichava, Rachel Doniger, Jennifer Perlow, Alex Wade

and special thanks to Sarah Winkler, K Contemporary and Gallery MAR for making this film possible.

Doug Kacena - Crossover

The recent exhibit "Crossover"continues to stimulate exciting conversation on both the local and National level and is featured in numerous publications including the Denver Post, Westword, Southwest Art Magazine, American Art Collector Magazine, 303 Magazine, Fine Art Connoisseur, 5280 Magazine and 1/1 Magazine.

David and Beverly Schler, of Schler Productions created the Emmy nominated exhibition video that sets the context for deeper exploration of the work. They are currently working with Colorado Public Television (CPT 12) our local PBS Station, as the Fiscal Sponsor to bring you, "Crossover, Realism /Abstraction" a feature length documentary exploring creativity and the arts. We are seeking funding, which will enable additional filming, editing and completion of this exciting documentary.

The feature length documentary will begin where the exhibition video left off. It will lead the viewer into larger questions such as how each of us – artists or otherwise create our own perception of reality and how we might find common ground with each other, who at first glance seem to be worlds apart. How poignant this is given today’s societal environment.