L: D. Milton Tomlinson; R: Heather P. N. Richardson

This exhibition was open to all current and former students of SAAH, and continues the gallery’s ongoing explorations of contemporary approaches to art-making. All current and former students of DU’s School of Art & Art History were invited to submit recent work in any media for selection .

The following alumni and students were chosen for the exhibition by jurors Lisa Tamiris Becker, director of the CU Art Gallery, Boulder, and Dan Jacobs, director of the Victoria H Myhren Gallery.

Morehshin Allahyari, Julie Anderies, Julia Brucker, Phillip Faulkner, Kimberly MacArthur Graham (with Bonnie Ferrill Roman), Robert Gratiot, Joseph M. Hutchinson, Eric Ianuzi, Mary Beth Koszut, Viviane Le Courtois, Cassandra Lillard, Laurel McMechan, James Milmoe, Kelly Monico, Heather P. N. Richardson, Alexandro Rojas-Sanders, Stacey Sotosky, D. Milton Tomlinson, Matthew Welton, E. K. Wimmer.

For artist statements and images click here

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Faculty Exhibition: "Beauty and its Discontents"

September 27 - November 18, 2007

Roddy MacInnes: Wave #17 (10 seconds to 30 seconds), 2006

For the 2007-2008 academic year, the School of Art & Art History (SAAH) is organizing units for many of its classes around the theme of "Beauty." Coordinated readings, lectures, and other programs will focus on the many aspects of this central theme, providing an opportunity for dialog and cooperative exploration throughout the year. The Gallery will participate by providing a venue for all SAAH Faculty and Adjunct Faculty to present recent and current work on the theme of "Beauty and Its Discontents."; The exhibition will be organized by the Gallery with a faculty steering committee.

For details click here.

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In the Lobby - September 27, 2007 - February 24, 2008

L: eMAD installation; R: Intersections of Beauty installation

eMAD Rotating Exhibitions

A series of short exhibitions interpreting Beauty sponsored by The Electronic Media Arts Design program of SAAH.

Intersections of Beauty - Student Show

A collaboration was struck between the current Introduction to Black and White Photography classes at DU to create this show. Four classes in total approached the idea of beauty from two different angles: the juxtaposition of masculine and feminine, and subversive beauty. The intersection of these overlapping themes, in combination with the interpretation of each student, yielded a great variety of subject matter and approaches.

What makes these two subjects interact so well together is the entwining social construction of gender and beauty. Various students in all of the classes visually articulate this idea independently of each other. The works from all four groups weave together by dealing with masculinity, femininity, and gender while accessing the subversive potential of beauty in various ways. Together, they resonate as one.

Sean Gyshen Fennell

Roddy MacInnes

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Pixels, Programming & Play: (GAME[WORK)SHOP]

August 6 - September 18, 2007

During the summer of 2007, the Gallery hosted two sessions of the innovative Videogame Development Camp for high school freshmen and sophomores. After completion of the Camp, the Gallery was re-configured into an arcade. Finished games developed by individual students and student teams were exhibited along with their working sketches, storyboards and other materials. (GAME[WORK)SHOP] was a collaborative exhibition organized by the faculty and Camp participants.

The Video Camp was organized by DU’s Digital Media Studies Program, with participation of the Dept. of Computer Science, the College of Education, the School of Art & Art History, and the Gallery.

DUToday article by Kristal Griffith: "Myhren Gallery to exhibit video games"

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BFA Show

May 17 - June 8, 2007

Featuring works by: Kimberly Beesley, Sarah Craig, Sara Ann Evans, Kristin Fleischmann, Elizabeth Fox, Crystal James, Lindsay Brooke Smith, Robyn Speer.

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"8 Painters and Sculptors at the University of Denver 1930-1965"

April 5 - May 6, 2007

Top L-R: Marion Buchan, Mary Conant, John Billmyer, Arnold Ronnebeck
Bottom: Vance Kirkland, installation view, Louise Ronnebeck, William Sanderson

"8 Painters and Sculptors at the University of Denver, 1930-1965" was the first in a series of projects featuring distinguished teachers of art at DU. The exhibition focused on a selection of eight professors who were influential in bringing a diversity of artistic approaches to the regional art scene. Working in styles ranging from Impressionism and Cubism through Regionalism, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, they helped connect Denver with broader currents in the visual arts.

Featured artists: Louise Emerson Rönnebeck, Arnold Rönnebeck, Otto Karl Bach, Vance Kirkland, William Sanderson, Mina Conant, John Billmyer, Marion Buchan.

The exhibition included a plaster relief by Arnold Rönnebeck entitled Trio and Tone Shapes, an unrealized 1939 commission for a Denver Public Schools auditorium. A 1968 account by Vance Kirkland, Director of the School of Art, indicates that the piece was rejected by DPS as being “too modern.” The relief was retrieved from the Hosek Manufacturing Company by Kirkland in 1968 and was incorporated into the University’s art collections. Also exhibited was a new bronze casting of the same piece destined for installation at DU's Newman Center for the Performing Arts.

The exhibition was curated by Dan Jacobs, Director of the Victoria H. Myhren Gallery. The curatorial team included seven SAAH art history students: graduate students Kristin Bonk; Jill Desmond; Lauren Fretz; Laura Fry; Neely Patton; Petra Sertic; and undergaduate Alisha Stovall.

3/27/08: Congratulations to Gallery Director Dan Jacobs and his class of art history majors for winning Westword's 2008 award for "Best Research Project." This was awarded for last year's "Eight Painters and Sculptors" exhibition that featured works by eight former faculty members of DU's School of Art and Art History. For the Westword article, click here.

Click here for a Westword exhibition review by Michael Paglia

Cick here for DU Today article by Elizabeth Wood

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Sarah Gjertson's "Parlor Project"
January 4 - March 18, 2007

Sarah Gjertson

School of Art and Art History faculty member Sarah Gjertson spent a year documenting the culture of the neighborhood beauty parlor in Colorado and beyond - a unique setting for conversation and community. Parlor Project features video, photographs, found objects and sculpture that represent the gradual dissapearance of a generation and culture. "In these places, you get to see the giant person that is in the little old lady," Gjertson observes. "There are these huge personalities in what look like frail packages."

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"Negotiating Reality"

Recent Works from the Logan Collection
September 6 - November 19, 2006

"Negotiating Reality: Recent Works from the Logan Collection" was produced by a group of nineteen students as a response to a selection of recent works from the collection of Vicki and Kent Logan. The exhibition was organized during the second Marsico Curatorial Practicum at the School of Art & Art History (SAAH) and resulted both the exhibition its catalog, written mostly by students.

Working under Myhren Gallery director Dan Jacobs, the group had an intense ten-week period to review available artworks from the Logan Collection, debate exhibition themes, finalize the selection of works, write entries and essays for the catalog and prepare interpretive materials for the exhibition.

In addition, they designed the exhibition itself, drafted all publicity materials, and performed a number of important organizational tasks. All of this was part of their training in art, art history, and museum studies. "Negotiating Reality" marks a continuing educational and programmatic partnership between SAAH and the Denver Art Museum (DAM). This is the third exhibition of works from the Logan Collection organized by the Gallery and the second curated by students. An exhibition of many of the works already given by the Logans to DAM appeared in "RADAR," an inaugural exhibition at DAM's new Frederic C. Hamilton Building.

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"(In)formal : BFA Student Exhibition"
May 18 - June 10, 2006

Featured artists include: Kara Cochran, RobbieLee Deel, Amanda Lenz, Stefanie Pahler, Joey Piccola, Naomi Scheck, Alexis Siler, Ashley Tucker, and Joshua Van Engen.
The School of Art & Art History is pleased to present the annual exhibition of work by graduating seniors from the School's programs in Studio Art and Electronic Media and Design.

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Minnette Vári's "Chimera"
March 30 - May 7, 2006

South African artist Minnette Vári will visit the Myhren Gallery to supervise the installation of her video artwork "Chimera," which reflects on the complex political situation of post-apartheid South Africa through a critical reworking of the "Voortrekker"("Pioneer") Monument, erected in Pretoria in 1949. Vári's take on this politically charged monument questions both racial and gender attitudes encoded in the original. The artist's visit will provide the opportunity for workshops through the SAAH Visiting Artists series.

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"Diaspora: Photographs of Frederick Brenner"
January 12 - March 10, 2006

Photographs exploring the questions of diaspora and Jewish identity. Organized by the Center for Judaic Studies. A social anthropologist, Brenner photographs subjects that he feels represent the geographic, cultural and communal diversity of jewish life around the world.

Read duclarion 1/24/05 article by Emily Salner.

Lecture: As part of the education series on "Diaspora: Celebrating the Diversity of Jewish Art and Culture around the World," Nicholas Mirzoeff, professor of art at New York University, spoke about "Before and After Jewish: Notes on Diasporic Imagination". Read duclarion 2/7/05 article by Emily Salner.

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"The Timeless Bead: Courtship, Wedding and Marriage Beads"
December 3 - 23, 2005

The exhibition, from Arizona's Bead Museum, highlights the use of beaded art to celebrate weddings and courtship around the world. Organized by DU ART!, which kicks off the event with a weekend of bead art events, including a bead fair.

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"Riverhouse Editions : Master Prints by 44 Artists"
september 15 - november 10, 2005

This exhibition celebrates an exciting new partnership between the School of Art and Art History and the Riverhouse Editions printmaking studio. Since 1988, Riverhouse Editions has created world-class prints in an idyllic setting along the Elk River near Steamboat Springs. Through a partnership with DU, the benefits of this extraordinary program will become accessible to the University community and friends. The exhibition includes works by 44 artists, all printed in collaboration with the master printers of Riverhouse Editions. The exhibition will highlight the cooperative, studio model of artistic creation, as well as the tools and methods of this highly demanding art form.

Click here for University of Denver Magazine article By Leslie Petrovski

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"Maynard Tischler: New Work: A Year of Woodfired Ceramics"
June 16 - August 5, 2005

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Salon des Refuses: BA Exhibition
May 12 - June 4, 2005

In the 023 Gallery, SAAH. Artists: Kenny Bateman, Zarah Brown, Traci Tisserat, Elisabeth Meyerdirk.

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BFA Senior Exhibition
May 12 - June 4, 2005

DU's School of Art and Art History BFA Candidates Exhibition: Graduating students display their senior projects. Works by: Lauren Brown, Glen Carlson, Caroline Dinkens, Adam Donald, William Hodges, Keith Hoffman, Cassandra Lillard, Lauren Mulkey, Youngwho Nam, Larry Nguyen, Heather Richardson, Joseph Sipe.

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Biennial Juried Student Art Exhibition

April 7 - May 5, 2005

An exhibition of works from the collection of Vicki and Kent Logan and other works from the Denver Art Museum's fractional and promised gift of contemporary art from the Logan collection . Artists: Heather Richardson, Elizabeth Meyerdirk, Alexis Siler, Stephanie Pahler, Joey Piccola, Kimberly Beesley, Amanda Lenz, Joseph Sipe, Sonya Merriam, Naomi Scheck, Charli White, Jennifer Woltil, Robyn Speer, Cassandra Lillard, Annie Kier, Reed Walton, Adam Donald, Zarah Brown.

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"In Limbo"
January 13 - March 11, 2005

L: Bo Bartlett: The Parabolist. 1999. oil on linen, 88x100" Collection of Vicki and Kent Logan
R: Julian Opie: Imagine You Are Driving 3. 1997. vinyl stretched on aluminum frame
Collection of Vicki and Kent Logan

Drawn from the Denver Art Museum's fractional and promised gift of contemporary art from Vicki and Kent Logan, and from Vicki and Kent Logan's much acclaimed personal collection. Curated by students in the Marsico Curatorial Practicum under the direction of professor and curator Dr. Gwen Chanzit.

Artists: Bo Bartlett, Mona Hatoum, Gottfried Heinwein, Rut Blees Luxemburg, Sean Mellyn, Ron Mueck, Julian Opie, Richard Phillips, Jack Pierson, Cindy Sherman, Su-en Wong.

Review in Westword, January 12, 2005 by Michael Paglia

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