Center for the Arts Evergreen: Facing the Blank Canvas

Evergreen in winter, filled with the colors of blue sky, green trees, and white snow… until you enter the Center for the Arts and the Saturation exhibit, where you encounter an “Oasis of Color.” Visit the Center for the Arts Evergreen (CAE) between February 25 and March 26 to see CAE’s newest exhibition, Saturation. Saturation features the work of artists Helen Rudy and Danny Williams and is the first-ever gallery collaboration between the two aritsts. Helen’s use of bright colors and graceful patterns are the hallmarks of her unique style in the art of creating fused glass. Danny is a master of mark-making and brush strokes to create sculptural-like paintings. He uses oil paint to achieve a unique multi-dimensional effect.

Memory is a fundamental part of our everyday lives. Autobiographical remembrances tell our individual stories and illustrate our sense of self. Collective memories speak to the shared human experience and shape our enduring impressions of the world. Collateral reminiscences are smaller moments that resurface at unpredictable times, but stick with us for an unexplained reason. (Re)Collection is an exhibit that addresses how we use art to experience time and memory. The power of memory is immeasurable. What does it mean to you? The audio component of (Re)Collection starts with a question: “What memory or memories from your past shaped your outlook in the present?” Patrons will have the opportunity to answer this question through a brief recording in a private corner of the CAE gallery. The recorded audio stories will result in a layered memory from the perspective of mountain area residents and arts lovers in 2022. Exploring our patrons’ past—their geographic or family narrative—will allow us to collectively understand how moments of the past transform, beyond (Re)Collection, into relationships and outlooks in the present.This recording, featuring CAE senior staff members Lisa Nierenberg and Sara Miller, is the first contribution to (Re)Collection's community narrative.

Join Center for the Arts Evergreen's Executive Director, Lisa Nierenberg, CAE's Senior Director of Exhibitions and Education, Sara Miller, and friend and colleague Tom Hoch, as we dive into reviewing our favorite highlights from 2021.

CAE Executive Director, Lisa Nierenberg, gets personal with Hazel Miller. They discuss Hazel's storied-career as a performer and the concert that kicks off CAE's Summer Concert series on June 25.Colorado-based music icon Hazel Miller has a reputation for "Bringing it" whether the event is a club setting, concert, festival, or non-profit fundraiser. Hazel has toured North America, Europe, Far East, Middle East, and Central America. Her powerful voice stands out and her beautiful spirit shines through to the delight of her loyal fans. One of the tightest and most versatile bands on the scene.  With Hazel Miller and The Collective,  you get original, Jazz, blues, R&B, and popular music, each song with the band's own flavor! Guaranteed to rock the house! 

Getting Sideways: A Slightly Different Journey Through Life: June 4-July 3, 2021A Collaborative Art Experience with work by Mike Arzt & Pat MilberyVisit the Center for the Arts Evergreen (CAE) between June 4 and July 3 to see CAE’s newest exhibition, Getting Sideways: A Slightly Different Journey Through Life. This show is the first-ever gallery collaboration between professional adventure photographer (and Evergreen resident) Mike Arzt and and artist/designer/professional snowboarder Pat Milbery. Getting Sideways takes the viewer on a journey through each artist's life shaped by snowboarding.The exhibition stems from the first meeting of Arzt and Milbery, more than 15 years ago at a tumbling gold mine trestle in Breckenridge. The magic of the moment created by Milbery on his snowboard and Arzt behind the lens resulted in an infamous image. That photo led both Arzt and Milbery to their first publication in a major snowboarding publication: frequency: The Snowboarder's Journal. From there, their friendship and both of their careers have taken them all over the world. They always end up back in the same place, though—on the snow! Both artists subscribe to a Getting Sideways approach to life: from the way they look at the world to their career paths driven by their passion for snow sports.Visitors to Getting Sideways will find new creative discoveries around every corner: from Arzt's jaw-dropping photos of Tyler Ceccanti's and Josh Bibby's perfect lines down Mt. Olympus in Greece to Milbery's solo body of work focusing on western landscapes merged with his modern, abstract, colorful geometric style. There is even an Evergreen section with inspiring views, photos of shredders from Evergreen, and a collaborative photographic/paint piece created by both artists that will offer a whole new colorful perspective on the quintessential I-70 mountain view. Getting Sideways contains more than 40 photographs by Mike Arzt from around the world, eleven original 2-D and 3-D pieces by Pat Milbery, and four collaborative pieces created by Arzt and Milbery together. Many of these piece have never been exhibited anywhere.Mike Artz: Born in Vernon, Connecticut Arzt spent his youth snapping photos, developing his own prints via real film, and building snowboard kickers in his front yard. Somehow this was the beginning of a career path. During Arzt's storied career in photography and brand marketing he has worked with Burton Snowboards, Airwalk, Warren Miller, and now, his own business venture, The Public Works in Denver. Arzt's camera skills have him dangling from helicopters in Nepal, rolling cigars in Nicaragua, and shooting some of the most famous snow athletes in the world: Chris Davenport, Bode Miller, Julie Mancuso, and more. Arzt’s work has been featured in the American Society of Media Photographers “Best 20 Images of the Year” as well as a critically acclaimed covers and features in the national publication PDN (Photo District News).Pat Milbery: Pat is, above all, a creative collaborator. As well known for the large-scale murals he's created alongside some of the most prominent street and graffiti artists in the world as he is for the playful photo shoots and video parts he's participated in as a pro-snowboarder. Pat's vivid street art collaborations adorn the walls of dozens of boutiques, breweries, residences, bars, and other businesses in Denver, around the Rocky Mountains, across the country and around the globe. He's helped curate and create major art installation projects for brands including the Ford Motor Company, X Games, Budweiser, Zumiez, Loveland Ski Area, Wahoo Fish Tacos, and Pabst Blue Ribbon and has shared snowboard contest podiums with the likes of Shaun White and Travis Rice. 

It's Personal: April 23-May 22, 2021A Collaborative Pairing of Works by Gail Folwell and Will DayVisit the Center for the Arts Evergreen (CAE) between April 23 and May 22 to see CAE’s newest exhibition, It’s Personal. This show is the first-ever gallery collaboration between Boulder-based artists Gail Folwell and Will Day. It’s Personal presents a collection of artistic pairings, juxtaposing similarly inspired works of art: sculpture from Folwell and large-scale abstract paintings from Day. The exhibition stems from the artists’ common interest in creating art that speaks to the interconnectivity of the human experience.Folwell and Day work in neighboring art studios within the Black Lab Sports collaborative in Boulder. Both have exhibited their work independently across the world. Folwell’s work is in permanent collections at prestigious venues such as the Denver Art Museum, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the University of Notre Dame. Day’s commissions hang on three continents, and he worked with Peyton Manning to create a painting titled Omaha, evoking Manning's feeling of “controlled chaos” before taking a snap. Although Folwell and Day are mutually inspired by connections to the sports world, some of their most meaningful work comes expresses a more introspective journey. That is the essence of It’s Personal.In creating this collaborative exhibition, Folwell and Day selected works that were created independently but speak to the same human emotions: conflict, passion, isolation, connection. Each pairing elevates the artistic experience to a new level—where imagery and emotion merge into a third collaborative point of view. It’s Personal contains 7 artistic groupings with many pieces that have never been exhibited in Colorado.

histordomestic-ity: March5-April 9, 2021The Collaborative Artwork of Rian Kerrane and Melissa FurnessA collector of contemporary detritus and seeing value in material, form, and the inherent history of such finds, Rian Kerrane treats her studio as a laboratory for exploration. Defining herself as a contemporary archeologist, her collecting instincts are tribute to an impetus to honor the innate qualities and histories of upcycled and industrial elements. Her sculptural forms critique our current state and reference the familiar with fresh narrative.Melissa Furness is an artist that treats painting as a conceptual object that challenges history. Her work explores the concept of ruin–the broken down and overgrown physical structures of the past, the death of historical constructs or ideals in light of present circumstances, and narratives of personal struggle and transformation.Melissa states, “I extract elements of history, to put into question their significance in the world as we know it today. They become nothing more than a fragment of the unknown which we are urged to revere. Compare what we uphold culturally versus what we discard.” Similarly, Rian states, “I am conscious of how our domestic reconstructions are simulations of nature and how the discarded artifact deserves anthropological study.” The artists invite you to re-visualize every day and historical objects and discover interrelated personal and public narratives within their multidimensional collaborative installations.Furness and Kerrane have been collaborating on installation works for the past seven years. The artists are aware of the parallels within each other’s work, as patterns, artifacts, and nature cross over and populate one another in a rich, symbolic, textured language. The combinations of Kerrane’s and Furness’ works seek to merge imagery with objects, projections and movement into complex layers of meaning.

In this episode, CAE's Executive Director, Lisa Nierenberg, and Director of Exhibitions, Sara Miller, talk Amaury Pdilla, a featured artist in Center for the Arts Evergreen's exhibition, Word: Art Meets Advertising. Amaury shares stories about his artistic career, his time in prison, and how he found his way back to art. He offers stories about his childhood split between Dominican Republic and New York, his clothing line Realengo, and the evolution of the pieces that are part ofWord: Art Meets Advertising hangs at Center for the Arts Evergreen in Evergreen, CO from November 7-December 6, 2020.

In this episode, CAE's Executive Director, Lisa Nierenberg, and Director of Exhibitions, Sara Miller, talk with the creative minds behind the Center for the Arts Evergreen's exhibition, Word: Art Meets Advertising. Chris Krieg, owner of Altitude Murals, and a large-format artist and David Russell professor at Otis School of Art & Design and co-director of the Mobile Mural Lab, share their stories about graffiti, sign painting, and their artistic superpowers. They offer insights into their work, creative lives, and the evolution of the exhibition of which they are a part. Word: Art Meets Advertising hangs at Center for the Arts Evergreen in Evergreen, CO from November 7-December 6, 2020.