Front Range galleries and museums gave us plenty to consider in 2025, offering up fresh takes on familiar names and introducing new talents to the scene. Here is a recap of the most memorable moments produced by some of the region’s top visual art presenters. The good news: Several exhibits are still up and waiting to be seen.
“History is Painted by the Victors,” by Kent Monkman, Denver Art Museum, May
Without a doubt, this retrospective of work by painter Kent Monkman was the flashiest show of the year in this region. It was also a flashpoint, as visitors argued over whether Monkman is a talented artist with serious things to say or a sensationalist out to raise pulses with his revisionist takes on the history of the American West. The answer was both. The paintings, some of them large, offered a new viewpoint on Westward expansion, emphasizing the very (very) bad treatment of Indigenous people, while their over-the-top nature — colorful, overly-dramatic, and full of super-sized, queer sensibilities — made them almost too comical to be credible. There was plenty of
thinking (and chuckling) going on at this event, co-curated by DAM’s John P. Lukavic and Léuli Eshrāghi of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
“Harmonious Dissonance,” by Bruce Price, at Redline Art Center through Jan. 11
This exhaustive assemblage of work by veteran Denver painter Bruce Price does everything a retrospective is supposed to do: showing visitors Price’s smart, complicated paintings but also the thinking process behind his various career moves. Curator Dean Sobel understood Price’s evolution but also the art world context that made space for his uneven, geometric paintings to come about. Price did pioneering work in this small corner of the painting scene, and “Harmonious Dissonance” gives him his due while giving the rest of us a reminder that Price, who was also a long-time teacher and mentor at art schools here, has had a serious impact on Colorado art history.
“What We Hold On To,” Black Cube Nomadic Museum, October
Black Cube has been a serious force on the regional visual arts scene for 10 years now, and this exhibit was meant to celebrate a decade of success. Curator Cortney Lane Stell made it a showcase for all of the artists who this wandering producer of installations and community-based projects has supported over time. More interesting, it introduced Black Cube Headquarters, a new, permanent exhibition space located in Englewood, a Denver suburb that could use a little more visual arts culture. It was a solid show that brought with it big hopes for the future.
“Rosas y Revelaciones,” Denver’s Museo de las Américas, continues through Jan. 11
This wide-ranging group show feels timeless, featuring contemporary textile makers who are inspired by the long-held tradition of incorporating images of the Virgin of Guadalupe into their work. The show is part fine art making and part religious devotion; the combo comes together into deeply meaningful objects. The show was curated by Maruca Salazar, who tapped the holdings of collector Linda Hanna for this array of shoes, dresses, smocks, wraps and other traditional items of clothing. The show needed more info to fully appreciate, but it was full of insight into parts of Mexico that many U.S. tourists never see.
“Embedded,” Melissa Furness, Arvada Center, July
While the region’s other important galleries have been ignoring serious shows by Colorado artists, the Arvada Center has stepped in with gusto. This solo exhibit by Melissa Furness showed how to do it right. It was an exhaustive retrospective — and, in a sense, a tribute to one of Denver’s most talented and prolific painters. This show got into the weeds in a good way, detailing Furness’s residencies, experiments, land works and other aspects of her career that fly under the radar. But the real thrill was just looking at this talented painter’s large canvases and watching how they evolved.
“The Honest Eye: Camille Pissarro’s Impressionism,” Denver Art Museum, continues through Feb. 6
I was skeptical going into this exhaustive retrospective of work by Camille Pissarro. Of course he was a pioneer of Impressionism, one of the most famous painters ever to live, and pals with icons like Monet and Degas. But his work is less flashy, less iconic than that of his peers, and I wondered if it would hold up for a show this big in 2025. It did. The paintings are captivating, top-to-bottom. The reason: Curators Clarisse Fava-Piz and Claire Durand-Ruel put their show together with a relentless drive, organizing, explaining, contextualizing, so that viewers really got to understand the valuable contribution Pissarro made to his own time. Even if he is not your favorite Impressionist, this exhibit will help you appreciate his genius, and make you grateful for being able to visit a room full of his timeless work.
Nikki Pike, “Echoes from the Forest,” Space Gallery, May
As a critic in this part of the country, I am always on the lookout for how artists are updating the tradition of Western art. Pike does that here in the most contemporary way. Her sculptures and wall-mounted works are made entirely from bark she found in Colorado forests, which she then shaped into geometric objects that hung frameless on the wall and filled the gallery floor. It was a rustic-meets-modern-art move that felt a lot like progress. Pike is always unpredictable; it will be interesting to see what she makes next.
“Biyáál,” Jaycee, Randall and Wayne Beyale, Union Hall, continues through Jan. 3
This exhibit, curated by Esther Hernandez, is a revelation, introducing visitors to the work of a trio of related artists, all contributing their own voice to the canon of Indigenous art in the region. There is a sentimental vibe, of course; it is rare to see a show by a family of creative object-makers in any contemporary gallery these days. But it is not stuck there: The sculptures, paintings, projections and installations by these three each have their own personality and format, and all connect in their own way to the show’s aim of giving attention to Diné (Navajo) healing traditions, specifically the Nightway Ceremony. The show is elegant and involving, and the atmosphere is warm.
Biennial of the Americas Festival 2025, downtown Denver, October
The biennial’s 2025 fest was kind of an art show, kind of a shopping opportunity and kind of a party. Oh, and there was plenty of tequila, so it all added up to some high-quality fun while still feeling quite serious in its mission. We tend to think of biennials as massive, city-wide events that put art at the center of the action, but staging a celebration on that scale was not in the cards this year. Instead, organizers reinvented the form, creating a cross-cultural celebration that was intimate and community-minded while still feeling a little risky and experimental. The event, which took over empty storefronts in the struggling-but-earnest Writers Square shopping center, was the best reason to go back downtown in the post-pandemic era.
“Outside Influence: Photography in Colorado 1945-1995, Vicki Myhren Gallery, April
Curator Rupert Jenkins spent years researching the history of photography in Colorado, and this surprising show was the fruit of his labor in exhibition form. The work reminded locals who the important voices were over time, some of whom got plenty of credit for their work and others who were overlooked. The show was important because it documented how this art form evolved in both attitude and materials — not easy research to accomplish. But it also gave us a way of understanding the state of Colorado itself and how it matured over the past century as people emigrated here from other places in the rest of the country and contributed to regional identity. Jenkins is publishing a book on this topic soon. Keep an eye out for it.