Bill Amundson is the funniest guy I know. And, man, can he draw. For the past two weeks he’s been drawing buildings on the walls of the Phillip J. Steele Gallery at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. The show opens on Friday, June 15th. It closes on Saturday June 16th. Site specific work intended for rapid destruction. I hope someone has a camera. I’m not quite sure what his left hand is doing in his pocket, but he seems happy enough.

Friday, June 15, 6-9pm
Saturday, June 16, 12-5pm
1600 Pierce Street,
Denver CO 80214
303-225-8575
rmcad.edu

Next up for the gallery at RMCAD (opening June 22nd) is an installation called “Chaussures” by Viviane Le Courtois. Viviane is one of the Denver area’s most compelling installation and performance artists; she had an installation at Ironton last year, and has shown at Pirate, Edge, and numerous other spots. She says this on her website:

Creating sculptures everywhere I go, as long as I live.
I walk, breath, eat, collect, transform and create,
commenting on behaviors and habits of the world around me.

In Viviane’s case, this is not hyperbole. I am particularly fond of her pickles and the work with kombucha. The shoes are pretty cool too.

Vivian has worn over 100 pair of shoes over the past 16 years in more than 30 countries. She makes them herself, and wears them until they fall apart.

Eric Shumake, the new curator at the Steele Galleries at RMCAD, is doing some interesting work; I don’t know how much was put in place before he got there, but I hope he keeps it up. It’s good to see an educational gallery support some of Denver’s most truly talented artists.

Summer is a time for casual enjoyment in a reflective but less serious manner. In Denver, the best of summer culture happens in Lakewood at the Lab. The Lab at Belmar is a somewhat eccentric art space in a new urbanist development; it’s run by Adam Lerner, who is committed to establishing a world-class arts venue in a Denver suburb. So far, he’s doing a pretty good job of it; in the first year he’s put on shows by Isaac Julien and Liam Gillick. But, it’s not all super serious; Adam and his team realize that you have to have some fun to get people out to the ‘burbs.

In the summer, Adam puts on a great series called “mixed taste”, which is a series of programs combining tag team lectures on unrelated topics. It goes on all summer – this Thursday, it’s Swiss Typography and TV Theme Songs. Next week, Kurt Cobain and Solar Eclipses. And it goes all the way to the end of August, with an estimable finale: Marxism and Kittens, Kittens, Kittens.

The lectures are short, to the point, and entertaining. If you don’t like it, there’s another one coming shortly. And, while you’re there, check out the exhibit of Fang Lijun’s Heads, including the main room showing over 15,000 individual heads. Impressive. Visit the lab site at belmarlab.org for more information.