This performance is part of our annual Performance Art Week (PAW), in its twelfth edition in 2024. For more information on PAW, click here.

Originally conceived of as a sort of 'loneliness gym,' Working on Myself constructs a premise where performers engage with a series of contraptions--gym equipment, household objects that have been outfitted with cast silicone hands and reimagined to apply various forms of touch--repeating reps at each circuit indefinitely.  Of course the machines in this loneliness gym are failures, but through repetition of the failure, perhaps failure transforms into something resembling routine. As the performers work on themselves, seemingly oblivious of each other while sharing close proximity, trying really hard, and doing everything just a little bit wrong, they lean into the absurd idea that with enough hard work and discipline, they can each cure loneliness on their own.  And while they seek material solutions to their existential problem, on occasion they sync up into choreographed movements, (similar to how a school of fish swim in unison or a flock of starlings murmurates, individuals becoming part of a whole system, slipping into human nature despite a constructed system of alienation), they beg the question: How much will we contort ourselves to uphold these systems?

This performance, followed by an artist talk, is part of our annual Performance Art Week (PAW), in its twelfth edition in 2024. For more information on PAW, click here.

There Is Not an Infinite Space between Two Points investigates the universality of feelings of loss and displacement as well as the concept of transgenerational trauma through the lens of the personal and collective; the trauma inherited from both the immediate family and the ancestral one. The music and lyrics of the piece are performed live by Alexis Gideon alongside the video projection. 

Artist bio

Alexis Gideon is an American visual artist, composer and performer, best known for innovative animated live video operas and interdisciplinary work. Gideon, whose career began under the mentorship of musical legend Anthony Braxton, uses music as the foundational element.

As a Jewish descendent of Holocaust survivors, Gideon creates interdisciplinary works that examine alienation, subjugation and the human condition. The New Museum of Contemporary Art paired Gideon with renowned South African artist William Kentridge for a joint program in January 2013.

Gideon has performed and exhibited throughout the world, including at Moderna Museet Stockholm, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Málaga, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Vdrome, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, and Time Zones Festival Italia. 

Gideon’s work is in the collection of the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS; the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; the Debra & Dennis Scholl Collection in Miami, FL; The Benter Foundation in Pittsburgh, PA as well as a number of private collections.

This performance is part of our annual Performance Art Week (PAW), in its twelfth edition in 2024. For more information on PAW, click here.

Artist Statement

The current thrust of my performance work aligns fiber arts with contending with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) and intimate partner violence- diversifying the definition of the term, ‘women’s work.’  The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that one in three women have suffered as victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) (WHO 2021). These staggering statistics demand recalibrating the definition of ‘women’s work’ to include dealing with IPV in all its forms. The term is commonly used in reference to the unpaid labor that a woman performs within the home – housekeeping, child rearing and, domestic arts such as sewing, knitting, crochet and other craft activities. 

The delineation of ‘women’s work’ is a patriarchal and capitalist concept meant to maintain men’s superiority over women. This division of labor undervalues domestic labor typically performed by women, enforces lower wages for women (often for equivalent responsibility) and in turn encourages dependence on their partner. However, ‘patriarchy readily accommodates some women into positions of power, provided that the women are male-identified, male-centered and act according to patriarchal values’ (Becker 1999). Ultimately, the sexual division of labor between ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ responsibilities equates tasks with value, the ‘feminine’ considered of low value.

Therefore, as women contend with violence in their homes and suffer often without repercussions, as a culture we also undervalue their healing.  The work I am looking to present is entitled “to my small hearth, his fire came” and centers on several representations of fiber arts (quilting and crochet) as embodied objects of ongoing labor, ‘women’s work.”  This labor includes the contention of “triggers” that unravel years of trauma mitigation, suggesting the non-linear process of healing.

References

Becker, Mary (1999) "‘Patriarchy and inequality: Towards a Substantive Feminism’," University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 1999: Iss. 1(, Article 3). accessed 19 Nov. 2023.

Comanne, Denise [CADTM (2020)]. ‘How Patriarchy and capitalism combine to Aggravate the Oppression of Women’, – CADTM,. https://www.cadtm.org/How-Patriarchy-and-Capitalism-Combine-to-Aggravate-the-Oppression-of-Women,. accessed 19 Nov. 2023.

World Health Organization (WHO) (2021) ‘Violence against women’,www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women, 1 March, accessed 8 May 2023.

This performance is part of our annual Performance Art Week (PAW), in its twelfth edition in 2024. For more information on PAW, click here.

Two men compete to keep a specific volume of air off the ground.

Artist bios

Collaborating since 2010, Tobias Fike and Matthew Harris have dragged each other across the desert, wrestled each other’s shadows, and tried to catch glass objects while blindfolded. Their work addresses the everyday difficulties of human relationships, often using humor and irony to highlight the real struggles involved in negotiating difficult situations. They have exhibited widely, including the Fonlad Digital Arts Festival (Coimbra, Portugal), the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (Boulder, CO), and the David B. Smith Gallery (Denver,CO). In 2013, they performed live for the opening of Denver’s Biennial of the Americas First Draft exhibition where they tested the collision of beach balls at high speeds.

Save the date! Details coming soon.

About Keep Talking, End the Stigma

Share your mental health experiences in front of a live audience on Apirl 25th to end the stigma. Stories can be performed by you or a volunteer. Students, staff, and faculty are welcome to submit their stories. Anonymity is optional.

Jointly presented by Music at MSU Denver, MSU Denver Asian Studies, and The Colorado Symphony. Click here to register for the event.

Annie Guo VanDan, Asian Avenue Magazine (moderator)

Junelle Gabrielle Flores, Actor, Singer, Dancer, Musician

(MSU Denver Class of 2023)

Wilbur Lin, Denver Young Artists Orchestra (DYAO)

& The Colorado Symphony (CSO)

Courtney Ozaki, Japanese Arts Network

Ratha Sok, Visual Artist

4:30pm Happy Hour

5:30pm Panel Conversation and Q&A

Join yoga instructor and mindfulness instructor Lesley Pace-Gormley as she hosts a free campus community yoga class and meditation session. This class is accessible for beginner and intermediate students and will provide a safe and restful space to provide reinvigoration for your day. Mats will be provided. 

Space is limited to 15 participants. To register, click here.

About Lesley

From the age of 16 Lesley Pace has held a deep affinity for yoga and meditation in her life. She began her practice after a sports injury left her with a torn ACL and MCL. From there she continued to utilize yoga as a space of peace through challenging times in college and after. Inspired by the strength and clarity she gained, Lesley chose to delve deeper into her yoga practice by becoming a certified yoga instructor.

Since that time she has been teaching various styles of yoga throughout the state of Colorado and beyond and is continuing to augment her yoga education. Currently, she is in pursuit of her Ayurvedic Wellness Coach Certification with Shakti School under the tutelage of Katie Silcox. Lesley has also attended Prison Yoga Training with James Fox in Amsterdam and she serves as camp staff and faculty under Chelsea Jackson Roberts, PhD at the Yoga, Literature, Art Camp for teenage girls at Spelman College. Additionally, Lesley has modeled for Yoga Journal Magazine and Lululemon. You can also tune into her podcast, The Soul Subliminal, for mindful meditations and conversations. Ultimately, Lesley will be using her practice to spread love, light, and healing to those most in need and underserved.

In her free time you can find her bopping around the world for leisure, uplifting her community through her beloved Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., gracing the pages of Yoga Journal, and reading bell hooks to children.

Please join us for a live performance of a new work: poems from inside a WW II concentration camp, with accompanying music. The poems are from a new book by poet Arne Weingart and the music is composed by Cherise Leiter, Professor of Music Theory, MSU.

Gene Roberts, Associate Professor, Classical & Musical Theatre, Voice, Opera, MSU, will direct.

The Whistling Hens – a duo consisting of soprano Jennifer Piazza-Pick and clarinetist Natalie Groom, will debut Cherise’s music; and actors will speak the poems. Q and A to follow.  

Seating is limited. Please click here to reserve a free ticket.

In this Conversation program, the Emmanuel Art Gallery is bringing together a panel of museum and gallery professionals to reflect on their career paths, offer their perspectives on job prospects in the field today, and discuss where arts organizations are headed in the future. Anyone who is interested in pursuing a professional career in the arts is welcome to attend and participate!

Andrew Palamara, the Emmanuel’s Gallery Coordinator, will moderate the discussion with Sarah Kate Baie (MCA Denver), Eric Robert Dallimore (artist/Leon Non-Profit Arts Organization) and Barbara Russell (Clyfford Still Museum).

Eric Robert Dallimore is a contemporary artist who employs a variety of surprising concepts in his driven works of art. His work is often a comment on current political-social narratives, environmentalism, the Anthropocene/Anthropomass, and how we can sustainably move forward as a species. Future opportunities for gallery exhibitions are on the horizon in 2024, as well as an exploration into taking his public artworks to new levels by incorporating them into architectural elements designed to challenge human space and scale through the relationship between traditional and nature-based synergistic building materials.

Eric is also the Founder & Board President of Leon Non-Profit Arts Organization and served as the Curator & Artistic Director until 2021. Leon intentionally challenges artistic limitations and provides an environment for artistic exploration that is free from the market pressure and economic constraints of traditional commercial galleries. In 2022, Eric moved to New York City to work as the Studio Coordinator for Barry X Ball where he worked on exhibition planning, development, and installation with Sotheby's, TEFAF New York, Heydar Aliyev Centre, Center for Italian Modern Art, SITE Santa Fe, Ryan Murphy (private collection), Charlene, Princess of Monaco (private collection), Laura Mattioli (private collection), Fergus McCaffrey, Hong Gyu Shin, McCabe Fine Art, NOMAD St. Moritz Chesa Planta, and an exhibition alongside Cy Twombly's paintings at Mignoni Gallery.

Sarah Kate Baie is a specialist in creating and presenting programming and educational content for museums. Her work includes celebrating and supporting artists and musicians from around the world, and creating programs, performances, and festivals that deliver the art and culture of our time to museum visitors of all backgrounds. These programs include the wildly popular Mixed Taste lecture series, which she produced at the museum for over a decade, and MCA Denver’s teen leadership program Failure Lab, which established teenagers as a primary audience for the arts institution. She holds a M.S. from Bank Street College in New York City and a B.A. from the University of Colorado at Denver.

Barbara Russell joined the Clyfford Still Museum in October 2022 as the Museum’s first full-time development director, moving to Denver from Atlanta, GA. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Art History from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and a master’s degree in Arts Administration from Drexel University. While Barbara started her career in Museums, she has a broad range of experience building robust fundraising programs for a variety of small and mid-sized nonprofit organizations, including museums, united arts funds, a community development financial institution (CDFI), and human service and youth development organizations. She has successfully led the growth and development of revenue programs focused on annual fund and membership programs, major donor giving, foundation relations, corporate sponsorship, program-related investments, and cause-related partnerships. She lives with her partner at the base of Green Mountain and enjoys easy access to adventures in the mountains and shows at Red Rocks.

Following his artist talk at the Emmanuel, Alan Palomo will be doing a DJ set at the Tivoli Turnhalle. Get ready to groove to some amazing tunes and immerse yourself in the vibrant atmosphere!

Admission is free, but registration is required. To pick up a ticket, click here. Maximum of two tickets per person.

About Alan

Alan Palomo (Neon Indian) is an artist, producer, DJ, composer and filmmaker, born in Monterrey Mexico and raise in Texas, now based in Los Angeles. His albums under the moniker Neon Indian (and in 2023, under his own name) have been lauded critically and commercially for their texture, melodicism and deep, vivid world-building both in the music and for all accompanying visuals.  

Palomo's work as a director/writer has been commissioned by the MOCA Museum in Los Angeles, and premiered at the Maryland Film Festival, and been selected as a Vimeo Pick. 

Selected artists collaborations such as Roberty Beatty, Sean Price Williams, Johnny Woods, Pete Ohs, Caroline Polachek, Oneohtrix Point Never, Mac Demarco, and has contributed original score to projects such as Grand Theft Auto, Jethica, Oscilloscope Films and various commercial projects.  

Join us for an artist talk with Alan Palomo (Neon Indian) at the Emmanuel Art Gallery. Alan will talk about his artistic process as a musician and filmmaker, and take questions from the audience.

Alan Palomo (Neon Indian) is an artist, producer, DJ, composer and filmmaker, born in Monterrey Mexico and raise in Texas, now based in Los Angeles. His albums under the moniker Neon Indian (and in 2023, under his own name) have been lauded critically and commercially for their texture, melodicism and deep, vivid world-building both in the music and for all accompanying visuals.  

Palomo's work as a director/writer has been commissioned by the MOCA Museum in Los Angeles, and premiered at the Maryland Film Festival, and been selected as a Vimeo Pick. 

Selected artists collaborations such as Roberty Beatty, Sean Price Williams, Johnny Woods, Pete Ohs, Caroline Polachek, Oneohtrix Point Never, Mac Demarco, and has contributed original score to projects such as Grand Theft Auto, Jethica, Oscilloscope Films and various commercial projects.  

Join yoga instructor and mindfulness instructor Lesley Pace-Gormley as she hosts a free campus community yoga class and meditation session. This class is accessible for beginner and intermediate students and will provide a safe and restful space to provide reinvigoration for your day. Mats will be provided. 

Space is limited to 15 participants. To register for this class, click here.

About Lesley

From the age of 16 Lesley Pace has held a deep affinity for yoga and meditation in her life. She began her practice after a sports injury left her with a torn ACL and MCL. From there she continued to utilize yoga as a space of peace through challenging times in college and after. Inspired by the strength and clarity she gained, Lesley chose to delve deeper into her yoga practice by becoming a certified yoga instructor.

Since that time she has been teaching various styles of yoga throughout the state of Colorado and beyond and is continuing to augment her yoga education. Currently, she is in pursuit of her Ayurvedic Wellness Coach Certification with Shakti School under the tutelage of Katie Silcox. Lesley has also attended Prison Yoga Training with James Fox in Amsterdam and she serves as camp staff and faculty under Chelsea Jackson Roberts, PhD at the Yoga, Literature, Art Camp for teenage girls at Spelman College. Additionally, Lesley has modeled for Yoga Journal Magazine and Lululemon. You can also tune into her podcast, The Soul Subliminal, for mindful meditations and conversations. Ultimately, Lesley will be using her practice to spread love, light, and healing to those most in need and underserved.

In her free time you can find her bopping around the world for leisure, uplifting her community through her beloved Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., gracing the pages of Yoga Journal, and reading bell hooks to children.

Unknown Beat will be playing an all-original house music set on the second floor of the gallery from 10am-12pm. Come on by to start your morning right!

Join Denver Lynx Radio for our one year anniversary at the Emmanuel Art Gallery on the Auraria Campus! Help us kick off the semester right with a free EDM and ambient music show for all Auraria students.

On February 15, we’re looking forward to screening two films by Michelle Carpenter, Chair of the Visual Arts department in CU Denver’s College of Arts & Media. The first is her 2022 documentary Awadagin Pratt: Black in America, followed by a premiere of her newest film, Dr. Eddie Henderson: Uncommon Genius. A companion exhibition, Time and Spaces: The Life of Eddie Henderson, opens at our sister gallery, the CU Denver Experience Gallery, on February 1, 2024.

Awadagin Pratt: Black in America

On May 25, 2020, Minneapolis police officers arrested George Floyd. His arrest and murder were recorded on camera by a witness and documents Mr. Floyd begging for his life and unconscious under the knee of three police officers. George Floyd’s televised murder triggers a response in Awadagin Pratt, and Pratt begins to relive countless police stops, racial profiling, and harassment. The film Awadagin Pratt: Black in America reveals his climb to fame and is a candid conversation about what it is like to be a person of color in the United States. Awadagin Pratt: Black in America confronts issues of privilege and racism in America and tells a personal account of an all-too-common experience for many people of color in America and worldwide

https://www.blackinamerica.life/

Dr. Eddie Henderson: Uncommon Genius

Dr. Eddie Henderson is a renowned American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. Eddie Henderson received his first trumpet lesson from Louis Armstrong at nine. When Eddie turned 14, his family relocated to San Francisco, where he studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 1954 to 1956. In 1957, Eddie met Miles Davis for the first time. Miles, a longtime family friend, admired the gorgeous tone of Henderson’s trumpet playing. Davis encouraged Eddie to pursue a music career. While studying at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Henderson attended a professional ice skating show and became consumed with figure skating. Eddie competed in both the Pacific Coast and Midwestern Ice Skating Championships in the late fifties and early sixties, and he was undaunted by racism and the race barrier that existed in the skating world at the time. During the Vietnam War, Henderson enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. After serving his country, he relocated to Colorado. He was permitted entrance into the Denver Figure Skating Club, and in 1960, Eddie represented the club in the Midwestern Figure Skating Championships in Minneapolis. In the 1960s began to pursue dual careers in medicine and music, earning a Bachelor of Science in zoology in 1964 at the University of California at Berkeley and an M.D. at Howard University Medical School four years later in 1968.

During the 1960s, Henderson began performing with jazz legends such as Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders, and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Throughout the 1970s, Henderson recorded several more albums as a bandleader and collaborated with other notable musicians such as McCoy Tyner and Benny Golson. He also recorded his first album, “Realization,” in 1973, which featured Hancock, Sanders, and others.

https://www.uncommongenius.us/

The Westerlies will be at the Emmanuel Art Gallery for a pair of performance with MSU Denver music students. Here is the schedule for the afternoon:

10:30am – 12pm – The Westerlies work with MSU Denver Brass students under the direction of Dr. Michael Hengst

1pm – 1:50pm – The Westerlies work with MSU Denver Composition students under the direction of Dr. David Farrell

About The Westerlies

The Westerlies, “an arty quartet…mixing ideas from jazz, new classical, and Appalachian folk” (New York Times) are a New York-based brass quartet comprised of Riley Mulherkar and Chloe Rowlands on trumpet, and Andy Clausen and Addison Maye-Saxon on trombone. From Carnegie Hall to Coachella, The Westerlies navigate a wide array of venues and projects with the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a family sing-along. 

Formed in 2011, the self-described “accidental brass quartet” takes its name from the prevailing winds that travel from the West to the East. “Skilled interpreters who are also adept improvisers” (NPR’s Fresh Air), The Westerlies explore jazz, roots, and chamber music influences to create the rarest of hybrids: music that is both "folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous” (NPR Music). 

For the opening of K Contemporary’s Fruta de la Pasion, artist Ángel Ricardo Ricardo Ríos will be joined by Dr. Victoria Lyall, the Jan and Frederick Mayer Curator of Art of the Ancient Americas at the Denver Art Museum, and Dr. Maria Buszek, Professor of Art History at the University of Colorado Denver. This conversation will take place at K Contemporary during the reception for Fruta de la Pasion.

Ángel Ricardo Ricardo Ríos: Ikebana is on view at the Emmanuel Art Gallery through February 24, 2024. This exhibition is in partnership with K Contemporary and the Biennial of the Americas.

Artist Angel Ricardo Ricardo Rios will be in the gallery at 3:00 pm for an informal tour of his exhibition, Ikebana.

Angel Ricardo Ricardo Rios: Ikebana is on view at the Emmanuel Art Gallery through February 24, 2024. This exhibition is in partnership with K Contemporary and the Biennial of the Americas.

Student art, music, and more-- the Fall Art Market, hosted by the CU Denver Art Practices Club on November 9th, is bringing the best of campus artists together into a vibrant marketplace where students can buy, sell, and share their work. All students of any school, major, and discipline are welcomed into the space to be a part of this unique opportunity to table and showcase their craft at no participation cost.

Students: To apply for a spot to sell work at the market, click here.

The Health Center at Auraria in collaboration with the Auraria Recovery Community (ARC) is hosting an event with a focus on mindfulness, with the intention to help individuals overcome personal triggers through self-reflection, trauma-informed yoga, and coping strategies. Come join us for activities, resources, and food to Slay Your Day With Mindfulness. 

To register for the event, click here. Pre-registration is required to participate.

My Kid Could Do That is a one-day exhibition where kids (and their parents) can hang and display their art at the Emmanuel Art Gallery. Kids of all ages and abilities are welcome to contribute artworks to this show. Any and every open spot in the gallery is up for grabs!

The whole event will run from 10am-2pm. Parents can take their child’s artwork off the wall and home with them whenever they’re ready to leave. The gallery will provide snacks and drinks for kids and adults alike.

Spaik will talk about his new mural on the Auraria Campus, “Unidos”. A reception will follow with light refreshments.