Last year, a cadre of Denver's finest noir fiction writers skulked their way over to Juanita's for Denver's inaugural Noir @ the Bar fiction event. The success of that first edition was measured in viscera: "The uninitiated left Juanita's bleeding from the ears, and unsuspecting diners were found vomiting in the gutters of Broadway for hours afterwards," they reported.

In the year and change that followed, the noir genre has continued its literary renaissance, and anticipation grew for a a second set of live authorial readings of red-meat crime stories. Sadly, the past year also witnessed the death of organizer Cortright McMeel, a promising writer whose career was cut tragically short.

See also:
- Noir at the Bar comes to Denver Thursday
- One chapter book reviews: Cort McMeel Short, chapter 18
- Westword Book Club: Ryan Demers on filmmaking, furries and Gone Girl

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Bruce Price, "Medium & Large Aggregation," 2012. Acrylic paint and fabric on paper; 30 x 22 in.  Lent by the artist. © the artist; courtesy Plus Gallery, Denver & CuratorialAccessories.com.

#69: Bruce Price

A painter who started out as a musician, Bruce Price learned from his mentor, the pattern painter Clark Richert, at the Rocky Mountain School of Art + Design, and eventually stretched and bent those lessons into something that suited him better. The resulting work, abstractions expressed in a looking-forward way, have morphed into new dimensionalities that challenge the flatness of traditional painting. It looks simple, sometimes rough, but there is a careful structure behind it all.

See also:
- 100 Colorado Creatives: Theresa Anderson
- 100 Colorado Creatives: Donald Fodness
- 100 Colorado Creatives: Lauri Lynnxe Murphy

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All photos by Danielle Lirette.

Dogs and their owners brought sexy back at the Mutts and Models Mardi Growl on Saturday, May 18, 2013, at the EXDO Events Center. The event was not just about flash and glamour; it also raised funds for PetAid Colorado, a nonprofit dedicated to at-risk pets. Continue reading for a few highlights, and visit our full Mutts and Models Mardi Growl slide show for more photos.

See also:
- Animal shelters charging big bucks to adopt "Very Important Pets"
- Photos: The Dogs of the Lucky Mutt Strut
- Best Shop Dog - 2013 - Buster Brown

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Between last summer's devastating wild fires, the Aurora shootings and other high-profile news stories, Colorado has had a rough year.

It is difficult to find a way to express the emotions that these events have evoked, but the Damsel Dance Company is trying to do that by communicating Colorado's fear and pain as well as hope, faith, and pride through dance.

Denver on Fire, which tackles these topics, begins tonight (although the first showing is sold out) and runs through May 22.

See also:
- Denver On Fire event information
- 100 Colorado Creatives: Nancy Smith of Frequent Flyers Aerial Dance
- Photos: The strange and seafaring fashions of the Holy Ship!! dance cruise

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Photo/Ken Hamblin

Hundreds of local ink enthusiasts put their tattoos to the test at the Ink Slingers Ball and Tattoo Expo over the weekend. The eighth annual event took over PT's ShowClub on May 18, 2013, as ink junkies competed for $2,000 grand prizes for the best sleeve, black-and-white, color and large tattoos. Photographer Ken Hamblin captured all the action: Continue reading for a few highlights, and visit our full Ink Slingers Ball & Tattoo Expo slide show for more photos.

See also:
- Five reasons restaurant employees should be allowed to have tattoos and piercings
- Tattoo Nation documents California's romance with ink
- Tattoo Nation director Eric Schwartz on the oral history of the art form

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All photos by Danielle Lirette.

The Five Points Jazz Festival had jazz fans of all ages dancing in the streets on Saturday, May 18, 2013. Local musicians, art, and street food filled Welton Street as soulful jazz filled the air from the morning through the evening. Continue reading for a few highlights, and visit our full Five Points Jazz Festival slide show for more photos.

See also:
- Five Points Jazz on Film presents The Girls in the Band
- The five best jazz shows in Denver this May
- The 2013 Colorado music festival guide

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David Anfam, who's been involved with the Clyfford Still Museum since it opened, has just been named senior consulting curator. The only scholar given access to the late artist's collection by his widow, Anfam now plans to focus on realizing the museum's goal of having a research center, as well as other scholarly initiatives.

In advance of the opening of the Still's new show, Memory, Myth and Magic, we spoke with Anfam about his experience with Clifford Still's work and his hopes for the museum.

See also:
- Best Addition to Denver's Art Scene 2012 Clyfford Still Museum
- Best Clyfford Still Show 2012 Inaugural Exhibition
- Designing the Clyfford Still Museum

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A work constantly in progress, the Crochet Coral Reef is an installation of ten textile pieces at the Denver Art Museum, part of its summer exhibition, Spun: Adventures In Textiles. Through the project's Denver Satellite Reef, museum visitors have a chance to contribute to the installation directly, by coming in any Saturday or Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and crocheting a piece of the reef.

"As we were kind of exploring different installations that would relate to this big textile initiative that has been spearheaded by the re-installation of our own textile collection, the Crochet Coral Reef was one of those things that popped up on the radar," says Jenna Madison, manager of studio and artists programs at the DAM. "We contacted the Institute for Figuring [the Crochet Coral Reef organization started by Margaret and Christine Wertheim in California], and got the ball rolling about when and if we could get the pieces installed onsite."

The Crochet Coral Reef is both an environmental and educational project involving a global community, everyone from expert crafters to beginning crocheters, all led by the Wertheim sisters. The Denver Satellite Reef is just one of many offshoots, which have been installed in New York, Chicago, London, Dublin and other cities around the world.

See also:
- Spun spins a museum-wide web of textile-related exhibits at the Denver Art Museum
- 100 Colorado Creatives: The Ladies Fancywork Society
- DIY feminist writer Margaret Wertheim discusses the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef

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Lucas Samaras, "Reconstruction #20," 1977. Sewn fabrics; 87 x 85 in. Denver Art Museum; National Endowment for the Arts, Dayton Hudson Foundation, Alliance for Contemporary Art M/M Edward Strauss, M/M Donald S. Graham, and anonymous donor, © the artist. Detail.

Spun: Adventures in Textiles, this summer's huge, campus-wide aggregation of exhibitions devoted to the textile arts at the Denver Art Museum, is definitely going to require more than one visit to absorb. In fact, DAM curators -- every single one of them had a hand in putting the shows together -- are banking on it. The wildly varied products of their labors collectively represent the wealth of textiles that have been tucked away for years in the museum collection, out of view.

See also:
- Spun: Adventures in Textiles, at the Denver Art Museum
- Photos: Two abstract solos showcase Colorado's best
- DIY feminist writer Margaret Wertheim discusses the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef

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Lisa Stefanelli, "Dream Liner 03." Automotive paint and enamel on panel.

Materialized, a group show featuring abstract works utilizing unusual materials, opens today at Robischon Gallery; it's a continuation of the gallery's Material Abstraction, which introduced the whole idea last summer.

All photos courtesy of Robischon Gallery.

See also:
- Material Abstraction at Robischon is more than just medium
- Best Show About the Intersection of Art and High Fashion, 2010: Rockspace
- Artbeat: Kate Petley and "Wild" Bill Amundson glow at Plus Gallery

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