Colorado Currents

Colorado Currents is running at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver through November 15, having opened back on July 24. It's a homecoming show for the museum, which is turning its attention back to artists with ties to Colorado after several years of programming that leaned heavily on national and global names. Chief curator Miranda Lash and curator Leilani Lynch put it together, bringing together twenty-eight artists from different generations whose work draws on personal experience, research, and hope for their hometowns, current homes, or homelands.

The range of what they're looking at is wide. You'll find pieces that touch on indigenous communities and histories of mining, labor, cowboys, and violence, alongside the state's mountain, desert, and prairie landscapes, local flora and fauna, drought, and wildfires. There are pop culture references, shifting cities and neighborhoods, and stories of inclusion, exclusion, and protest. It's a lot of ground to cover, and the different threads are held together by the common thread of Colorado itself.

The whole thing is framed around Colorado's 150th anniversary of statehood, and the centerpiece is Coyota, a 3D-printed adobe sculpture by Ronald Rael. Major funding for the exhibition came from The Anschutz Foundation and the America 250 - Colorado 150 Commission, with support from the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District.

If you're planning to go, the museum is at 1485 Delgany St in Denver, and the show runs through November 15.