2023 Exhibits

Taiko Chandler: Thoughtful Intuition

Image of a female artist hanging blue scalloped artwork on a wall

Photo by Scott Dressel-Martin, courtesy of the artist. 

Exhibit Dates: September 22, 2023 – January 7, 2024

Opening Reception: Thursday, September 21, 2023 at 5:30 pm

Virtual Tour

There are many ways to approach art making, all of which are influenced by an artist’s training, background, and individual mindset. For some, an outline, pre-conceived layout, or diagram of some sort is necessary to complete the work. For others, the process follows a path of intuition with no fixed outcome in mind from the start. This process can include some or all of the following: addition, pause, response, subtraction, revision, fine-tuning, etc. Much of the intuitive creative process is based on feeling, memory, or perhaps the subconscious, differing from artistic practices that rely more on structure and specific steps in order to fulfill an outlined plan, or to recreate a sketched scene. Thoughtful Intuition is a solo exhibition featuring abstract artwork by Denver-based artist Taiko Chandler. This exhibit features monoprints, paintings, and installations by Chandler, all of which were created through her incredibly thoughtful yet intuitive process.  

Taiko Chandler’s methods and her work are truly unique. Even though she possesses a natural ability to instinctually feel her way through a beautifully constructed piece from start to finish, her creation process is not without thought or cognition. Indeed, her approach is as layered as her pieces, nuanced with fragments of memories, interwoven with past and present personal events, and tied together with the strength of human bonds and a desire to share emotion and connection. Chandler does rely on conscious reasoning in her artmaking, although perhaps not in a linear form as most would anticipate. Rather, she seems to balance feeling with thought, thought with memory, and memory with desire, in a pattern that results in artwork that feels entirely precise and complete. 

This is evident in some of her larger Tyvek print installation pieces on display in the exhibit. She starts by creating organic shapes on a sheet of acrylic using a piece of mat board. As she spontaneously fills in the space a pattern emerges that is then transferred onto Tyvek using a printing press. The emotion-driven creation doesn’t stop there, as Chandler then removes negative or non-inked parts of the Tyvek that don’t suit the piece by hand-cutting hundreds of holes. The result feels symbolic of the way we might experience some of our most deep-rooted memories that can have multiple perforations or blank spots. Instead of having an exact visual picture or a structured outline of the experience, we instead recall the curve of sentiments felt in that space. We sense the wispy dappling of a beautiful light, or the dense pull of a heavy sense of loss or sorrow. Chandler recreates the feeling of memory in a way that is both tangible and intangible simultaneously. Through each step of the creation process, there is a sense of her putting things in place, not systematically, but intuitively and organically as though gravity or a force of nature is at work. 

About the Artist

Printmaking is Chandler’s primary art medium where she is driven to develop her own vocabulary. She is drawn, in particular, to its unpredictability. Chandler composes her work instinctively, combining shapes, colors, lines, and textures in order to express her imagination and react to the environment around her. The process is, therefore, both deliberate and iterative. She is constantly improvising with no fixed destination in mind. It is the open nature of the process that is constantly creating new possibilities. In addition to printmaking, she is interested in three-dimensional work, particularly installation art. Here, the work is also process driven. She is fascinated by the visual effect that occurs when responding to the material. There is an element of repetition in the construction of the finished piece. It is meditative yet compelling. The accumulation on a large scale changes the narrative and produces something that is transformative. 

Born and raised in Nagano, Japan and originally trained as nurse, Taiko lives and works in Denver, Colorado. Since taking her first art class at the Art Students League of Denver, Taiko has focused on printmaking; more recently she has begun exploring other media, including installation, to express her inner vision. Taiko’s site-responsive installation made with monoprints on Tyvek was part of the exhibition “Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence” at Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Massachusetts, (March 26 – July 16, 2023). Taiko’s work has been exhibited in Colorado (including solo exhibitions at Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver Botanic Gardens) and other states, as well as numerous print fairs throughout the U.S. Her work is included in private and public collections in the U.S. and Japan, including the Cleveland Clinic Art Program, University of Colorado Denver Business school, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and the Denver Art Museum (Education Collection).  

https://taikochandler.com/


Christopher Warren: REinterpreting REcreating Nature

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Exhibition Dates: February 17 – May 14, 2023

Humans have been reinterpreting nature as far back as we can record. From the paintings of lions and bulls in the Lascaux Caves of France, to the countless landscape paintings through the ages, humans have been recreating the natural world around them through visual art. In the digital era, those recreations have come in the form of isolated slices that are then turned into bits of data. Images are turned into tiny square pixels, one color each. Smooth arcing sound waves are broken into narrow rectangles that mimic the mountains and valleys of audio. Stunning landscapes are translated into concentric lines emanating from the tallest points as topographic maps. This process of digital cataloging has allowed the average internet user to access a mind-bending amount of data, but after this digital transformation, the landscape is rarely, if ever, recreated into a physical form again. REinterpreting REcreating Nature explores the digitization of natural forms, be they landscapes or biological shapes, and presents known lands and gestures in new ways, by retranslating the digital information back into a physical representation.

Christopher Warren began this artistic exploration with the recreation of landscapes through digitized topographic maps. By combining a massive trove of digitized maps, their free access on the internet, and affordable use of machinery at maker spaces across the US, he created the initial sculptures in this collection that are products of the era and technology they were created in. Warren has since expanded his initial investigation of physical recreations of digitized data to include biological forms such as hands and faces, as well as the merging of biologic and geologic forms. He also generates physical edits into the landscape to illustrate historic events that occurred on the land.

The fractal geometry of nature is a calming presence for all humans, especially since we are surrounded by the Euclidean geometry of rectangles, triangles, and circles in the modern world. Exploration through recreation of these natural forms is an endless pursuit that can veer into countless mediums and directions. Nothing can compare with the wonder of seeing a giant encompassing tree or a breathtaking mountain vista in person, but the study of human recreation of these natural forms provides a look into the inspiration that surrounds us, encompasses us, and even defines us.

This exhibit features a body of work that includes sculptures from across the entire career of Christopher Warren. While topography has been the primary focus throughout Warren’s career, and dominates the collection, wall hanging reliefs, topographic tables, free standing installations, and tabletop pieces are included.

About the Artist

Christopher Warren was born in Durango, Colorado. There he grew up exploring the towering peaks of the San Juan Mountains and the red rock canyons of Southern Utah. These iconic American landscapes instilled in him a sense of geologic wonder. He attended CU Boulder and graduated with a BFA in Film in 2013. He was awarded his first art honors through micro grants from the Durango Arts Center, and a partnership between the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and Denver Botanic Gardens. His explorations of 3D topographic sculptures launched when he became a member of the maker space “Tinkermill” in Longmont, Colorado, where affordable access to machinery allowed his imagination to flow unimpeded by financial constraints of owning his own shop. In 2018, he was awarded his first public art commission, a mural for the North Boulder Arts District. In 2019, he started painting murals across Colorado and began representation with Walker Fine Art in Denver. He also joined the board of the North Boulder Arts District in that same year. In 2020, he created multiple commissioned sculpture installations, as well as exhibited in Land Lines at Walker Fine art. Christopher Warren finds unending inspiration for sculptures and installations all around him, from hikes in Canyonlands National Park, to the stage lights at a concert, he is constantly inundated with new ideas that he hopes to one day create. More information can be found at www.beatnikprints.com.

Virtual Tour

REinterpreting REcreating Virtual Tour


Nature's Blueprints: Biomimicry in Art and Design

Image of a dragonfly up close with exhibit title

Exhibit Dates: February 3 - March 15, 2023

In an age of complex environmental challenges, why not look to the ingenuity of nature for solutions? The forms, patterns, and processes found in the natural world—refined by 3.8 billion years of evolution—can inspire our design of everything from clothing to skyscrapers. This approach to innovation, called biomimicry, is becoming increasingly popular. Nature’s Blueprints: Biomimicry in Art and Design opens February 3, 2023 at the Littleton Museum.

The exhibition Nature’s Blueprints: Biomimicry in Art and Design brings together art and design with environmental science using artifacts, artworks and photography, as well as interactive learning stations.

Biomimicry is not a novel idea; Gaudi and Da Vinci both took inspiration from nature. Modern science and technology, however, are rapidly expanding the types of materials and systems we can create. Bird wings. Spiderwebs. Rainbow Trout. These have inspired design improvements that enable faster travel, safer bridges, and more effective wind turbines. Similarly, biomimicry in art is a process that entails exploring the material properties, cycles, and dynamics of nature, and how whole biological systems are structured—and putting that into works of art. Artworks and designs that are rooted in the laws and forms of nature can address pressing issues, such as conservation, sustainability, and environmental justice. They can also spark an interest in, and connection with, nature.

This exhibition is aimed to encourage discourse among audiences of all backgrounds as our understanding of the natural world can lead to some extraordinary creations that improve lives and reduce our impact on the environment. Nature’s Blueprints: Biomimicry in Art and Design is an adaptation of the High Desert Museum’s Innovation Lab: Design Inspired by Nature, and is produced and toured by ExhibitsUSA, a program of Mid-America Arts Alliance.

About ExhibitsUSA
This exhibition is toured by ExhibitsUSA, a national program of Mid-America Arts Alliance. ExhibitsUSA sends more than twenty-five exhibitions on tour to over 100 small- and mid-sized communities every year. These exhibitions create access to an array of arts and humanities experiences, nurture the understanding of diverse cultures and art forms, and encourage the expanding depth and breadth of cultural life in local communities. For more about ExhibitsUSA, email MoreArt@maaa.org or visit www.eusa.org.

About Mid-America Arts Alliance
Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) strengthens and supports artists, cultural organizations, and communities throughout our region and beyond. Additional information about M-AAA is available at www.maaa.org.