Art on the Streets

The American West with its naked landscape and vast spaces inspires Francis Fox’s work. Fox captures digital scans of both geologic features and persistent human artifacts, then uses traditional processes such as modeling, carving, and casting to create his sculptures. Physical objects have a special impact in the expansive spaces of the American West. Their presence is a testimony to life and resilience. Life forms tend to reach for the sky, and humans build monuments that represent a perennial dance with the forces of nature.

Joshua Ware describes his work as biomorphitecture: a neologism naming the confluence of constructivist sculpture and living forms. Biomorphitecture engages architecture and structure through geometric, hard-edge forms. It attends to living forms by focusing on objects of a human scale; relying on handcrafted construction methods that do not engage digital or mass fabrication techniques; and encouraging direct interaction between the object and living organisms. Ware aims to harness the tensions between entities that we often consider contradictory. This piece functions as a usable bench, exploring the relationship between the object and human form.

Mono Sourcil (Maxilie Martel) is inspired by the diversity of populations around her urban environment and their tendency to gather. Whether by choice or necessity, the phenomena of migration and exodus is repeated throughout history, leading to the emergence of cosmopolitan cities. Thus, heterogeneous societies tend to coexist, on the same territory. This observation gives rise to Martel’s caricatural forms representing a society where the coexistence of sometimes human beings, sometimes fantastical, refers to a dense, diversified and multicultural vision specific to large cities.  

An interdisciplinary artist, Kim Carlino uses abstraction as a structure to explore and attempt to resolve compositional tension caused through juxtaposition of such disparate elements as fluid and structure, nature and manmade, chaos and order, masculine and feminine and time and void. She brings a collagist’s sensibility to her work, exploiting relationships and edges between forms by building up flattened planes of optical and linear patterning with constantly evolving color relationships as a way to illuminate themes of the interconnectedness of nature, harmony and a sense of play.

The bold and colorful works of Annie Hong, aka Hootnannie (they/she), have been featured throughout the United States and South Korea. With painting as their primary medium, their insatiable curiosity towards all that is visual and beautiful has led them to venture into the worlds of murals, body painting, digital art, installations, and wearable art. Hong’s works can be recognized by their use of vibrant and colorful patterns and whimsical play with words. Their work is greatly inspired by their experience navigating the world as a queer, gender nonconforming, first-generation Asian American artist, aiming to challenge the narrative of the current contemporary art dialogue by pushing for the visual voices of the underrepresented.

Brenda Biondo uses photography in unconventional ways to foster deeper connections between people and nature. In her public artworks, photographic composites reference traditional stained-glass windows to elevate the perceived status of animals and nature. The composite images feature wildlife, plants and other elements of a particular area to create a unique sense of place. Corresponding poster versions raise money for local nonprofits. This mural celebrates the wildlife and landscapes of the Pikes Peak region.  

Michael Krondl’s work is highly site-specific, deriving from photographs he takes in nature (in this case, from the Colorado Springs area). His monumental installations challenge viewers’ perspectives of their surroundings. His works have been exhibited in galleries and through public art commissions in New York, Colorado, Canada, Germany and the Czech Republic. An additional work by Krondl is installed as part of this year’s Green Box Arts Festival in Green Mountain Falls, CO, and will be on display there through Labor Day.

Julio Mendoza, aka Juls, is a multidisciplinary artist who celebrates his heritage through art. His style, “Surrealismo Cultural,” or “Cultural Surrealism,” focuses on cultural identity, community, and social justice. Born in El Paso, Texas, and raised in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Juls says of his heritage: “I am who I am in most part because of my Mexican and Latino heritage. Therefore, incorporating my heritage into my art is meaningful to me, and I feel it’s meaningful to those who can relate to that sentiment as well.” For Juls, the greatest gift is to get inspired by one’s own traditions, food, people and colors, and he feels blessed to be able to put all these into an art piece and inspire others.

Mimicking a pet tunnel, Betwixt channels through un-comfortability and buried memories that individuals grapple with in the present—navigating through the loss of oneself. It is humorous and somewhat playful, yet there is also a sinister sense in that you can enter the tunnel but not escape. The twists and turns in the tunnel create a barrier between each end. Like the game of telephone, information is lost and left out. We want to navigate/tunnel through buried memories but not necessarily relive them, although they could be the route to direct us to find that lost identity.

Two independently balanced forms dancing together through space, Mariachi Galaxy has a constantly shifting form as it turns about, casting undulating shadows while the orange reflectors twinkle in the light. Its form is aquatic and mystical. Wise searches for the nexus between balance and tipping off, both metaphorically and literally, as this is a place of heightened energy and emotion. He focuses keen attention to the outlines of his sculpture, the elegance and power of edges that transform as one moves around the work and the undulating shadows it throws on the ground and surroundings.

Kelly Goff expresses an interest in edges, spaces between things, points of tension, distances, lines, throughlines, and the displacement of resources. Growing up next to an oil refinery on a Caribbean island still colors much of his sense of the world and exploration of it as an artist. Remote landscapes under threat of human industry are especially potent, so time spent in places such as the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Alaskan wilderness, and the Himalayan nation of Bhutan have been meaningful in his work. Goff’s work for general audiences is more broadly accessible, lighthearted, and formal in nature. Line is a major player in the work: lines like those that connect places, yet also the lines that connect us to each other.

Collin Parson’s work involves the control of light and color to create vivid geometric light and space works. Currently serving as curator and director of galleries for the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, in Arvada, CO, his work has been exhibited throughout the Rocky Mountain West. Parson frequently serves as juror for festivals and exhibitions and has received many awards and recognitions for his curatorial projects.