Where to find the work of visual artist Melissa Furness
Online, on the street, and in galleries: the CU Denver professor is showing in both traditional and creative spaces.
Alice Crogan | College of Arts & Media Jul 23, 2020During a global pandemic, traditional art spaces have swiveled and turned to honor their commitment to sharing art and promoting the artist. Some have gone virtual, some have shifted to revised physical shows to meet social-distancing guidelines, and others have taken the show on the road.
CU Denver Art Practices faculty Melissa Furness is letting her work go on the ride of all the varied forms.
Art-lovers and fans of Furness’s innovative, cutting-edge, radically different fine art have many options to enjoy her paintings this summer. The work can be viewed physically, virtually, and mobile(y)–yes, even on wheels.
Online: Intersect Aspen
View at https://www.art-aspen.com/k-contemporary
Intersect Aspen (formally the Aspen Art Fair) is displaying two of Furness’s paintings represented by K Contemporary Art. The online event is a part of the Intersect Art & Design series of art fairs that value working with integrity, decency, credibility, and transparency promoting social awareness and fostering change. Furness’s oil on canvas work is available for online viewing rooms through July 26, 2020. For in-person viewing of the fair booth, contact the gallery.
In-Person: The Walls Between Us (Center for Visual Arts) and
Pink Progressions: Collaborations (Arvada Center)
The Walls Between Us opens August 14th, featuring the work of artist collective the Artnauts (which also includes CU Denver Visual Arts faculty Quintin Gonzalez), a varied group dedicated to using the visual arts as a tool for addressing global issues while connecting with artists from around the world. Furness will have two large oil paintings in this exhibition which runs August 14 – October 17, 2020 at the Center for Visual Arts.
Pink Progression: Collaborations celebrates the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women's right to vote. The exhibition recognizes the consecutive dates in which all women received the right to vote in America and the complex struggle for universal suffrage today. Furness’s piece is an incredible large-scale mixed media conception piece, collaborated with CU Denver sculpture faculty Rian Kerrane. The work, Port of Gilded Proclivities, incorporates steel, cast iron, cast bronze, oil painting on canvas. The exhibition is on view through November 8, 2020 at the Arvada Center.
On-the-Road (literally): #ArtFindsUs
Occurring the third Thursday of every month, #ArtFindsUs is taking the work of local artists and putting them on a mobile billboard tour of the town. The project places the art that usually shows at Doug Kacena's gallery, K Contemporary, on a mobile billboard truck that typically advertises sport bars and nightlife. With social-distancing measures closing many galleries, the art now comes to the viewer to provide much needed creative sustenance. Heads up– the next viewing is August 20th. To learn more about the community based initiative, follow the #ArtFindsUs hashtag or visit https://athenaprojectarts.org/artfindsus/.
About Melissa Furness: Melissa Furness works primarily in painting and installation. Her work is influenced by experiences of travel, which have included artist residencies in China, Mexico, Ireland, Poland, Hungary, and the U.S. Furness regularly exhibits and publishes both nationally and internationally. She participated in the 2015 Biennial of the Americas, and in 2016 Kochi-Muziris Biennale in Karala, India through A.I.R. Gallery of NY. Furness is currently an Associate Professor of Art Practices at the University of Colorado Denver College of Arts & Media. The artist is currently represented by K Contemporary Art in Denver.