ART COLORADO
Viktor Frešo
Viktor Frešo, Roly Poly, 2022, polyester and hardware, 69 x 36 in
Jason Craighead
C o n t e m p o r a r y
Jason Craighead, Quiet Chaos, 2024, acrylic, graphite, oil pastel on canvas, 70 x 60 in
Kelly
Mary
Hugh
Craig
Melody
Tiffani
Victoria
James
Steve
Krista
Julia
Michele
Shara
Bev
Jerry
Will
Carol
Faced with a rent increase at the previous location in Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe, NKollectiv Galley relocated in January 2025 to a much larger space within a new art hub, EASEL, in Downtown Englewood. EASEL, which stands for Englewood Art Studios, Events and Lessons, is a lightfilled second-floor space that encompasses five permanent working-artist studios, one short-term studio and/or exhibition space, and a large event space that can be used by art instructors, yoga teachers, and others seeking a venue for events. “Given the small size of the Santa Fe District location, paying higher rent wasn’t sustainable,” owner Nicole Korbe explained. “Moving into a much larger space of more than 4,000 square feet allowed us to offer additional services that benefit the gallery, local artists, and the larger Englewood community.” Additionally, a large kitchen and outdoor deck make it ideal for hosting events. “The flexible use of the
larger space will help cover overhead costs and enable NKollectiv to grow alongside a larger art-centric endeavor,” Korbe said.
NKollectiv continues to be a curated gallery for a growing group of local artists to display and sell their work, giving them opportunities to interact with collectors and grow their practice. The current gallery roster includes 18 Colorado artists displaying a curated mix of two- and three-dimensional work that leans contemporary, including a variety of paintings, fine-art prints, functional and sculptural ceramics, steel and wood sculptures and décor, and metal-smithed jewelry. Select items are available for purchase online at NKollectiv.com along with more information about specific artists and events. Opening receptions will continue to be held on first Saturdays of the month from 2-6pm.
Opening on April 3, NKollectiv will feature work from member artist Shara Oliman. Based in the Denver metropolitan area, Oliman is a mixed-media collage artist whose work intricately combines beauty, precision, and a sense of wonder. Using salvaged paper, she painstakingly selects materials based on their color, weight, and pattern. Her process involves tearing and cutting hundreds to thousands of small paper pieces to craft painterly collages that are as immersive as they are evocative. Her current artistic focus is on the qualities of landscapes of the Western region, relying on her unique interpretations of nature’s colors, movement, and compositions. Guided by her intuitive, spiritual growth journey, Oliman creates pieces that invite introspection and evoke deep emotion, all while bringing perspective to the bond between humans and the environment.
The larger Englewood Community has an ever-expanding community of creatives
and NKollectiv and EASEL are an integral part of a collaborative movement to draw attention to this energy with Second Saturday events. The EASEL website (easel-co. com) contains a landing page with the list of participating creative and small businesses in the area. Follow EASEL on Instagram and Facebook @easelcoartspace.
Upcoming shows at NKollectiv and EASEL include:
“Piece by Piece: Impressions in Paper” by Shara Oliman; through April 27
“Apis Opus”; May 1–June 1, 2025
“Inscape: The nature or inner essence of art” Kelly Austin-Rolo and Michele Messenger; June 5-29, 2025 3485 South Broadway, Englewood nkollectiv.com
Shara Oliman: (clockwide from below) Alpine Alchemy; Branching Together; Rustic Morning
IS ADDING COLORADO
Museum of Art Fort Collins Hosts Its Annual Masks Fundraiser and Exhibition
From April though June 6, the Museum of Art fort Collins hosts its 21st Annual Masks Fundraiser and Exhibition. Masks is the signature fundraising and community art event at the Museum of Art Fort Collins. Its primary purpose is to raise funds that will contribute substantially to the support of the museum’s exhibitions and educational programs by engaging the community in a unique, approachable, diverse and creative art experience. Over the past 21 years, 3,500 Masks have been created and over 2 million raised by this extraordinary fundraiser and
community art project.
Each year, over 200 plus artists and community members apply their creative talents to creating works of art that comprise each fundraising exhibition. Each year has been an exciting journey as the unadorned ceramic forms leave the museum returning as an amazing collection of creative and diverse masks in all mediums. For 2025, we have 224 Masks for sale from over 250 artists of all age ranges.
It all started in 2001, when the board of directors of the Museum of Art were dis-
cussing the future of the Museum and the subject “How do we become more relevant in and to our community?” came up. The museum needed to raise friends as well as money. With that, Masks was born, and the museum is celebrating the 21st iteration of Masks in 2025! The event that has become
the signature community outreach and fundraising event of the Museum was originally called Faces in the Crowd, now Masks, which premiered in 2004. The concept was to involve the community as much as possible and bring needed awareness and money to the Museum. To do this, the museum opened the process to all to create a design with and on a pre-made bisque-fired clay mask. The artists could use all of their creative juices and do anything to the mask. These masks then were put on display in the Museum for all of the creators, family, and friends to come into the Museum to see and purchase. At present, the museum reaches out to Poudre School District teachers to bring interested
students and classes into the Mask making process. The museum also does outreach to various nonprofits such as Boys and Girls Club and Partners Mentoring Youth to be able to involve as much of our younger community as possible in the Masks project.
What started out as a desperate move to keep our beloved Museum alive and relevant, has become so loved by the community. The musuem now have a waiting list of over 75+ artists and community members to create masks and that it is consistently one of the most popular and beloved exhibitions every year.
Julie Hansen-Conn, a local art teacher sees the impact the event has. “Masks is a unique opportunity for artists and community members to communicate on a higher level. As an art teacher I am always looking for ways my students can express themselves and broaden their view of the world. Masks is a great way to do just that.
It pushes my students and myself to think beyond the classroom and work through the artistic process from start to finish with spectacular results. Masks is a celebration for all.
“For Boys & Girls Club, being able to participate in the Masks exhibit provides our members with a unique opportunity that they are not able to get elsewhere,” says Molly Strader, Assistant Club Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Larimer County. “Many of the youth we work with come from under-served communities. This project helps provide a spark for these young artists and motivates them to keep working towards their dreams.”
For local art teacher Chelsea Ermer, “The Masks at MOA opportunity is something I greatly look forward to every year. It is not just an opportunity to make and showcase my art, it is also an opportunity to support the arts community in a city that has supported me so much over the years.”
Andrew Roberts-Gray / Michael Warren
Andrew Roberts-Gray is a Carbondale resident who has been making art his entire adult life. For 40 years Andrew has pursued an abstract examination of the interplay between the natural world and the technological one.
After college he headed to New York City and began making movie-inspired prints. “They had more to do with exploring art-making and what was popular than what they had to do with me,” he said. After visiting Olana, the estate of the landscape painter Frederic Church, he turned to plein air painting even though the prevailing thought was that “no one would do that because it was anti-New York…it was anti-art.”
In the early ’90s, Roberts-Gray and his wife Annette, also an artist, left New York for Colorado. During the trip west, he took note of the landscape and how the construction and development intruded on it. Over the years Roberts-Gray’s landscapes have examined man versus nature to varying degrees, at times highlighting the landscape and then, at others, emphasizing man’s mark on it.
For much of the past 10 years, Andrew’s work has undergone a shift from recognizable landscapes to increasingly abstracted compositions with geometric forms to assemblages of discreet geometric components void of any real figuration and then to painterly abstractions with references to the
clockwide from upper right: Opulent (detail image); self-portrait; The Sandman; In the Year 3535
development of the mechanical age leading into technology and computerization. Ultimately, Andrew finds a way of coming back to the landscape, sometimes in a gesturely form that evokes Chinese brush paintings and more recently with works that suggest the Mountain West.
Andrew Roberts-Gray was raised in Livermore, CA; he graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute and earned his MFA at the University of Wisconsin. Roberts-Gray’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States and has been placed in corporate, private and museum collections. Andrew Roberts-Gray is represented by Michael Warren Contemporary.
(above) Blue Dye; (below) Abstraction 20
Sarah McKenzie / David B. Smith
David B. Smith Gallery’s latest exhibition is Displays of Power, the 5th solo show by Boulder-based artist Sarah McKenzie. McKenzie will present a selection of paintings ranging from 2022 to 2025 that draw visual and practical parallels between the architecture of US prisons and traditional, whitewalled art venues including museums and art galleries.
Sarah McKenzie is known for her paintings that analyze the aesthetics of institutions, often esteemed art venues, which offer a lens into the psychology of architecture. Through their design, buildings communicate the values of the society in which they were created. Through myriad elements, architecture reflects social codes and priorities—guiding, restricting, or enabling behavior, and controlling how bodies move through space, gather, or commune. The art gallery or museum’s pristine white walls, meant to be interpreted as neutral or blank, communicate control over space, guiding the viewing experience of visitors.
Sarah McKenzie View From the Second Tier (Alcatraz), 2022
Sarah McKenzie, Curtained, 2025
Kelton Osborn | Patrick Marold
April 3 - May 10
Kelton Osborn | Patrick Marold
April 3 - May 10
Collin Parson | Andrew Roberts-Gray
May 13 - June 21
Collin Parson | Andrew Roberts-Gray
Deb Adams-Welles | Jay Phillips
May 13 - June 21
June 24 - July 26
Deb Adams-Welles | Jay Phillips
June 24 - July 26
