The Dikeou Collection has been carefully monitoring the rate of COVID-19 in Denver and modeling health and safety protocol at art and culture venues throughout the state. We are pleased to announce The Dikeou Collection will reopen its doors to the public, exhibiting Devon Dikeou “Mid-Career Smear” by appointment, on Monday, March 1, 2021.

Curated by Cortney Lane Stell, “Mid-Career Smear” is an exhibition that forgoes conventional dividing lines and displays a fascination for the human-made world, calling to attention its inter-relatedness while softening the lines of the artist’s role—with a dose of humor and absurdity on top.

To help ensure a safe and comfortable experience, appointments will be available Wednesday-Friday. Email info@dikeoucollection.org or call 303-623-3001 to set up a date and time to visit.

We will be following the recommended guidelines from the CDC as well as The American Association of Museums, and will implement the following visitor guidelines to help keep you, our staff, and our community safe:

• Masks are required for all staff and visitors to enter the Colorado Building and The Dikeou Collection. If you do not have a mask, we will provide one for you.

• Physical distancing markers, designated entrance and exit points, and one-way directional signage have been placed throughout the collection.

• Multiple sanitization stations have been placed throughout the collection.

• All high-touch surfaces including doorknobs and checklists are sterilized before and after each scheduled visit.

• Do not enter the collection if you feel sick or have a temperature over 100 degrees.

The safety of our visitors, staff, and community are our top priority. We look forward to safely welcoming you to The Dikeou Collection. Rock on!

2011 was a year of growth for The Dikeou Collection. The Dikeou Pop-Up Space opened in The Golden Triangle District with new painting and sculptural installations by Nils Folke Anderson, and new work by Devon Dikeou and Lucky DeBellevue were added into the fold at The Dikeou Collection. Although they differ both formally and conceptually, Anderson and DeBellevue’s work both fit perfectly within the theoretical framework of the collection. Like Agathe Snow’s “Sludgie the Whale” and Johannes Vanderbeek’s “Newspaper Ruined,” these acquisitions amplify and celebrate works made with humble materials that manifest in monumental scale. DeBellevue utilized hundreds of chenille stems (AKA pipe cleaners) to create his towering yet inviting “Otter,” which envelopes the viewer in its fuzzy and kaleidoscopic embrace.

[caption id="attachment_4929" align="alignnone" width="500"] DeBellevue, Lucky 2002
Khlysty, the Owls, and the Others
LDBF0206
installation view Whitney Museum at Philip Morris
January 18 Ð April 5
Otter 2001
chenille stems
height variable x 115" diameter (detail)[/caption]

Suspended from the ceiling by glittering gold chenille stems and then gracefully spilling onto the floor in rich shades of red, blue, and black, the shape of “Otter” is reminiscent of a teepee with a triangular opening for people to enter. One’s experience of the work shifts from viewing the sublime to stepping inside a velveteen lattice cocoon. The title of the work is a nod to a slang term in the gay bear community, and “[uses] coded references that categorize interests within a particular community […] as objects kind of hiding in plain sight.” DeBellevue does not typically title his work, but in this case the title spurs delight in all, whether they know the true meaning or not.

DeBellevue’s use of chenille stems take on different forms and usages within the larger scope of his oeuvre. They figured prominently in his sculptures for about ten years from the early 90s to early 2000s (“Otter” was made in 2002) before implementing them as tools in his later 2-dimensional works. In his Untitled prints from 2011, DeBellevue used the chenille stems as stamps where he would bend them into different shapes, apply paint, and then press on to the paper. There are four of these 2-D works at The Dikeou Collection, and when placed within the same context as the sculpture new paradoxes arise. Is the sculpture a 3-dimensional drawing? The drawings are 2-dimensional sculptures? To the artist, it is a way to explore the various ways materials can be used. When the scope of DeBellevue’s work is looked at chronologically, one can see how the flecks from one series of work becomes more prominent in the next, like a continuous evolution of material development. Good art is a balance of change and consistency, and the focus on pattern, minimalism, and abstraction paired with a progressive approach to materiality makes DebBllevues creative world a magical and warming place to explore.

-Hayley Richardson

In 1960 the legendary singer-songwriter Roy Orbison released his first top-ten hit “Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel).” He and co-writer Joe Melson originally tried to sell the song to Elvis, but after he turned it down, they decided to record it themselves. Orbison’s haunting vocals and unconventional arrangements of this song established his trademark sound. Today, “Only the Lonely” echoes through The Dikeou Collection galleries thanks to a set of handmade speakers built by artist Joshua Smith’s grandfather, which he gifted to the artist on the occasion of his high school graduation. Smith graduated in 2001 and brought the speakers into his artistic repertoire in 2007; he was 24 years old at this time, the same age as Orbison when he released the song. For a work loaded with minutiae, this secondary coincidence is another tie that binds personal, familial, and universal histories together.

In the six-year span between the speakers existing as household objects and objets d’art, they acquired the typical stains and scratches any well-loved furnishing would endure. Combined with the melodies that emanate from within, one cannot help but create a heavily romanticized and emotional interpretation of the work. But when removed from a domestic setting and programmed to repeat “Only the Lonely” every minute and 44 seconds, grandpa’s speakers become “a piece” of time-based media that calls for “a subtle jabbing not at minimalism or late modernism, but at the contemporary rush to further deconstruct these movements.” Straddled between the palpable and the conceptual, Smith’s Untitled (Speakers) also hovers around a nebulous space that engenders both collaboration and appropriation.

Engineering and constructing custom audio equipment is an artform in and of itself, and Smith’s grandfather is demonstrably adept at this craft. The speakers are the intermediary between Orbison’s music and Smith’s philosophy; it is a tripartite union bound by Smith’s artful moderation. While the art of appropriation is far from new, Smith’s use of the speaker as a primary formal device comes right at the crux of its popularity in the 21^st century timeline. Tom Sachs has been creating his own boomboxes and DJ gear with heavily appropriated materials since the mid-90s, with many of the pieces playing his personal musical selections. Mark Leckey started constructing and exhibiting his sound systems in the early 2000s, and artists Gary Simmons and Cosmo Whyte continue to build the sound system culture within the art world today. Smith’s Untitled (Speakers) may be miniscule in scale compared to works by the aforementioned artists, but its output is far from small – the sound is as powerful as the sentiment.

-Hayley Richardson

In the fall of 2011 Brooklyn-based artist Nils Folke Anderson installed one of his mammoth sculptures at The Dikeou Collection and two at the former Dikeou Pop-Up Space, each Untitled yet identified by the street names of their locations (California and Bannock, respectively). The sculptures have lives of their own as, by their very nature, they shift and squeak and shed little foam balls, minutely changing form over time. Consisting of 9 large interlocking squares of Styrofoam, they reflect the artist’s interest in reciprocal linkage, an internet term that represents an agreement between two webmasters to provide links to one another’s websites. Reciprocal linkage also carries symbolic meaning about balance, change, and reciprocity. While interpreting this work through a lens that is “the year 2020,” the philosophy embedded in Nils’ sculptures rings clear during this unhinged time in history.

Each of the squares that make up Nils’ sculptures measure about 9 feet long on each side. The squares are connected in a chain link fashion and start off in a geometrically pleasing nested pattern. When ready to install, Nils moves and manipulates the squares by standing them up and rotating them around, allowing other pieces to fall and turn on their own. The configuration is constantly in flux and there is no predetermined arrangement – the artist’s decision to stop comes when he feels “the elements make an interdependent stasis,” where it can stand on its own and satisfy its relationship with the space. There is no predicting how long the sculpture will be able to support itself. Eventually it starts to slip, making shrill sounds as the foam rubs against itself and shed little pieces on the floor.

In sculpture, certain parts need to lower their profile to prop up others so that the unit as a whole can achieve stability. In life, those with privilege, platforms, and strength need to learn how to use those benefits to support others for the sake of overall balance and equality. As our world struggles dramatically in health, human rights, politics, education, climate change, and economics, we need to learn to find balance through sacrifice. We also must accept that balance is not permanent, and when one area starts to fall we must readjust our priorities and prior configurations in order to support a new composition. Nils’ sculptures at The Dikeou Collection and Dikeou Pop-Up Space have not remained in the same positions he left them. People nudge the edges as they walk by, kids have crawled through like jungle gyms. An employee insisted the installations at the pop-up moved several feet across the room on their own. In the many forms the sculptures have taken, they always achieve harmony through change.

-Hayley Richardson

The Dikeou Collection is known for exhibiting artworks that are large, unusual, interactive, and attention-grabbing. Whether it’s Wade Guyton’s obtuse yet playful “The Room Moved the Way Blocked,” Momoyo Torimitsu’s startling “Miyata Jiro,” or Agathe Snow’s enveloping “Sludgie the Whale,” these pieces are sure to punctuate the memory of one’s visit to the collection. Then there are those that are smaller, quieter. Where subtlety is used to draw the viewer in for closer inspection and consideration. “Best Actress” by Jonathan Horowitz is one such piece. Comprised of 30 text-based prints on pale pink paper, this unassuming work holds the viewer’s gaze unlike any other, as they try to unravel its meaning.

Each one of the thirty “Best Actress” prints display the name(s) of Hollywood actors and actresses as they appear on the cast billing of their respective [unnamed] film. With the exception of the first three prints positioned at the top left, actress Julia Roberts appears throughout the whole series, her name printed in a slightly darker shade to highlight its position amongst her fellow performers. Typically, the names are ordered with the principal characters/actors at the beginning and smaller roles at the end. Roberts’ name moves around precariously throughout the lists, depending on the size of the cast and on the significance of her role.

“Best Actress,” then, essentially tracks Roberts’ rise to fame, starting with her first appearance in 1988’s Mystic Pizza (a role so small that her name does not appear in the billing at all) up through the very early 2000s. Roberts appears in some tremendous ensemble films like Steel Magnolias with prominent female leads, other times it is just her name with one male lead actor, with his name typically above hers. In 1990 her name appears below Richard Gere with her breakout role in Pretty Woman. Flash forward to 1999 and Roberts’ gets the top spot above Gere in Runaway Bride. The tables turned in her favor, but the best, and worst, is yet to come.

In 2000, Julia Roberts starred as the title character in Erin Brockovich. The film was a critical and box office success, but Roberts’ performance is what made Erin Brockovich memorable and garnered many accolades and awards, including the highly-esteemed Best Actress Oscar at the 72^nd Academy Awards. In Horowitz’s piece, her name appears on its own. She is THE single star, without a man’s name above or below hers to gauge her value. She’s at the pinnacle.

Roberts followed up Erin Brockovich a year later with The Mexican, an adventure comedy which she starred in alongside Brad Pitt. Here we have two powerhouse performers at the peak of their careers starring in a lukewarm film that does not do their talents justice. And where is the Best Actress winner’s name in the cast list? Below Mr. Pitt’s, of course. How silly to think that a woman can hold her #1 spot for more than a year before getting second chair to male counterparts. Horowitz’s “Best Actress” could have very well been a series of 29 prints on pink paper with Erin Brockovich being the one to cap it off, but inclusion of The Mexican is what drives the message home. Enduring success is challenging in any field, but for women in Hollywood, it’s about as long as an Oscar acceptance speech.

-Hayley Richardson