`In Situ' about to take place

From Jan. 4 to Feb. 9, Metro State University's stimulating Center for Visual Art will invite a viewer to contemplate her/his surroundings. Are things what they seem — or something else altogether?

“In Situ” features four artists, who are also creating installations at Denver International Airport, to bring extensions of their outdoor investigations — all situated inside — to the CVA.

Kim Dickey, Humberto Duque, Isabelle Hayeur and Ximena Labra come from Canada, Mexico and Colorado and will install continuations of their DIA work at the CVA in the Santa Fe Art District, opening on the First Friday on Jan. 4 with a public reception.

Kim Dickey, from Boulder, creates detailed ceramic gardens, such as her hedge-like “Inverted L Beam,” covered with hundreds of little leaves. It could be part of a Victorian maze, or is it a fairy garden — or a criticism of those who want to control the shapes nature forms?

Humberto Duque of Mexico City assembles installations with everyday objects — kitchen timers here — which speak to the times spent waiting for something to happen, especially while watching a baseball game.

Isabelle Hayeur is a Canadian artist who creates large landscapes from photo collages. The assorted sites may not relate, may be scarred and may show evidence of the lack of human caring for our environment that is too often evident.

Ximena Labra, also from Mexico City, calls her work “public space intervention projects.” Her photographs of a spot where an event has recently occurred leave the viewer to figure out the story. Items may be carelessly dropped, littering a site. Imagine who has been there and what they were doing.

In addition to the work by the above four, CVA has invited some young artists from the La Alma neighborhood to exhibit invented toys and documentary photographs in the Emerging Artists Gallery, part of a project with the Boys and Girls Club and Denver Housing Authority. It's hoped these young people will connect with contemporary art.

If you go

The Center for Visual Art is located at 965 Santa Fe Drive, Denver. Open Tuesdays through Saturdays. Admission is free. Phone: 303-294-5207, MetroStateCVA.org. Parking is available at the gallery.