Visual Art: Jay Paul Apodaca gallery opening this Friday

This Friday June 6th, Jay Paul Apodaca will open a gallery that is, well, situated completely off the gallery scene. Located on Sheridan Blvd, Apodaca’s space will showcase several rooms of his work, mostly paintings. The artist was born and educated in Denver, and was a student of local talents like Dale Chisman. He is known for live-painting performances in the LoDo club scene and has been commissioned to do permanent work for several.

His paintings are both traditional and innovative, often reworking the classic female nude into a reciprocal gaze passed between model and artist, surrealist urban landscapes that collapse into abstractions of color, and still-lifes that contain mazes of composition.

Inclined to reaching outside the gallery scenes (as with live-painting) and into the living, breathing populace (composed, of course, of individuals who care about art and others who don’t), it’s fitting (though a bit inconvenient for we First Friday enthusiasts) that Apodaca chose to open a gallery in a small shopping center next to his wife’s restaurant. But his gallery is worth the excursion –for a look at the work and a conversation with Apodaca, who (should one ask) tells his life story centered on growing up as an artist in Denver.

PARADOX Art Gallery is located at 1822 S. Sheridan Blvd., Denver, CO. The opening is slated for Friday June 6th, 8pm. For more info see www.jaypaulapodaca.com