Modern & Contemporary Art in full bloom at the Denver Art Museum this spring

Past favorites return and Eyes On: Susan Wick focuses on local artist

DENVER — This spring, the DAM invites visitors to reflect on some of our favorite artworks and series since the beginning of this century. How does language contribute to shaping community? How does language evolve over time and how can words inspire creativity and new ideas?

In November 2009, the Denver Art Museum (DAM) presented Embrace!, an exhibition of 17 unique artworks in dialogue with architectural elements in the museum’s Daniel Libeskind-designed Frederic C. Hamilton Building. The exhibition marked one of the largest displays of site-specific commissions in a U.S. museum.

Spurred by the enthusiastic response of the Denver community and building on its commitment to expand its collection with new works, the DAM acquired six installations from Embrace! that resonated strongly with museum visitors and Denver residents for its permanent collection.

Among those acquired works were Charles Sandison’s multi-media Chamber and Rupprecht Matthies’ ¿Being Home? Both art installations are back on view starting this month through the end of this year. In addition, the DAM is excited to re-awaken its Eyes On series with a presentation focused on Denver-based artist Susan Wick.

Welcome ¿Being Home?

Now on view

Since debuting in 2009 in Embrace!, Rupprecht Matthies: ¿Being Home? has been reinstalled twice, in 2011-2012 and 2013-2015. Its third reinstallation at the DAM is a testament to the timeless significance and relevance of this artwork. The colorful, community-generated work—reconceived by the artist for installation in the Hirschfeld Atrium on level one of the Martin Building—went on view April 6, 2025. Artist Rupprecht Matthies uses the power of language to engage and inspire people. ¿Being Home? is a community-generated artwork that transforms words into colorful mobiles and wall pieces.

To create his work in 2009, Matthies held workshops with Denver-based community organizations including the African Community Center, Emily Griffith Opportunity School, and Centro San Juan Diego. In collaboration with recently arrived refugees and immigrants to the Denver-area, Matthies received meaningful words about home, family, and belonging. In these workshops, four questions served as prompts for conversation: “What surprised you about the United States?” “What did you leave behind?” “What English word stays in your thoughts?” “Is there a word in your own language that you miss?” Each workshop was a forum for exchanging anecdotes of the diverse experiences whose contexts underlie the collective work of art. Their thoughts, feelings, and desires were then transformed into sculptural text comprising Plexiglass, wood and other media. Incorporating words in 13 languages—including Arabic, Jola (Diola), English, Karenni, Sanskrit and Spanish—the installation reflects the lived experiences shared by diasporic populations and those forced into exile.

Visitors invited to enter Charles Sandison’s Chamber

Now on view

Since the early 2000s, Charles Sandison has pioneered the use of computer-generated imagery in museums as art. Chamber, commissioned by the DAM in 2009, is a digital projection artwork piece that utilizes 10 projectors and 10 computers, transporting viewers to an alternative world of wonder and awe. Video projections of moving language and symbols form vivid abstract imagery that dances, slithers and cascades in architectural space.

Chamber is now on view in the Martin & McCormick galleries on level 2 of the Hamilton Building, through 2025. Encompassing 3,200 sq. ft., Chamber is the largest artwork in the museum’s collection of nearly 80,000 objects. In Chamber, size is not confined only to the physicality of the art installation itself, but also to how much space it takes up.

For Sandison to create this artwork, the right architectural partner was needed. Designed in dialogue with the architectural artistry of the building, the artwork was considered finished once the Hamilton Building was complete, highlighting the power of architecture as art and its collaborative nature for Sandison.

Architecture plays an integral role in Sandison’s work. Rather than using screens, he projects directly onto raw surfaces, forming partnerships with space and becoming one with architecture. Like a present-day cave drawing, his work strives to build and use a technological vocabulary. The computer is Sandison’s partner in his journey to a verbal and cyber threshold where tension is created between the limits of man and the potential of technology.

Sandison’s constellations of flashing lights form words and figures that travel across walls, into corners, and across the bodies of viewers. This moving matter appears as a sort of linguistic game of tag. Some elements are fast, some slow, some gravitate together and some shift apart. The digital images of light collide, colonize and cascade, like a colorful and abstract battle or dance.

The first presentation of this work was in Embrace! (Nov. 14, 2009–April 4, 2010), returning to view in BLINK! Light, Sound and Moving Image (March 10, 2011–April 30, 2011). Chamber was presented as a standalone exhibit (Feb. 17, 2013–April 7, 2013).

Denver-based artist Susan Wick re-opens DAM’s Eyes On series

Now on view through July 26, 2026

The DAM is excited to re-awaken its Eyes On series, which introduces audiences to a broad range of practices, ideas and approaches to exhibition-making explored by living artists working at pivotal moments in their careers. Projects in the series are organized as single-gallery exhibitions or site-specific installations. The first in the series will be Eyes On: Susan Wick, on view from April 20, 202, to July 26, 2026, on level three of the museum’s Hamilton Building.

Denver-based artist Susan Wick (born 1938 in Madison, Wis.) has made art without inhibition for more than six decades. Driven by relentless curiosity, Wick conjures worlds of fantasy, intrigue and desire. Her daring compositions and experiments with materials such as fabric, foil and printed paper inspire and excite the imagination.

Now 87, Wick has lived in Denver since the 1980s. She ran the legendary City Spirit—a cafe and gathering spot for artists, writers, poets, musicians and the avant-garde scene in 1990s Denver. The bulk of her creative output has been done in relative isolation at Zwick Place, her home and studio located in what is today known as the RiNo district.

Eyes On: Susan Wick features 40 rarely seen paintings on paper with mixed media and collage. In the mid-1990s, Wick created dreamy and playful works like these for a monthly art subscription, mailing them to subscribers across the country. Sending her art out into the world exemplifies Wick’s desire to foster community and connection.

The exhibition also includes around two dozen of Wick’s artists’ books from the 1970s to the 2000s. Some books contain daily paintings using discarded books from the Denver Public Library. Others are thematic, like one that illuminates the best sources of chocolate. Often stored in suitcases for ease of transport, these artworks contain a visual lexicon of birds, flowers, domestic interiors and human figures that find their way into the other works on view. Together, they encourage us to see the artfulness of everyday life in the objects we behold.

“This show celebrates the art and creativity of Susan Wick, an artist who has been making work for six decades! In Susan’s work we see an artist whose curiosity knows no bounds. What happens when you allow curiosity to be your guiding principle? This show answers that question and invites our visitors to remember that life is an imaginative-filled journey, if you are open to it that way” said Rory Padeken, Vicki and Kent Logan Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.

All three of these exciting spring exhibitions of modern and contemporary art are included with general admission, which is free for museum members and all visitors 18 and under.

Charles Sandison: Chamber is organized by the Denver Art Museum. Support is provided by the donors to the Annual Fund Leadership Campaign and the residents who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). Promotional support is provided by 5280 Magazine and CBS Colorado.

Planning Your Visit

The most up-to-date information on planning a visit to the Denver Art Museum can be found online under the?Plan Your Visit tab. Use this page to find details on ticket pricing, public transit options and access information. General admission for museum members is free every day. Youth aged 18 and under receive free general admission everyday thanks to the museum’s Free for Kids program. Free for Kids also underwrites free admission for school and youth group visits.