Untitled Talk Back April 28 6-10 pm and icons of megaphone, martini glass, mouth and star

We're Throwing Shade at Untitled: Talk Back

Spring is in full swing and there’s hardly time to talk, but let’s slow down for a minute and chat about Untitled: Talk Back, happening April 28 at the Denver Art Museum.

Gallery view of Shade: Clyfford Still/Mark Bradford exhibition

Gallery view of Shade: Clyfford Still/Mark Bradford.

This month, it’s time to speak up, sashay, and serenade in a night dedicated to Shade (the Clyfford Still/Mark Bradford exhibition, of course).

Shade celebrates an artistic dialogue between contemporary artist Mark Bradford and his abstract expressionist inspiration Clyfford Still. In honor of this terrific twosome, our neighbors at the Clyfford Still Museum are collaborating with us for our very first two-venue Untitled Final Friday!

The title of this exhibition and works in it also are inspired by drag queen culture (several of the titles in the exhibition are names of types of drag performances and terms from LGBTQ ballroom culture, famously captured in the 1990 documentary film Paris is Burning.) So who better to kick off the night than our favorite high-heeled, high-hair-sprayed divas and our friends at the Denver Public Library. Shirley Delta Blow and Dixie Crystals will be throwing shade and having a ball on sassy walking tours through both museums. Get there early and sign up quick because these gals move fast!

Continuing our duet is composer and former DAM creative-in-residence Nathan Hall and special guest performers shaking up the night with musical interpretations of both galleries.

If Nathan gets you in the musical mood, then step into a Toyota vehicle and sing sweet two-part harmonies in the ever-popular CAR-aoke (yep, that's karaoke in a car).

Cat got your tongue? Sure hope not, because artist Jordan Knecht is counting on you to speak up and redefine the artworks inside Shade in an interactive MakeARTtalk session that explores translation, technology, and hilarious “art talk.”

If listening is more your style, then lend an ear to University of Colorado MFA students as they bring the Word Dance exhibition to life, as well as Minor Disturbance slam poets and Motus Theater in riveting call-to-action performances exploring the themes in Mi Tierra.

There’s more to tell, but Warm Cookies of the Revolution are telling me (and you) to Shut Up! (more on that at Untitled: Talk Back), so I’m gonna wrap it up…till April 28.