Links | Press
Artists play with the concept of time to challenge fact, fiction and memory:
The best Denver Art Exhibits of 2025
by Ray Mark Rinaldi | The Denver Post, July 7, 2025 and January 8, 2026
https://www.denverpost.com/2025/07/07/art-review-arvada-center-time/
https://www.denverpost.com/2025/12/27/best-denver-art-exhibits-2025/
The main attraction is a sprawling, mid-career retrospective of artist and teacher Melissa Furness titled “Embedded.” Furness is a master of painting the complexities of time, creating rich, complicated tableaux with multiple references to art history movements. She makes landscapes, still lifes, portraits and contemporary installations, often combining ideas from each of those categories into single objects. It’s deep and serious work at every turn, and the show provides rich escape.
While the region’s other important galleries have been ignoring serious shows by Colorado artists, the Arvada Center has stepped in with gusto. This solo exhibit by Melissa Furness showed how to do it right. It was an exhaustive retrospective — and, in a sense, a tribute to one of Denver’s most talented and prolific painters. This show got into the weeds in a good way, detailing Furness’s residencies, experiments, land works and other aspects of her career that fly under the radar. But the real thrill was just looking at this talented painter’s large canvases and watching how they evolved.
Art Through the Distortions of History
by Clarke Reader | Colorado Community Media, July 10, 2025
https://www.coloradocommunitymedia.com
Set up in the Main Gallery, Embedded is an engrossing look at the career of an artist who is constantly finding new ways to explore themselves and the world around them. Broken up into subsections like In Ruins and Gathering Moss, Furness’ shows that she’s a conceptual artist of the highest order. Guests will see work that was created in places as disparate as Ireland and China, each with unique subjects and mediums worked into beautiful paintings.History and its impact on our current times is a subject Furness — a professor at the University of Colorado Denver — returns to in fascinating ways, from making surreal recreations of well-known works to displaying discarded bricks from China.
For the love of art : Artsy envisions a future where everyone is moved by art every day. To get there, we’re expanding the art market to support more artists and art around the world. As the leading marketplace to discover, buy, and sell fine art, Artsy believes that the process of buying art should be as brilliant as art itself. That’s why we’re dedicated to making a joyful, welcoming experience that connects collectors with the artists and artworks they love.
Since its inception in 2017, K Contemporary has made a name for itself by recontextualizing and informing the dialogue about how we experience art. This artist-centric gallery has a focus on contemporary and conceptual art, as informed by historical context, while providing its patrons with engaging exhibitions, pop-ups, art interventions and art fairs. Through these immersive and experiential displays, K Contemporary acts as a catalyst for engaging discussion about the role of contemporary art in society.
Kiechel Fine Art, established in 1986, specializes in 19th and 20th century American Art, Old Master and Contemporary prints, as well as regional and national contemporary art. We represent the estates of several notable artists and private family trusts. Our gallery offers the highest level of services including art consultation and certified appraisal. We have placed work in corporate, private and museum collections worldwide. Working with private and corporate clients, we strive to build collections with current and future value.
Selected Publications:
• Embedded, artist monograph, Denver, Colorado: K Contemporary Art and the Arvada Center for the Arts & Humanities, 2025, on-line : https://online.flippingbook.com/view/690181898/ ; in print https://www.lulu.com/shop/melissa-furness/embedded/hardcover/product-9585rgw.html ; audio tour https://www.youraudiotour.com/tours/melissa-furness-embedded/
• Catherine Flood on Serving Gluttony, Unit London, 2024 : https://unitlondon.com/2024-04-05/catherine-flood-on-serving-gluttony/
• New American Paintings, West, Issue #132 : https://www.newamericanpaintings.com/artists/melissa-furness-0
• SeeAllThis Magazine International, no. 26 Summer 2022, ‘We Are All Meat’, Haarlem, Netherlands, 2022: https://seeallthis.com/product/no-26-zomer-2022/
• Studio Visit Magazine, Volume 49: https://www.studiovisitmagazine.com/pastvolumes/volume49
• Colorado Creatives Interview: Melissa Furness, Westword : https://www.westword.com/arts/colorado-creative-melissa-furness-travels-through-art-history-and-the-physical-world-11642300
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Selected Reviews:
• “Artists play with the concept of time to challenge fact, fiction and memory”, The Denver Post (2025): https://www.denverpost.com/2025/07/07/art-review-arvada-center-time/
• “The best Denver art exhibits of 2025”, The Denver Post (2026): https://www.denverpost.com/2025/12/27/best-denver-art-exhibits-2025/
• “In Aspen, A New Art Fair Follows the Money”, The New York Times (2024): https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/02/arts/design/aspen-art-fair.html• “Denver’s Biennial of the Americas Announces Programming and Artists”, ArtForum (2015): https://www.artforum.com/news/denver-s-biennial-of-the-americas-announces-programming-and-artists-51093
• The male-female divide even in art, The New Indian Express (2017): http://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2017/mar/22/the-male-female-divide-even-in-art-1584104.html
• A.I.R. artists at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India, Two Coats of Paint http://www.twocoatsofpaint.com/2017/03/a-kochi-muzris-biennale-a-i-r-collaboration.html
• Strokes of genius: A ground report from the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Hindustan Times http://www.hindustantimes.com/art-and-culture/strokes-of-genius-a-ground-report-from-the-kochi-muziris-biennale/story-32eAeyvFy5cODQz1yoAtTO.html
• Colorado Artists’ Work to Be Displayed at Korea’s DMZ Museum, 5280 Denver’s Mile High Magazine (2018): https://www.5280.com/2018/06/colorado-artists-work-to-be-displayed-at-koreas-dmz-museum/
• “Exhibition captures DMZ through eyes of foreign artists,” The Korea Times (2018): http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2018/06/103_251347.html
• “Meow Wolf’s Latest Artist-in-Residence Unveils New Exhibit,” 5280 Denver’s Mile High Magazine (2023): https://www.5280.com/meow-wolf-melissa-furness/
• “Colorful and lively, ‘Made in Colorado’ includes many of the state’s most successful artists working today,” The Denver Post (2023): https://www.denverpost.com/2023/06/19/made-in-colorado-artists-denver-emmanuel-gallery/
• “Made in Colorado” DARIA: Denver Art Review Inquiry & Analysis (2023): https://www.dariamag.com/home/made-in-colorado
• “K Contemporary exhibition sets tone for 2023,” Your Hub The Denver Post (2023): https://yourhub.denverpost.com/blog/2023/02/k-contemporary-rises-as-of-now/301268/
• “Artnauts Founder George Rivera Reflects on 25 Years of Art and Activism,” Hyperallergic (2022): https://hyperallergic.com/745201/artnauts-founder-george-rivera-interview/
• “As of Now” DARIA: Denver Art Review Inquiry & Analysis (2022): https://www.dariamag.com/home/as-of-now
•“Doug Kacena is changing the way art galleries operate in Denver,” The Denver Post (2022): https://www.denverpost.com/2022/02/14/doug-kacena-k-contemporary-denver/
• “The Artists Bringing Activism Into and Beyond Gallery Spaces,”The New York Times Style Magazine (2021): https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/t-magazine/art-activism-forensic-architecture.html/
• Melissa Furness and Rian Kerrane: histordomest-icity, DARIA : Denver Art Review Inquiry & Analysis: https://www.dariamag.com/home/histordomest-icity
• From Babe Walls to Detour, Colorado’s biggest and boldest art moments of 2020, The Denver Post (2020): https://theknow.denverpost.com/2020/12/27/fine-arts-coronavirus/250979/
• “Pink Progression is keeping the spirit of the Women’s March alive, hats and all,” The Denver Post (2020): https://www.denverpost.com/2020/08/30/pink-progression-is-keeping-the-spirit-of-the-womens-march-alive-hats-and-all/
• “Pink Progression Uses social momentum for artistic exploration,” Arvada Press (2020): https://arvadapress.com/stories/pink-progression-uses-social-momentum-for-artistic-exploration,314247
• K Contemporary and Leon Shows Recast the Narrative of Art History, Westword (2019): :https://www.westword.com/arts/kaitlyn-tucek-and-melissa-furness-recast-art-history-at-leon-gallery-k-contemporary-11492422
• Melissa Furness and Ashley Eliza Williams at K Contemporary, OnDenver (2019):https://ondenver.com/melissa-furness-and-ashley-eliza-williams-at-k-contemporary/
• K Contemporary brings new stamina to Denver’s struggling commercial art scene, The Denver Post (2018): https://www.denverpost.com/2018/12/19/k-contemporary-brings-new-stamina-to-denvers-struggling-commercial-art-scene/
• Review: CVA’s Pink Progression Is a Must-See Show, Westword (2018):https://www.westword.com/arts/pink-progression-at-metro-states-center-for-visual-art-talented-artists-deliver-a-message-10377157