55 APRIL 6-12, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | SHOPPING & SERVICES | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | FOOD & DRINK | MUSIC & VENUES | Best Renegade Art Show Manifest Dystopia Denver Digital Land Grab digilandgrab.com Another new art collective, Denver Digital Land Grab, formed this year and vowed to take over Denver with virtual- and augmented-reality art, doubling down with its slogan: “We are taking space. We are NOT asking permission.” The group was founded by Denver artists Corrina Espinosa and David Hanan, who were frustrated by the economic potholes art- ists suffered in the wake of the pandemic. Leveraging their skills with augmented reality, Espinosa and Hanan fi lled the city with digital art accessible by QR codes for their fi rst exhibition, Manifest Dystopia, with each work commenting on the loca- tion in which it’s positioned. Best Champions of Virtual Art IRL Art Gallery 2601 Walnut Street 870-213-7131 irlart.com The artists in this collective have always looked to the future, and IRL Art has been a trailblazer in the realm of NFTs, virtual art/reality and augmented reality. The underground gallery helps to facilitate sales of its artists’ NFTs, which include a mural by Denver street artist A.L. Grime, and it was the offi cial art gallery for the cryptocurrency convention ETHDenver. IRL Art founder Annie Phillips was also an art steward for that conference, and even curated an exhibition of NFTs at the State Capitol that is on view through May. Best Immersive Experience Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station 1338 1st Street 866-636-9969 meowwolf.com An absolute behemoth, Convergence Sta- tion comprises several different universes in which every nook and cranny bursts with art. Meow Wolf, which began as a renegade art collective in Santa Fe in 2008, landed its spaceship here in September 2021 to wild success, and showed how much it loves Denver in return by moving its Vor- tex music festival here last year. Now, sub- reddits have been dedicated to uncovering the myriad secrets of Convergence Station, though even the creative operators — the name for the character actors who roam the immersive playground — who have been there from the beginning tell us that they discover something new every day. And if you’d prefer the psychedelic expe- rience without kids, Convergence Station hosts 21+ Adulti-Verse nights, as well as Danceportation concerts throughout the installation on select dates Best Seasonal Immersive Spookadelia Spectra Art Space 1842 South Broadway 720-535-7244 spectraartspace.com Denver is becoming an immersive art des- tination, and that’s all thanks to the work of local creatives seen in immersive experi- ences such as Spectra Art Space’s Spook- adelia. After opening each fall for the past fi ve years, Spookadelia’s run time has been extended almost every year as the result of its unfl inching popularity. The fi fth itera- tion, which opened in October 2022 and is still running through the end of April after multiple extensions, riffs on Carl Jung’s philosophy of dreams, with playful art by local creatives, some of whose work can also be seen at Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station. Follow a narrative plot with clues throughout the installation’s dreamscape to uncover the name of the primary character, whose dream you’re walking through — or just poke around for the fun of it! Best Long-Running Immersive Experience Lumonics Immersed Lumonics Light & Sound Gallery 800 East 73rd Avenue 303-568-9406 lumonics.net Artists Mel and Dorothy Tanner began ex- perimenting with immersive experiences decades before it hit the mainstream, starting in Miami in the late ’60s. Although the Tanners have both passed away, their legacy is kept alive at Lumonics Light & Sound Gallery, which opened in Denver in 2008, by Marc and Barbara Billard, along with archivist Barry Raphael, all of whom were part of the Tanners’ collective. Lu- monics Immersed is meant to be a healing experience, in which the Tanners’ light sculptures pulsate to soothing music by Marc Billard. The $20 immersive happens every Saturday from 8 to 10:30 p.m., and provides a mind-expanding, unforget- table experience. Best Immersive Theater Company Control Group Productions 1801 Brentwood Street, Lakewood 303-947-2827 controlgroupproductions.org Control Group Productions performed its fi rst experiential theater production ten years ago, and has consistently banged out two shows a year since then, even keeping the arts alive during the pandemic with live performances you could watch from your car. And last year, the troupe put audiences on wheels again for its production of The End, in which participants rode on a bus and visited post-apocalyptic sites. Con- trol Group never fails to put the audience straight into the story, immersing everyone in its plotlines and guiding them through its always-entertaining narratives. Best Immersive Theater Production From on High OddKnock Productions oddknock.com While most immersive experiences fail to engage all fi ve senses, OddKnock Produc- tions hit every mark over the summer with its sophomore immersive theater produc- tion, From on High. It took place in an aban- doned warehouse in RiNo, where audiences were immediately immersed in the ’80s of- fi ce environment of continued on page 56
