10 SEPTEMBER 28-OCTOBER 4, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | shape akin to the infi nity symbol, which Evans says is “influenced from the idea of takeoff and landing — a looping shape where it just never ends, because DIA never is closed...and basically, there’s always a plane in the sky. “It really encompasses what public art is supposed to be, because it’s comprised of people in Colorado, so you feel more con- nected with it,” he continues. “It’s like this never-ending story that just keeps looping and looping and looping. So when you’re far away, it has this infi nity symbol view, but when you get closer, it’s like this Möbius shape that sort of loops up and down, up and down.” But for now, Evans is concentrating on Denver Walls. It’s been surreal to see how expansive the mural scene has become since he became a full-time artist, at a time when he noticed more creatives moving to the city, bolstering a community that was just begin- ning to grow through local mural festivals such as Crush Walls. When that festival folded, the RiNo Art District replaced it with another festival, while others, such as Babe Walls and COLORCON, popped up in other parts of the city. “It just slowly grew every year. More people came, more people knew about it. There were a lot more artists popping up,” Evans recalls. “I think there are a lot of artists that also decided in 2014, ’15 and ’16 to fi gure out how to do it full-time. ... There’s a lot of opportunity in Denver. I think there was enough room for people to grow and to get projects, build a career, get income to sort of support the next project and yourself.” And now, “Denver is a place that people know as a fun place to paint,” says Grimm. That’s what made the city a perfect fi t for another festival from World Wide Walls (formerly known as Pow! Wow!), which curates Walls festivals in cities around the world. Grimm had installed a mural for the festival’s D.C. iteration in 2021, and after speaking with the curator of that event, she arranged for the fest to come to Colorado. She initially intended for Denver Walls to debut last September; after that effort fell through because of a lack of funds, Grimm found an enthusiastic partner in the RiNo Art District. Headlining artists include James Bullough, Kimchi Juice and George F. Baker III, aka GFB3. Some artists are traveling thousands of miles to be a part of the ex- perience, such as Faith47 and Keya Tama, a mother-son duo from South Africa. They were on Grimm’s “wish list,” she says, and the timing worked out perfectly. Local creatives will be working at the same level as the international artists, Grimm emphasizes. Kimchi Juice, who fi rst painted for World Wide Walls at age fi fteen and has work in the White House and the Smithson- ian’s private collection, will paint alongside Denver graffi ti group DF Crew. “It doesn’t really matter what walk of life you come from; it doesn’t really matter what style of art you pursue,” Grimm says. “The museum girl can rough it in the alleyways painting walls in the same way that the guys that come from the street do.” Many artists reached out to Grimm to work with Denver Walls, including Bullough, a Berlin street artist who paints surrealist fi gures fragmented by space and shapes. “For me, James’s style is this beautiful pause, where you almost become detached from time because you’re seeing this person in this moment of stillness, but also being torn apart,” Grimm explains. “And I think that the way that he paints it helps people have a separation between them in the present moment and, at the same time, a oneness with it. His work is just so ethereal. I was really excited that we were able to have him with us.” Bullough is bringing along his team for his street-art podcast, VantagePoint Radio, and will record some episodes while he’s here. VantagePoint is even curating an exhi- bition at Ryan Joseph Gallery that will open on Friday, September 29, showcasing the work of the most well-known international street artists. Grimm wasn’t surprised to see so much interest from artists outside the country — she herself was drawn to Denver from D.C. after checking out our scene and falling in love with the city’s unique street art. “So many of these artists, especially the ones that reached out to us, want to come here to paint. They know that we have RiNo and that street art is really prominent here,” she notes. “But also, it’s in the mountains. It’s a beautiful place. Everyone has been really excited to come out and not just connect with the people in the community, but to see our city and the landscape around it.” Grimm’s curation aims to have visitors engage with the neighborhood as much as possible. “Something that we really focused on in our wall placements was making sure that we didn’t just activate the Larimer side, but that we actually went over to the Brigh- ton side of RiNo as well, and spread them out to encourage the community to really walk the entire district and engage with all the businesses in between,” she explains. The biggest draw will be an art fair on the 2900 block of Larimer Street on Saturday, September 30, which will include mural tours, family-friendly activations and sta- tions, live music, live painters and more. The day-long event will begin around noon, and “we’ll wrap that up at night with music and drinks and food on the 2900 block with the bars and restaurants that exist there already,” Grimm says. The murals created during this inaugural festival will be up indefi nitely, she adds, as an ongoing art display and lesson for the city. She wants Denver Walls to open up the community to accepting more artistic styles and contemplating how that refl ects the city’s diversity. “My hope with Denver Walls is that it becomes a community event where we’re able to call in different types of creatives and different people from different backgrounds to just celebrate the universal message that is art,” Grimm says. “Denver has so many beautiful cultures that make the city great, and art is such a beautiful equalizer that we can all kind of fi nd common ground in it. “My goal is kind of twofold: to create a space where the community can come to- gether, but also a space where we can elevate art within the city,” she continues. “I think that it’s really important to celebrate local art and creatives, but there’s nothing wrong with introducing outside ideas. When you’re able to curate intentionally and bring ideas from outside...we’re actually creating a men- tal expansion for people; we’re helping them learn things they maybe never would have learned about, or see styles, see ideas that they wouldn’t have seen just living within the city. And so my goal is just to elevate our understanding of the world as a community, and understand how Denver plays a role in that, to hopefully inspire people to do greater things within the city.” And when Detour is involved, great things inevitably happen. As a leader in what could now be called the Denver Mu- ral Movement — or to put it in the “-ism” grouping, Communityism — he believes festivals like Denver Walls are what propel the city’s art forward. “I just connect with people when it comes to the arts,” Evans says. “It’s a way to connect with people and make friends, hang out, have a good time. And then because with mural festivals, the scale of the art is just larger, and you’re really just building community when you do projects like this.” Denver Walls runs through October 3; learn more at denverwalls.com. Find more on Detour at iamdetour.com. Culture continued from page 8 Thomas Evans will paint the largest mural at Denver Walls. Evans’s Nuggets mural is still a destination for the team’s fans. A rendering of Evans’s “It’s Not What You Take, It’s What You Bring Back” at DIA. COURTESY OF THOMAS EVANS JULIAN DONALDSON DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
