This week, CultureHop visits GBSM’s downtown Denver offices, where art fills every room with color, inspiration, and energy. Explore how creativity can infuse everyday workspaces and why bringing color into our environments can transform the way we think and collaborate. Hear from GBSM President and CEO Andy Mountain as he shares insights on his art collection, the firm’s work, and his philosophy on how art shapes the spaces we inhabit.

Learn more about GBSM here: https://www.gbsm.com/

This week, CultureHop takes us to K Contemporary for Dichotomies, a new body of work by Francisco Souto following his acclaimed showing at the 60th Venice Biennale. Deliberately distancing itself from Souto’s personal history as a Venezuelan immigrant, the work grounds itself in universal human experience and political immediacy shaped by today’s global crises. His photorealistic drawings feature universally recognizable objects—boots, sneakers, gloves, stones—rendered with meticulous care and finished with a glass-like depth that draws viewers in. Stripped of context and floating in open space, these symbols invite empathy, prolonged looking, and reflection on displacement, resilience, and human connection.

Lumonics Light & Sound Gallery, an extraordinary art studio, gallery, and immersive performance space founded by pioneering light artists Dorothy and Mel Tanner. Among the first and longest-running light art projects in the U.S., Lumonics combines sculpture, music, and video projection to create transformative sensory experiences. The Lumonics Legacy Project carries forward the founders’ vision, showcasing more than 200 light works spanning 50 years. Visitors can explore the Tanners’ influence on the evolution of light art and its connection to healing, education, and community. With partnerships including Denver Public Schools, The Phoenix, and Meow Wolf, Lumonics continues to expand how art can inspire connection and wonder.

This week, CultureHop takes us to Friend of a Friend, a ground-floor gallery space along the Platte River Trail rooted in connection and experimentation. Led by founder and Co-Director Derrick Velasquez alongside Co-Directors Jenny Nagashima and Ilan Gutin, the gallery reflects a collaborative vision shaped by experience across Denver, Chicago, and Montana. Together, the team is intentionally filling a niche between project space and commercial gallery, supporting both emerging and established artists. With its accessible location and open-door ethos, Friend of a Friend continues to invite Denver’s creative community to gather, engage, and connect face to face.

This week, CultureHop takes us to Flamboyán Theatre, led by Culture Club member Jon Marcantoni, a Denver-based home for Puerto Rican (Boricua) storytelling that expands the city’s Latino cultural landscape. With Puerto Ricans representing the second-largest Latino group in Colorado, Flamboyán centers narratives shaped by the island’s distinct history and relationship to the U.S., offering perspectives often missing from local stages. The theatre pushes artists to take creative risks across genres and multimedia, challenging expectations while building new narratives that resonate across communities. Through performance and storytelling, Flamboyán unites the Puerto Rican community and invites audiences of all backgrounds to engage more deeply with Boricua culture and lived experience.

This week, CultureHop takes us to Pulse Visual Art, a gallery and creative solutions space dedicated to supporting artists through both physical exhibitions and innovative software for sales and organization. The current exhibition features SA Bennett, a local artist whose work portrays the African Diaspora and reflects her decades of teaching experience in Denver and Jamaica. Returning to painting full-time in retirement, Bennett blends representational and abstract styles, creating works that are both human and relatable while exploring new techniques. Pulse Visual Art offers visitors the chance to engage with her evolving practice while experiencing a space designed to connect, showcase, and celebrate artists in all stages of their careers.

This week, CultureHop takes us to 11 x 17, an award-winning design practice with offices in Denver and Toronto, founded by Alex Yueyan Li and Mahsa Malek. The firm works across scales—from exhibitions and interiors to furniture, books, and buildings—always guided by a critical exploration of material origins. In 2025, 11 x 17 was recognized with the League Prize for Young Architects + Designers from the Architectural League of New York. Their thoughtful, boundary-crossing approach invites visitors to consider design as both a practical and conceptual experience.

This week, CultureHop takes us to MCA Denver to explore its Spring 2026 exhibitions, featuring Ana María Hernando, Sammy Seung-min Lee, and Bethany Collins. The shows engage with themes of identity, migration, language, and resilience, offering poetic reflections on belonging and voice amid personal and collective transformation. Working across diverse materials—from tulle and ceramics to cast aluminum and paper—the artists present commissioned works that push the boundaries of form and scale. These exhibitions invite visitors to experience contemporary art that resonates deeply with the human experience.

This week, CultureHop takes us to BMoCA to experience Yes &…, an exhibition featuring 18 artists united by a human-centered approach to art. Rooted in the improvisational ethos of “Yes, And,” the show celebrates the poetic imperfections and deliberate choices that reveal the artist’s process—from wavering lines and thick brushstrokes to hand-squished clay and rough-hewn wood. Each artist presents two works, highlighting both continuity and departures from their usual aesthetic, while an accompanying zine explores other facets of their lives beyond the studio. Together, the exhibition and zine invite visitors to reflect on the human fingerprints embedded in art and the ways context shapes our understanding and appreciation.

This week, CultureHop takes us to Michael Warren Contemporary, a gallery dedicated to showcasing contemporary art that speaks to the heart and invites living with art. The current exhibition features Dorian Agüero, a young Cuban artist whose colorful abstract and figurative works, as well as contemplative sculptures and installations, explore material and process with care. Agüero’s work has been exhibited in Cuba and internationally, and is held in private collections across the U.S., Chile, Cyprus, Germany, and Australia. The gallery celebrates artists from across the country, offering visitors a chance to engage with compelling contemporary art and discover pieces that resonate personally.