Identity, Power, and Art: May 2nd, Know Yourself, Control Yourself
Join artist SPEAKS, RiNo Art District, and RedLine Contemporary Art Center for a program series centered on exploring identity and creating art. This workshop series runs all of 2024 and ends in a group show celebrating the artwork participants create. In this series, we aim to deepen and explore our personal connections to our artistic and creative expressions. We also ask questions about how we view and understand ourselves in relation to art. What does it mean to truly“identify” with someone’s artwork? What does it mean to see ourselves in our art?
This workshop series builds. Join us for each workshop to get deeper into your exploration of self and creative practice. The workshop series culminates with a group art show. Drop-ins and one-off attendees are very welcome! Participants will be provided with art-making materials. Light food and drink will be provided.
May 2nd: Know Yourself, Control Yourself // Co-lead by Kaylee Bender IG: @Nokaylee
To be a full-time artist or even remotely get the ball rolling on your art career or creative life, there are things that you must face to obtain gigs and keep those gigs coming. We don’t talk much about the tedious application processes that we face to be even considered for a gig, which brings us to one of the most feared things for every artist: talking about ourselves. This workshop is going to highlight what it means to write a good artist statement and ultimately talk about yourself, your values, and why you create what you create. This workshop will explore tools that use our identity and intersections of our identity as a source of power and truthfully make these bios and artist statements an extension of ourselves.
Meet SPEAKS — Devin Urioste was born and raised in Denver. His work is influenced by the culture he was raised in and embodies what it means to give his community a voice, and platform to speak from. His work is rooted in graffiti, skateboarding, music, street culture, social justice, and many more. (IG: @goodlooksvol.1)
Meet Kaylee Bender — Kaylee is a Denver-based painter, educator, community outreach coordinator, and life-long artist inspired by her journey of healing, feeling, and growing. She explores beauty and authenticity through surreal imaginations of human nature and our diverse stories. Inspired by jazz, soul, and hip-hop, her art shares a surreal taste of the beautifully black, acting as a catalyst for liberation. Kaylee shares her craft and creative process in the community and empowers those around her. Her community engagement is focused on sharing “art as liberation” with black and brown youth and improving arts access for all of our neighbors. She is a mentor with RedLine’s ArtCorps programs and launched “Colfax Cares”, a mutual aid and public art program, with City Records in 2023. Kaylee not only participates in the community but actively celebrates it and in doing so dances in the face of familial, cultural, and communal gentrification pressures. Her public artwork, workshops, storytelling, and portraiture, including work for Major League Baseball’s 2021 All-Star Game and a 2022 mural installation in the Denver Art Museum, is an invitation for you to dance with her.
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