Home Run

Also in this initial section are a group of ceramics by Betty Woodman, the most famous contemporary artist to have ever worked in Colorado and who is currently the subject of a solo at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Around the corner is the main gallery, which has been doglegged with partitions. Here are three of George Woodman's multiple exposures of antique sculpture and historic architecture, and a gorgeous construction of metal, wire and photos by John Hallin. Though the Stephen Batura is a painting, it's based on a photo, so it resonates with the Woodman and the Hallin that hang next to it. Across the room and around the corner is a group of groundbreaking Ruth Thorne-Thompsen photos, the kind of thing that influenced a generation of Colorado photographers to embrace the pinhole craze.

In between is a marvelous cast-paper installation by Myron Melnick, made up of white organic shapes, that provides the perfect marker for the sea of ceramics done by some of the biggest names in the entire show, including Nan and Jim McKinnell, Richard DeVore and Rodger Lang. Beyond the ceramics is a wonderful neo-transcendentalist abstraction of the landscape, "Watermusic," by Sushe Felix, that provides the ideal backdrop for the pots. Behind the Felix in its own separate space is a non-narrative DVD projection by Phil Solomon.

On the other end of the dogleg is an incredible passage in Decades of Influence. Here Payton has hung a great Homare Ikeda abstract that relates back to the Miller, which is around the corner, next to a group of Robert Adams's famous ecology photos that chart sprawl in the landscape. Opposite is a spectacularly luminous work by Charles "Bill" Hayes called "Summer Sketch," created from smears of paint and glaze. Adjacent is a wall-hung installation of draperies and suitcases by Linda Herritt that is reminiscent of a proscenium. As if all of this weren't enough, Payton also included a monumental ceramic sculptural group by Scott Chamberlin that's about the relationship of eccentric if organically derived shapes.

To the right is a large gallery down a short corridor, and this space will make just about anyone stop in their tracks. Anchoring the room is John DeAndrea's "American Icon," a hyper-realistic polyvinyl figural group inspired by the Kent State tragedy and partly based on a black-and-white photo of the incident. Also realistic -- and disturbing -- is "Night Into Morning" by the late John Fudge, which depicts a woman in bed adrift in dreams that fill the room. Fudge influenced many artists, including Jeff Starr, whose realistic painting of an abstract form highlights his longstanding bad-boy status.

Striking a completely different chord is the big, elegant Dale Chisman abstract painting, which has nothing to do with the politics or the aesthetics of the DeAndrea, Fudge or Starr. The Chisman, "Savage Grace," from 1990, is a great example of the artist's work, with its black-dominated ground accented by gestures in white and red. Striking an ideological compromise between the realist works and the abstraction of the Chisman are the two untitled expressionist torsos in ceramics by Martha Daniels.

There are quite a few photos in this section, including a series by Chuck Forsman, who's better known as a painter. These black-and-whites of the Western landscape were taken from Forsman's car, and the windshield and side windows provide frames for the scenery. There are also two remarkably poetic and dreamy photos by the late Francesca Woodman that are clearly autobiographical -- not to mention somewhat unsettling. The same could be said for Albert Chong's surrealist multiple exposures that are hung nearby.

This first section of the show concludes up on the mezzanine, where Payton has assembled work that relates to pop art, or at least to pop culture. There's an installation of what look like comic strips by Joe Clower; there's a Gary Sweeney that looks like a sign; and there's an actual sign, listing the record-setting prices of famous paintings, by Burt Payne3. Opposite is a photocopy installation by Jim Johnson that covers the wall with words, and adjacent are Mark Sink's Polaroids of his friends and art acquaintances.

Were Decades of Influence only made up of this first part at the MCA, it would be among the top shows presented anywhere in town in years. But of course there's lots more involved than just this one fabulously successful section, so I haven't even started to shower Payton with the praise she deserves.