Vicki Myhren Gallery

Last week I was fortunate enough to visit the Vicki Myhren Gallery at Denver University where they held a “color symposium” at their wonderfully curated art exhibition, Learning to See Color.  I wanted to share highlights from the talk and the exhibition today. Color is much more complex and interesting than most of us realize.

Learning to See in Color with the Vicki Myhren Gallery

The exhibit explores color and its elusiveness.  What I liked most about this exhibit was the exploration of color. It explored not just in art, but how it is perceived in music, industry, and everyday life.

The exhibit was curated by Dan Jacobs of the gallery and co-curated by Jeffery Keith. Jeffery is an artist, color expert, and teacher. His background of 20 plus years in the industry and knowledge in color led to this exhibit coming to fruition.  The show also stems off of the examination of a portfolio of works on paper by Josef Albers — called “Formulation: Articulation”. Albers said in the past, “When you really understand that each color is changed by a changing environment, you eventually find that you have learned about life as well as about color.”

Josef Abers

As a color consultant, I deal with color-changing in its environment DAILY.  I have learned to understand it as simultaneous contrast.  Simultaneous contrast identified by Michel Eugène Chevreul refers to the manner in which the colors of two different objects affect each other. The effect is more noticeable when shared between objects of complementary color. There are examples of this concept throughout the show.   

The panel presenters also included a range of creative professionals including the Marketing Manager from Sherwin Williams, Christie Del Ciotto. They provided a vast exploration into color. The show was an educational exploration of color. It was a tough concept to pull off successfully. but I am happy to say the and exhibition was a success. Need help? Just ask me, here?