VOELZ CHANDLER: Digital brush strokes

Friday, August 31, 2007

Jerry De La Cruz is using his show at Ironton to make a statement of sorts, one that goes beyond merely tracing his prodigious output of work over the past several decades.

Instead, "Digit-All Art by the Hand of De La Cruz" - a mix of paintings, photo-based work and constructions - is a study in what is made by hand and what is made by a hand on a mouse, manipulating and tinkering with images for effect.

In that digital technology is a given in making art today, I found his tiny caveat in a wall label really interesting: "Digital art for digital art's sake is not the mantra of my artistic explorations, and that is why one will not see any computer art in this exhibition."

Yet there are works here that note the use of a computer in terms of adding, say, glasses to a figure in a photograph, or mudding up a face to accentuate the fact that the image dates from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

No matter. De La Cruz has been at the forefront here of viewing technology as a resource. He passed through the bells-and-whistles phase, where technology trumped content, and has found a happy marriage between two components inherent in creating a piece of art.

De La Cruz was born in Denver and, as is noted in the exhibition, was drafted into the U.S. Army upon graduation from high school in 1967. But he traded that two-year stint for a three-year enlistment, serving with the Signal Corps in Europe rather than being shipped to Southeast Asia.

Upon his return to Denver, he enrolled in Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, and the die was cast: Since graduation there in 1973, he has been a committed artist, though a stint in Pueblo to run a radio station removed him from the scene until he sold the operation in the late 1990s.

What is clear from these works is De La Cruz's continuing interest in the figure, whether it is the questioning of high-style consumerism in the diptych Modele de Mode or the repeated use of a grid of portraits of artist Phil Bender, teamed with Surrealist shots of various venues (the undated but timeless Subject to Change).

The Vern Series began in 1996 when De La Cruz was on a road trip and has continued since: dozens of images of the artist wearing the outfit of a mythical "Vern" (think Vernal, Utah, where it began), standing in varied landscapes. And he's not above exploring the concept of mysticism, with the three-part The Secret Was Kept Beyond His Passing, which includes a two- dimensional image of a sad, Christlike figure hung above a book bigger than a Bible, which in turn is set upon a cabinet with a baby doll and representations of its image.

Perhaps most striking is Natural Attraction, an enlarged, pure black-and-white photograph (big pixels here, or what we used to call Ben-Day dots), in which a crowd is staring down at something. De La Cruz has provided the answer: placed in front, on the floor, is a stuffed bird sitting in a nest. But he leaves it to our eyes to create the grays in this work.

Varied, innovative and with an eye toward provocation, the numerous works in "Digit-All" lack only one thing: consistent dating. Not only would it answer my question "When did he paint Phil Bender?" but it also would help viewers understand how De La Cruz's work has evolved and grown. Which it certainly has.

Digit-All Art by the Hand of De La Cruz

• What: Paintings, photo-based work and constructions by the artist

• Where and when: Ironton Gallery, 3636 Chestnut Place; through Sept. 21

• Of note: Discussion on the influence of digital technology on contemporary art, 7 p.m. Thursday

• Information: 303-297-8626; irontonstudios.com

In the galleries: The Wazee and Denargo markets of 1939

• Where and when: Gallery Roach, 860 Broadway; through October

• What you'll see: People here now flock to farmers' markets, those sporadic gathering of farmers and small-scale food operations with fresh and exotic wares to sell.

But Denver used to be home to full- time markets, two of which opened in 1939. The Wazee Market was in the Auraria area and the Denargo Market was toward the top of the Central Platte Valley, conveniently located near the rail lines of Union Station. The Wazee Market is long gone - as is the concept of Auraria as a neighborhood - but a bit of Denargo still hangs on as it awaits impending development.

The exhibition now on view at Gallery Roach offers an opportunity to see both of them in full flower, from construction to their role as purveyors of produce and other key goods to all segments of Denver society.

As expected, the staff at Roach Photo has taken advantage of its huge archive of historic work. Highlights include aerials that place the markets in context and show long-gone structures (such as Denver's first City Hall), as well as a gritty four-corner view of 15th and Larimer streets from decades before it was an upscale shopping mecca.

• Information: 303-839-5202

Mary Voelz Chandler is the art and architecture critic. Chandlerm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2677