6 - 8 pm
January 3, 2025
First Friday Art Walk
Images, from top: Ray (detail), 2015; Rattlesnake Lake I, 2000-2013
Opening January 3rd, Tomiko Jones’ solo exhibition at the Center for Visual Art,The Intimate Infinite features lens-based investigations of place, both significant outdoor expanses and intimate interior spaces. Through photographic interventions that traverse time and notions of belonging, Tomiko Jones’ work journeys through landscape, chronicling passage from interior to exterior, known and unknowable. This work reflects historical modes of artmaking while imbuing a contemporary urgency and relevance.
Drawing inspiration from her childhood summers spent with her grandmother in rural Hawai’i and on family road trips across the continental United States, Jones’ artistic practice examines the notion of national belonging as it intersects with the American landscape. Through her lens, she explores the implications of historical narratives, immigration, and personal identity. These Grand Places debuts as the centerpiece of the exhibition and is a reflection on the politics of public land and the environmental crises facing the United States today. Jones invites viewers to consider the stories behind these landscapes—where they are not merely scenic backdrops, but sites of trauma, memory, and cultural significance. Her work serves as a meditation on loss, reclamation, and the urgent need for collective stewardship of the land.
Utilizing both contemporary digital photography, traditional cyanotype processes, and inspired by the traditional Japanese printmaking technique of ukiyo-e, Jones creates a dialogue between the natural environment and her personal narrative. In this way, Jones urges viewers to rediscover the complex and nuanced landscapes captured in her work and create new connections to them. As the nation grapples with issues of environmental degradation, social justice, and the complexities of national identity, The Intimate Infinite challenges us to reflect on our relationship with the land and each other.
Tomiko Jones: The Intimate Infinite was curated by Cecily Cullen and includes nine bodies of work spanning 20 years of artmaking.
We partnered with librarians from Denver Public Library to create a list of recommended books to read if you’re interested in learning more about the themes presented in the artwork on view in The Intimate Infinite. Want to check one out from the library? Click on the title and it will take you to the book’s page in the library’s catalog. The entire list can be found here: The Intimate Infinite Reading List
Pictures of the Floating World: An Introduction to Japanese Prints by Sarah E. Thompson
Free the land: How We Can Fight Poverty and Climate Chaos by Audrea Lim
Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography by Siobhan Angus
Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America by Megan Kate Nelson
Sun Gardens: Cyanotypes by Anna Atkins ,Text by Larry J. Schaaf
Path of Light: A Walk Through Colliding Legacies of Glen Canyon by Morgan Sjogren
The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration by Frank Abe and Floyd Cheung
When Women Were Birds, by Terry Tempest Williams
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
Call Them by Their True Names by Rebecca Solnit
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
Titles Available through WorldCat:
A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit
Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet
CVA’s 965 Project Gallery presents Chrissy Espinoza: [un]earthing the [un]conscious, an exhibition that invites us to explore the unseen dimensions of our inner world, prompting us to move beyond physical boundaries in pursuit of self-understanding. By connecting with the whispers of our spiritual landscapes, the work of Chrissy Espinoza offers a moment to reflect, ground, and embrace the transformative potential of introspection. un]earthing the [un]conscious was curated by MSU Denver students Bridget Ebert and Alyssa Williams.
The 965 Project Gallery at CVA is a student-led space that provides immersive professional development opportunities to MSU Denver students interested in fine art curation and arts administration.