6 - 8 pm
August 15, 2025
Opening Reception
Dance of Resistance
April Bey, Blue Hole Hair Bundles: Dive In and Let Your Hair Sink to New Lows, 2024
August 15 – October 25, 2025
CVA presents Dance of Resistance, an exhibition featuring LGBTQ+ artists who voice the stories of their communities through figural works of art that offer pathways to healing and empowerment. Approaching their work from unique viewpoints, they employ varied media to present themes from lived experience and imagined futures. The artists unite in using their art as a means of activism, visually conveying issues important to themselves and their communities. They amplify silenced voices, expose myths, and promote a dialogue that invites reflection on the human experience, illuminating the power of art to inspire change and foster understanding in our diverse world. These figural depictions place a Queer bodily presence firmly in the spotlight, unapologetically claiming their presence within society.
Dance of Resistance was curated by Jenna Miles and Cecily Cullen.
Artists
April Bey
With a view toward the future, Bahamian-American artist April Bey engages a multidisciplinary practice to create an empowered world known as Atlantica. Rich with texture and exuberant color, Bey’s installations portray inhabitants of this future world full of magic and possibility, where oppression does not exist and all are free to live their authentic selves.
Ria Brodell
Looking further back through history, Ria Brodell’s Butch Heroes series reimagines Catholic holy cards with depictions of historical figures who lived outside the gender they were assigned at birth. Illustrating these people and their centuries-old stories through holy cards serves to give reverence to their lives while recognizing and calling attention to the persecution they faced.
Amaryllis R. Flowers
Amaryllis R. Flowers realizes fantastical, hyper-feminine worlds where the future is a utopia pulled from traumas of past and present experiences. The artist mines memories from her upbringing in the United States as a Queer woman from Puerto Rico, altering the historical devaluation of Black and Brown women into veneration.
vanessa german
Encapsulating the past, present and future in her wondrously imagined sculptures, vanessa german works to heal her community and transform their existence. Imbued with love and healing energy, german’s sculptural figures convey strength and self-love, creating a sense of empowerment for those whom they portray.
Juliana Huxtable
Juliana Huxtable reinvents her own body through multi-disciplinary works that subvert classical portraiture in an exploration of the complexities within her race, gender, and queer identities.
Laurence Philomène
The saturated photographs of Laurence Philomène give viewers real-time access to a community few people experience first-hand, offering connection and forging opportunities for empathy.
Preetika Rajgariah
Preetika Rajgariah‘s work embodies her immigrant and Queer identities, incorporating yoga mats and sari fabric to address her cultural identity.
Amy Reidel
Rooted in the present, Amy Reidel’s paintings explore her gender and sexual identity interspersed with the complexities of motherhood.
Hagudeza Rullán-Fantauzzi
Working from lived experience and community histories, Hagudeza Rullán-Fantauzzi layers choreography, film, and digital media to explore sexual and gender identity. As an Afro-Boricua Trans woman, Rullán-Fantauzzi’s work creates space for the telling of stories not heard outside their community, offering representation and the opportunity for dialog and connection.
Check out these books!
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 Dance of Resistance. 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: https://catalog.denverlibrary.org/view.aspx?brs=362491&sort=TI
Also on View
Genevieve Waller, The Dark Manner: Soft and Hard, 2021
The Dark Manner: Genevieve Waller
August 15 – October 25, 2025
The Dark Manner is a visual presentation of Genevieve Waller’s exploration of masculine drag through her alter ego, a leather adorned biker archetype who subverts traditional gender roles. Through performance, photography, and installation, Waller reclaims hypermasculine aesthetics to investigate and celebrate queer desire, female visibility in gay spaces, and the liberatory potential of distorting gender expectations.
The exhibition was curated by MSU Denver students Bridget Ebert and Austin Geddie. 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.
