Mural being created for Denver woman who was fatally shot while walking dog

KCVR – Fox 31 | 6/16/2020

Thomas Evans, a popular artist who goes by the name “Detour,” is painting the mural in Isabella Thallas’ honor.

“I wanted to use street art as a way to give a gift to the family and sort of help the healing process and grieving process,” Detour said.

The mural is going up on the side of the Leon Gallery at 17th Street and Park Avenue in Denver’s Uptown district.

Read More

Thomas “Detour” Evans Remembers Isabella Thallas in a Mural

Westword | 06/16/2020

The mural is going up on the wall of Leon Gallery, at East 17th Avenue and Park Avenue West. Friends and family of Thallas came to Leon to watch the artist at work today, June 16.

Photo by Eric Dallimore

Read More

Leon Gallery grapples with representation among its artists and board

Denverite | 06/11/2020

Photographer Narkita Gold has been chronicling what it means to be Black in Denver in images and words in a project that went online in late 2018.

As protests against racism that are sweeping the country make her feel her work is even more important, Gold was asked to turn her Black in Denver photographs into banners to fly over Leon gallery. They will declare, she said, that “there are Black people here and we are amazing.

Photo by Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Read More

What happened to the world around me when I sat outside Leon for a portrait

Denverite | 05/29/2020

From where I was sitting on a folding chair outside Leon gallery’s front window, I could see only the jagged edge of the paper and Dowling’s occasional questioning glance my way. I only saw my portrait after he was finished.

Photo by Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Read More

Being a nonprofit gallery means art and artists, not money, are the priorities at Leon

Denverite | 05/21/2020

Leon gallery’s directors are feeling fairly confident about finances. For now.

But “we will need to stay ahead of this so we don’t find ourselves another wonderful arts organization that had to close for various reasons, in this case the pandemic,” said Eric Dallimore, artistic director of the nonprofit art and event space at 1112 East 17th Avenue in the City Park West neighborhood.

Photo by Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Read More

An artist at Leon Gallery connects with his audience live despite the limitations of these coronavirus times

Denverite | 05/14/2020

Playwright Brenton Weyi was ready for a change of scene.

Leon’s executive director Eric Nord had lined Weyi up for a performance art series that was to have taken place in the gallery last month. The six-performances series, titled “Was, Is, Will Be,” was shifted online and delayed until May because of the novel coronavirus.

Photo by Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Read More

How Coronavirus Has Changed the Denver Art Scene

303 Magazine | 05/07/2020

The signs of this are all around. Leon Gallery on 17th Avenue offered three artists the opportunity to showcase whatever they wanted in the windows of the gallery so that passers-by could enjoy the beauty “on the way to or from picking up essentials or taking your daily walk” called Please Stand By. Venmo accounts are displayed so that people can donate directly to the artists.

Read More

Leon Gallery’s directors are in no rush to reopen

Denverite | 05/07/2020

Retail and other businesses that were shuttered during Denver’s coronavirus stay-at-home will start to ease open this weekend as the city transitions to safer-at-home.

Retail is part of their business, so Leon Gallery’s directors believe they can open. But Eric Nord and Eric Dallimore are in no rush. They’re keeping the focus on an installation series that can be viewed from outside the closed gallery and an online performance art festival they developed during the stay-at-home orders. It will be June before they start inviting art lovers back into the nonprofit art and event space at 1112 E. 17th Ave. in City Park West.

Photo by Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Read More

Reviewed: Shows You Can See Now (or Read About)

Westword | 03/20/2020

March is the Month of Printmaking, and among the attractions is Kevin Frances: Man in the Moon, on view at Leon Gallery.

Read More