For the last five months, a storefront near Vine Street Pub has been featuring artists for a unique art incubation program called The STOREROOM. Using abandoned or unused window displays, The STOREROOM hopes to activate areas around the city that would otherwise go unnoticed. The first group who made a one-of-a-kind installation for the “gallery” was Knomad Colab, in November last year. For April and May, local artist Hayley Dixon‘s work has taken over, with a series called Spring Formal.
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Dixon grew up in Western Colorado and went to college in Boulder for environmental studies. As an artist of many trades, Dixon dabbles in event curation, installations, painting and dance parties in Colorado and New Mexico. She brings her education about the natural ecosystem to her art, often featuring natural elements as well as found objects. Spring Formal is all about the budding opportunities that the season brings to the natural world and how we have aggrandized those changes with our own imaginations. Spring is the season for new love, for cleaning out your house, for having children and for preparing for a fruitful summer. As much as we might deny our connection with nature and the global ecosystem, we are inextricably affected just like any other animal or plant.
Therefore, Spring Formal celebrates the reawakening of life after the long, cold days of winter — something we are all looking forward to after the season that brought the bomb cyclone to Denver. Split into different sections, each one uses textures and artifacts from nature, mixed with the embodiment of the emotions that spring instills in us, to harmonize the real effects of the season with our interpretation of it.
The beauty of The STOREROOM is its accessibility and humility — a viewer cannot enter the space, cannot talk to a gallery docent, and therefore is likely to lack the intimidation that is associated with those ways to view art. Just simply stroll by after getting a beer at Vine Street and stop to look closer if you like. For those who aren’t into shopping, The STOREROOM becomes the ultimate window-shopping experience, where instead of looking for things to purchase, you can behold the installation as a source of inspiration.
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The STOREROOM is window storefront located at 1700 Vine Street, and Spring Formal is on view until May 30.
For more information about Hayley Dixon, visit her website here.