The Art of Illusion 

Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art’s fall exhibition puts optical illusions on observation

By Katherine Owen

Aptly titled “Smoke & Mirrors,” the fall show at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA) is perhaps the most literal interpretation of curator Jane Burke’s year-long theme of “reflection,” putting the focus on “shiny objects” and our persistent, undeniable attraction to them. 

The group show, which began September 12 and runs through January 12, 2025, showcases the work of eight artists, seven of which are local to Colorado. With a litany of mediums and methodologies, the artists are united by their “masterful manipulations of materials” including, quite literally, smoke and mirrors. 

“This exhibition is really taking that idea quite literally about reflection, as the work on view all have reflective surfaces,” explains Burke. “It’s really referencing our collective attraction to shiny objects and how these artists wield materials that are either metallic or transparent or have some sort of iridescent quality as part of their point of view.” 

 As the exhibit proves, materials that reflect can be quite varied—and subjective. Take for example Joel Swanson, Trey Duvall and Collin Parson, who will all be showing works that showcase industrial materials and methods, like stainless steel and utilitarian objects. 

Swanson, a text-based interdisciplinary artist based in Denver and professor at The University of Colorado, lends the exhibit a stainless-steel work that offers a new way of perceiving the United States. 

Parson, a Colorado-based arts administrator, artist, curator and designer, also brings his own spin on stainless steel to the exhibit, with large reflective works that appear as massive, disrupted mirrors. “He makes these geometric cuts out of them that give you this altered way of seeing. It becomes multidimensional in a sense, the way it’s breaking up the plane,” says Burke. 

Duvall, however, a Denver-based artist, recruits everyday objects like spotlights and fish tanks into an illusion-based installation that prompts the viewer to question what they’re really perceiving. “It’s creating this optical illusion and a sense of danger almost. I’ve been framing it as a way of asking, ‘What’s below the surface? We’re looking at the surface, but how is this thing really working?’” explains Burke.  

However, some artists’ works draw from much more natural themes, like those on display from Denver’s Drew Austin and LA’s Mary Ehrin, who take familiar forms from nature, like plants or rocks, and depict them in modern, reflective iterations using materials like mylar and polished leather. 

Others look to manmade tools and techniques, like Sasha Alexandra of Loveland, who utilizes the reflective nature of strapping tape and paper to create “drawings” that showcase her portfolio’s exploration of “tactility, permanence and glazed surfaces.” 

“It’s really interesting to me, because it’s very shiny, and she makes these really subtle, but really reflective, drawings with this old-school tape that hardly anybody uses anymore…There is this delicateness, but with a very utilitarian material,” says Burke. She explains Alexandra’s works exemplify a sort of delicate-but-industrial, fragile-but-firm balance that Burke also sees mirrored in other art in the exhibit, like Amy Hoagland’s glass works. 

“She’s basically making these, what I refer to as, ‘drawings’ out of glass rods,” says Burke of Hoagland’s works, noting how the Denver artist works with glass in a “very intimate way.” 

And finally, the smoke. Museum visitors will have the chance to see how Denver-based multidisciplinary artist and fine art framer Douglas Spencer uses a Bic light to etch designs using smoke. “He makes these really interesting shadows with the smoke,” explains Burke of his one-of-a-kind approach. “In this particular series, he’s using gold and brick to back the smoke, so you get these different layers of textures. It’s like he’s painting with smoke—I honestly don’t know anybody else who’s daring enough to do it.” 

In conjunction with the exhibit, the museum will be hosting several panels and workshops to dive further into the artists’ works. Swanson, Duvall and Parson will share some tricks of the trade in a panel discussion on Thursday, October 24 about collaborating with industrial fabricators and design specialists to produce large-scale, often site-specific sculptures. On Saturday, December 7, Austin will host a workshop in which participants can learn to make metallic plant forms alongside the artist. 

BMoCA is located at 1750 13th Street in Boulder. Museum hours are Tuesday–Sunday, 11am–5pm. To learn more, visit bmoca.org.