Black Forest Institute

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

M12 is a group of award-winning artists, researchers, and writers collectively based in Colorado. Primarily known for art projects that explore public space, rural cultures and landscapes, M12 holds a unique position as both a non-profit arts organization and an artistic practice. Projects of M12 have appeared in THE magazine, Santa Fe, NM 5280, Denver, CO The Rural: Documents of Contemporary Art, Whitechapel Gallery, London, (2019, MIT Press), Undermining: A Wild Ride Through Land Use, Politics, and Art in the Changing West (2014, The New Press, Lucy R. Lippard) and What is a Western? (2019, Oklahoma University Press, Josh Garrett-Davis) along with others.  

M12 creates artworks, research projects, and education initiatives centered around context and place. The studio blends multiple fields, allowing research, fieldwork, design and site-specific sculpture to merge. Speaking to the complexities of rural places, M12 has been recipients of numerous awards including those from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Colorado Creative Industries; The National Endowment for the Arts; The Gates Family Foundation; The Indianapolis Community Foundation; The Minneapolis Foundation, and others.  

Recent exhibitions and commissioned works by M12 have appeared at: The 21st International Art Biennial of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia; The 13th International Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy; The Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar, Sweden; The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; Sala Diaz, San Antonio, TX; The Santa Fe Art Institute, NM; The Des Moines Public Art Foundation, Des Moines, IA; Corcoran Gallery, School of Art in Washington DC; The Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM; IASKA Australian Biennial, Perth, Australia; Biennial of the Americas, Denver, CO; The Kohler Arts Center, WI; The Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD; and The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Culver City, CA / Wendover, NV. 

M12 is currently: Richard Saxton, Margo Handwerker,  Matthew Fluhart, Kirsten Stoltz, Trent Segura, Marc McCay, George Perez, Stuart Hyatt, Mary Rothlisberger and Christopher Sauter. 

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

This multi-site and multi-project exhibition samples contemporary artists exploring various understandings of how we experience the vastness of place and the iconic nature of the American West. Notions of the horizon as a convention through which we orient ourselves in relation to the landscape are central to the concept.

Uniquely this exhibit allows for both indoor and outdoor art experiences, Ent Center for the Arts is one of six sites to explore this exhibit featuring nearly 50 contemporary artists. We suggest you begin here with the Marie Walsh Sharpe Gallery of Contemporary Art, Friday through Sunday 12pm-6pm, registration encouraged but drop-ins are welcome. Explore the other sites of this Colorado Springs exhibit.

The Space(s) Between is a collaborative exhibition between two university art galleries - the University of Colorado Colorado Springs’ Galleries of Contemporary Art and the University of Denver’s Vicki Myhren Gallery. The exhibit is curated by artistic director and chief curator Daisy McGowan, along with Donald Fodness, and Geoffrey Shamos.