DJs Memetic & Pho Depart, Maria Kozak Arrives

Our January - March 2013 Creative Residents, Kwende “Memetic” Kefentse and Ian “Pho” Swain, concluded their residency at PlatteForum with a live performance from their ongoing collaborative project Brothers during a reception to celebrate their residency. They were joined by 16 interns in PlatteForum’s ArtLab program—youth who worked with the artists in intensive sessions during the two-month residency to create their own new piece of music and performed their work at the reception. The music created by both artists and youth came from physical media only--old vinyl records--found in various record shops around Denver. For many of the youth, this was their first experience with vinyl. Works produced by both artists and youth can be heard on our SoundCloud page.

Maria Kozak is our current artist in residence for March - May 2013. Maria grew up in Colorado, but spent the past 10 years in Brooklyn, New York, where she is a painter interested in the relationship between man and nature. She explains, “Desmond Morris maintained that observing animals in captivity would help us understand being trapped in our own consumer lives.” In her paintings, Maria connects her primal self where instinct determines the way. Each brushstroke is an attempt to embody the creature being painted--to capture the lust, violence, and frenetic energy rampant in the animal kingdom. In Learning Labs with Colfax Community Network youth, she will focus on teaching animal anatomy, habitats and our relationship to them. Learn more...