A.R. Mitchell Museum Features Five Colorado Artists in Contemporary Group Show

Rick Dallago, an artist and filmmaker who also serves as the exhibition's curator, brought four fellow Colorado artists to the A.R. Mitchell Museum of Western Art for "SO ON & SO FORTH: A Celebration of the Idiosyncratic," a group show on view through April 30 inside the historic Jamieson Dry Goods building in downtown Trinidad.

The five participants are Dallago, Michael Dowling, Charles T. Levesque, Julia Martin and Megan Wilbar. Their work shares a deliberate irreverence toward Western and regional subjects: the museum describes the exhibition as intentionally foregrounding artists who approach those themes in non-traditional ways, using irony, visual biography and layered narrative in place of the landscape and cowboy realism that anchors the Mitchell's permanent collection.

That contrast is the curatorial logic. Dallago's background in filmmaking gives the selection a narrative sensibility, and the show spans small- and medium-scale paintings alongside mixed-media work that accumulates meaning across multiple visual registers. Identity and humor run through the work, making "SO ON & SO FORTH" one of the more openly playful exhibitions the Mitchell has mounted alongside its historical holdings.

The museum has a long-standing practice of pairing contemporary shows with its Western collection, and this one arrives as Trinidad pursues broader goals around arts-related commerce and visitor stays. The show also aligns with the city's role hosting statewide creative-industry convenings, giving visiting artists and funders a substantive local program to attend before the April 30 closing date.

Families or visitors with 30 minutes should take a lap through the Jamieson building itself, one of the more architecturally distinctive spaces in southern Colorado, before settling into the exhibition. The museum pairs shows like this one with artist talks and educational programming; school groups should check availability through closing day. Admission details and current gallery hours are available on the museum's website.