Leo Franco’s The Castle and Brian Cavanaugh’s Blossom & Decay at Pirate Contemporary Art present two different approaches to constructing narratives out of a material-based logic. Franco favors a visual rhythm composed of elegantly finished wooden structures, while Cavanaugh intertwines organic matter through endless lengths of wire to grow a joyously provisional ecosystem.

Lasting Impressions and Onward and Upward: Shark’s Ink at the University of Colorado Art Museum in Boulder present prints from an array of artistic movements to tell the idiosyncratic story of the United States. The works on view collectively assert that printmaking, long used as an accessible means for a wider audience to view an artwork or a message, pulses with an inherent urgency rooted in the desire for communication.

Duality: Contemporary Works by Indigenous Artists at the Longmont Museum gathers together artists who navigate the societal and material complexities of existing in the United States as members of a group whose stories have largely been told through a colonial lens. In a protest against homogeneous, mainstream descriptions of Indigenous people, Gregg Deal, the curator and a participating artist, orchestrates an emotionally tangible exhibition featuring the works of JayCee Beyale, Julie Buffalohead, Gregg Deal, Nicholas Galanin, Jeffrey Gibson, April Holder, Chelsea Kaiah, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Natani Notah, Jamie Okuma, Virgil Ortiz, Danielle SeeWalker, and Steven Yazzie.