A System in Place
A System in Place: In Dialogue with Sol LeWitt
Vicki Myhren Gallery
2121 East Asbury Avenue, Denver, CO 80210
September 10–November 20, 2026
Curator: Ramón Bonilla
Admission: free
Review by Paloma Jimenez
The first line of Sol LeWitt’s Sentences on Conceptual Art states, “Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.” [1] A sense of mystical geometry and curious conclusions fills the University of Denver’s Vicki Myhren Gallery in A System in Place: In Dialogue with Sol LeWitt, curated by Ramón Bonilla. Though the drawings, murals, and sculptures in the group exhibition are created according to different sets of predetermined structures, the works avoid rigidity or emotionless repetition. True to the generous spirit of Sol LeWitt’s endeavor, the varied systems allow for new visual languages to emerge.
An installation view of the exhibition A System in Place at the Vicki Myhren Gallery. Image by Wes Magyar, courtesy of the Vicki Myhren Gallery.
An idea can outlast a person and keep evolving. Philosophical texts and political manifestos from prior centuries still shift the collective energy in ways the authors could never have envisioned. Likewise, Sol LeWitt’s art retains a contemporary freshness because he purposefully relinquished control over the final outcome. The various art workers who install new permutations of his ideas long after his death approach the work within a different context each time, extending the timeline of the work into an infinite horizon.
Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #730, installed 2026, Permapaque markers. Image by Wes Magyar, courtesy of the Vicki Myhren Gallery.
A view of the instructions for Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #730, installed 2026, Permapaque markers. Image by Paloma Jimenez.
A System in Place continues this dialogue by adding contemporary voices into the mix. With most works painted directly onto the wall, the space itself becomes part of the theoretical framework. The installation of Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #730 directly across from the entrance establishes the overall mood of the exhibition: a relaxed rigor rooted in conceptual camaraderie. Segments of curving lines wisp around the wall and have the potential to form a full circle, but are content to interact in whichever direction the process suggests.
Collin Parson, Interference in Formation (three versions), 2026, acrylic paint marker. Image by Wes Magyar, courtesy of the Vicki Myhren Gallery.
Collin Parson’s three versions of Interference in Formation occupy a more constrained space. The instructions for this work result in an optical illusion conjured from lines and the light between them. When viewed from different angles, the vertical and oblique lines morph into scaffolding, networks, weavings, and architectures of support and protection.
Anthony García Sr., The Blue Flame, 2026, acrylic paint. Image by Wes Magyar, courtesy of the Vicki Myhren Gallery.
Directly across the gallery, Anthony García Sr. also uncovers the unexpected warmth of geometry in The Blue Flame, a work inspired by sarapes. The complex mathematical precision of traditional Mexican weaving patterns remains largely absent from conversations of geometric abstraction and instruction-based artwork. Bonilla’s curatorial choice to include García Sr.’s work brings to light new conversations about the link between craft pattern cosmologies and conceptual art practices.
linn meyers, Untitled (Inventory #GP2022.14), ink and colored pencil on vintage graph paper. Image by Wes Magyar, courtesy of the Vicki Myhren Gallery.
One component of linn meyers’s Untitled (Inventory #GP2022.14), ink and colored pencil on vintage graph paper. Image by Paloma Jimenez.
linn meyers channels cosmological visions in a group of drawings on vintage graph paper. Minute geometric marks accumulate within the grids to reveal nebulas and starbursts. The sharp-edged triangle in Untitled (Inventory #GP2022.14) floats on the page like a space satellite, scanning the void for points of contact.
Victor Sosa, Untitled II, 2017, pen, pencil, and gesso on paper. Image by Paloma Jimenez.
Victor Sosa also explores elemental networks in the bending surface space of his drawings. The system behind Untitled I & II is not immediately apparent, but his light touch expresses a fragile cycle of fragmentation. Mathematics might be the most reliable record of the human condition; we are always measuring the space between things and between each other, tracking time, food, money, likes, and steps.
Eugene Macki, Units of Measurement, 2026, 14 pieces of wood. Image by Paloma Jimenez.
An installation view of A System in Place with Eugene Macki’s Units of Measurement in the foreground. Image by Wes Magyar, courtesy of the Vicki Myhren Gallery.
Eugene Macki’s sculpture Units of Measurement features fourteen pieces of wood notched at various intervals. The measurements mark a moment in an ongoing timeline, rather than the finality of total severance. Macki extends an invitation to build something more carefully than before.
Tumi Magnusson, Recent Numbers series, acrylic, pyrography, graphite, and paint on wood. Image by Wes Magyar, courtesy of the Vicki Myhren Gallery.
Three components of Tumi Magnusson’s Recent Numbers series, acrylic, pyrography, graphite, and paint on wood. Image by Paloma Jimenez.
The material memory of wood also guides Tumi Magnússon’s work in a collection of panels titled Recent Numbers. Lines routed into the scrap wood interact with the preexisting holes, staples, or knots to transform the surfaces into mysterious maps of predetermined movement.
Leslie Jane Roberts, CONDITIONS, 2017, acrylic, ink, and graphite on panel. Image by Wes Magyar, courtesy of the Vicki Myhren Gallery.
One panel in Leslie Jane Roberts’s CONDITIONS, 2017, acrylic, ink, and graphite on panel. Image by Paloma Jimenez.
Leslie Jane Roberts constructs contained grids to visualize language structures in a collection of panel drawings. CONDITIONS uncovers an erratic neon pattern within the unlikely inspiration of the oft overlooked microtext of Terms and Conditions. The drawn lines become doors in an unnavigable room of obtuse text.
Micah Lexier, Fig. 79, 2026, baked porcelain dots and dashes. Image by Wes Magyar, courtesy of the Vicki Myhren Gallery.
A detail view of Micah Lexier’s Fig. 79, 2026, baked porcelain dots and dashes. Image by Paloma Jimenez.
The installation of Micah Lexier’s Fig. 79 also seems to allude to text sequences, as the porcelain dots and dashes scatter across the wall like deconstructed Morse code, a form of communication in which signal and silence collaborate to communicate a message.
Eltono, Generative Painting Modo No. 71, 2026, shaped wood pieces and tray with dice and acrylic paint. Image by Wes Magyar, courtesy of the Vicki Myhren Gallery.
Nearby, Eltono’s Generative Painting Modo No. 71 provides the tools for gallery visitors to create their own version of the work. A roll of the dice determines the grid size, shapes, and colors. Any combination yields a playful geometric confetti.
Ramón Bonilla, Ordinary Magic: Walk Outside During Lunch Break And Pick Up Stuff From The Ground, 2026, rice paper tape, vinyl, wood, and found materials. Image by Wes Magyar, courtesy of the Vicki Myhren Gallery.
A detail view of Ramón Bonilla’s Ordinary Magic: Walk Outside During Lunch Break And Pick Up Stuff From The Ground, 2026, rice paper tape, vinyl, wood, and found materials. Image by Paloma Jimenez.
Chance also enters the equation in Ramón Bonilla’s Ordinary Magic: Walk Outside During Lunch Break and Pick Up Stuff from The Ground. Rice paper tape, vinyl, wood, and found materials installed directly on the wall compose a blueprint for a nonexistent place, full of trap doors, ramps, and dead ends. The varied weight and textures of the lines within each quadrant keep the eye from seeking out any distinct visual path across the wall. They are an invitation to exist within each point of the visual field, rather than create a cohesive conclusion.
A detail view of Ashley Frazier’s Untitled, 2026, artist’s hair and matte medium. Image by Paloma Jimenez.
Walk too fast through the space and you might not notice Ashley Frazier’s topographic collection of hairs affixed to the wall with matte medium. Like the accidental compositions created by shedding hair strands on wet bathroom tiles, the piece follows the natural inclinations of the material and suggests that a small, everyday moment can reflect the much larger timeline of geological landscapes.
An installation view of the exhibition A System in Place. Image by Wes Magyar, courtesy of the Vicki Myhren Gallery.
The many lines that inhabit A System in Place may have a starting and ending point, but the conversation with Sol LeWitt’s conceptual legacy is decidedly nonlinear; it meanders back in time, settles for a while into the present, and continues on towards future inspiration and collaboration, asking, how can we surrender to the momentum of an idea?
Paloma Jimenez (she/her) is an artist, writer, and editorial coordinator for DARIA magazine. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and has been featured in international publications. She received a BA from Vassar College and an MFA from Parsons School of Design.
[1] Sol LeWitt, Sentences on Conceptual Art (New York City: Museum of Modern Art, 1968): https://www.moma.org/collection/works/146945
