Past Event: The Dirty South Exhibition Opening Celebration @ MCA Denver 09/16/22, 6PM
$25.00
This variant is currently sold out.
Join us Friday, September 16 for yet another singularly spectacular MCA Denver opening party in celebration of the opening of The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse. This exhibition explores the aesthetic legacies and traditions of Black Culture in the African American South as seen through the lens of contemporary Black musical expression. This groundbreaking exhibition, lauded by critics from New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, argues for the importance of the American South and Black culture as critical to our understanding of America’s past, present, and future.
An MCA Denver exhibition opening means maximum fun, unpretentiously decadent snacks and sips, a DJ set from Milky.wav that will inspire all the moves on the dance floor, and, of course, new art to be inspired and challenged by. Grab your favorite people, come dressed to the nines (or pay no mind to your outfit choice), and show up at the museum ready for what might just be the best night you’ve had in a good long while.
Your opening celebration ticket also gets you a ticket to a talk with The Dirty South curator Valerie Cassel Oliver, Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, happening Saturday, September 17 at 3PM at MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater.
Learn more about The Dirty South exhibition
The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse is organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
The exhibition opening reception is generously sponsored by First Western Trust Bank.
LOCATION
MCA Denver at the Fries Building: 1485 Delgany Street, Denver, CO 80202
MCA Denver/MCA Denver rooftop café and bar
SCHEDULE
VIP Preview: 6PM - 7:30PM
General Admission: 7:30PM - 10PM
TICKET OPTIONS
6–7:30PM VIP Preview
- $75 General Public
- $70 MCA Denver Members (You do not need to login to purchase or receive your member discount. Just select the General Admission ticket type and use the promo code MCAMEMBER and the price will be adjusted. Membership will be verified at check-in.)
VIP Tickets Include:
- Curator and Artist Remarks
- Passed complimentary champagne
- Special performance TBA
7:30–10PM Opening Celebration
- $25 General Public
- $20 MCA Denver Members (You do not need to login to purchase or receive your member discount. Just select the General Admission ticket type and use the promo code MCAMEMBER and the price will be adjusted. Membership will be verified at check-in.)
The Dirty South image captions in order they appear:
Caspera, 2019, RaMell Ross (American, born 1982), inkjet print, mounted on dibond. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, National Endowment for the Arts Fund for American Art, MC2020.56, Image: © RaMell Ross
DJ Screw in Heaven 2, 2016, El Franco Lee II (American, born 1979), acrylic on black canvas with cassette tape. Courtesy of the artist.
From Asterisks in Dockery, 2012, Rodney McMillian (American, born 1969), vinyl, thread, wood, paint, light bulb. Courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles
Basin Street Blues, 2014, Bisa Butler (American, born 1973), cotton denim. Courtesy Claire Oliver and Ian Rubinstein, Image © Bisa Butler, Courtesy Claire Oliver Gallery, New York

