Two Colorado exhibits feature artwork inspired by mushrooms and cannabis

Two new exhibits recently opened in Denver, Colorado, exploring themes related to magic mushrooms and cannabis.

The first exhibition is “Mycolandia,” which opened at Dateline Gallery in Denver, Colorado, on June 7 and will remain open through June 23. “MYCOLANDIA celebrates mycology in general by exploring the evolution of edible mushrooms and its symbiotic relationship with humanity. In other words, it’s a show about mushrooms. 🤓✌🏼🍄,” the gallery said on social media.

The exhibition features works by 13 different artists, such as Noah Travis Phillips. According to an interview with Western word, Phillips explained his thought process behind the theme. “I really thought about the diversity of mushrooms,” Phillips said. “All the ways mushrooms and mushrooms exist in the world, the different ways humans interact with them, whether as food or as an intoxicant, or all the bioremediations people do with mushrooms.”

Attendees can view Phillips’ unique Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) AI images that he developed to represent the inherent psychedelic properties of mushrooms. “It’s much more colorful. They are all rainbow. They are melting. They’re pretty bulbous,” Phillips said. “I think they suggest some interesting things about the root networks of fungi, these mycorrhizae. Some of them seem to have spores escaping from them.

He added that he has been an artist for 25 years and spent about six years working with GAN. “My relationship with GANs is like a poetic visual synthesizer to produce improvisational material to stick with,” he explains. “I engage in a dialogue with this type of cutting-edge technology and see what its creative potential is.”

Phillips also cut out 45 images located close to the ground, forcing viewers to look down. “To me, setting them up that way is more reminiscent of mushroom picking or mushroom hunting, where people have to bend down to go find them,” Phillips said.

The second exhibition is inspired by the “Model of Art Informed by Science”, called “Grow Up”, which also debuted on June 7 and will remain open until July 7. The art exhibit “allows young student classes from various Denver institutions to explore the effects of high-concentration cannabis through their own creative lens,” according to a press release. The teachers were drawn from four Colorado middle and high schools, and then attended workshops presented by scientists and researchers from the University of Colorado School of Public Health. Then, these teachers developed workshops for their students who created their own art inspired by “high concentration cannabis.”

The result is a diverse selection of abstract art in which students transformed scientific data into their own concepts. “The beautiful thing about bringing science and art together is (understanding) how we interpret information and communicate it with a community in a much more accessible or understandable way, or put challenge people to question what they observe,” the PlatteForum program said. Director Alejandra Calvo.

Shaunie Berry, the curator of “Grow Up,” said the exhibit was an opportunity to promote healthy decision-making. We really created a space where they could be open and vulnerable,” Berry said. “We were just giving them a lot of information on the mental health aspect, because they’re young and their brains aren’t fully formed yet; their decision-making skills are not yet fully developed.

Calvo and Berry worked together to help students better understand cannabis and its effects from an artistic perspective. “I think kids are naturally more creative,” Berry said. “The older you get, it gets a little more muted. And you have to pull more strings to get them to do it. »

Meanwhile, the state’s cannabis industry is making new discoveries about its products. A recent study released in March shows that 70% of THC potency levels found in cannabis products in Colorado are at least 15% higher than lab tests show. “Of the 23 flower samples analyzed, 18 had THC levels below those reported, of which 16 fell below 15% of the declared value, 13 fell below 30% of the reported THC and three samples fell below the half of the declared value,” said a report by Anna Schwabe, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “THC levels averaged 9.75% in 2009, based on testing of cannabis flowers seized by the DEA. Today, levels would exceed 35%, although they are not as common as consumers are led to believe,” continued Schwabe.

Colorado’s cannabis industry is saturated with cannabis products and has recently seen a steady decline in sales. According to a report from Policy, cannabis sales in Colorado reached a peak of $2.2 billion in 2020. Since legalization began in 2014, the state has also generated more than $15 billion in total sales. However, 2022 data shows that state cannabis revenues have declined significantly ($1.7 billion), and this trend has also continued through 2023 ($1.5 billion).

In Colorado, recent legislation targets positive drug praise on social media. While the Senate approved the bill in April, SB24-158 was sent to the House in May and received no further discussion. If passed, it would prevent comments on social media relating to the black market or illegal drugs, although cannabis is technically a safe topic if mentioned in a legal capacity.