Join us at Alto Gallery (3773 Walnut St, Denver, CO 80216) on Friday, August 7, 2026 from 6 - 10
PM for the opening reception of LightWait, a duo exhibition by Denver-based artists Mindy Bray and
Jessica Forrestal and guest curated by Drew Austin. This exhibition marks the first show at our new
location on Walnut St. Free event and refreshments, open to the public. On view August 7 - 29.

CURATORIAL STATEMENT
This collaborative exhibition from artists Jessica Forrestal and Mindy Bray explores the power of
patience, deep looking, and dichotomous thinking. Derived from a play on words stemming from
lightweight, a term that speaks to efficiency, low tolerance, or physical lightness, LightWait privileges
slowness and intentional specificity through the act of looking and recontextualizing.

Though the work of Forrestal and Bray’s individual practices result in visually different work, there is a
connecting thread that compounds when in close proximity: observation. Both artists exhibit a
willingness to pause in their practice: from documenting waves lapping over and over again in a body
of water to recognizing beauty within an instruction manual to inquiring into the interactions
between human-created structures and the natural world within which those structures exist. Through
collaboration, these two artists bring to light the life that radiates all around us. The large-scale mural at
the center of the exhibition blends both artistic styles flawlessly, harnessing the potential of shared
community, the levity in a consumer culture, and the beauty of the everyday mundane that most
overlook.

This exhibition asks the viewer to join the artists in the action of looking, thinking, pondering, and
reflecting through the process of creation. Markmaking, abstraction of form, light, shadow, color, and
lack thereof all take center stage in an exhibition about time, objects, organic structures, systems, and
the way humans engage in all of the above, each and every day.

BIOS + STATEMENTS
MINDY BRAY - BIO
Mindy Bray is a painter and muralist based in Denver, CO. Her work investigates the intersection of
natural and built environments through pattern, reduction, and physical space. Mindy earned her
Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Iowa in 2005 and has taught drawing and
foundations at the University of Denver and Metropolitan State University. Her work has been
exhibited nationally at galleries including Goodwin Fine Art, Rule Gallery, Ironton, and the Urban
Institute for Contemporary Art. She has been featured in New American Paintings, The Denver Post,
Modern in Denver magazine, art ltd., and Luxe Interiors and Design. Mindy’s public commissions
include permanent works at the Westin Hotel at Denver International Airport and the Colorado
Convention Center, and her private commissions can be found in commercial and residential spaces
throughout Denver. Mindy is a current member of Tank Studios, a board member of Tilt West, and an
instructor for the Denver Art Museum’s Creative Classes.

MINDY BRAY - STATEMENT
My works on paper and on the wall examine the intersection of natural and built environments. Based
on photographs of places such as city parks, urban waterways and residential landscapes, the works
trace the complex relationship between people and their habitat. Beginning with photography, the
images start as fields of flat visual information which are then manipulated both digitally and manually.
The paintings arrive at a place where positive and negative spaces are fluidly balanced, reversed or
canceled, allowing the work to hover between abstraction and representation.

The works on the wall respond to the subjective experience of an architectural space, including the
phenomena of light and shadow, scale, and movement. I find parallels between the lived experience of a
built space and the surrounding natural environment, revealing connections between the site and the
landscape. My imagery includes rivers, trees and foliage that are reduced and abstracted, creating fields
of pattern that invite interpretation, with references as diverse as maps, microcosms, or the Milky Way.

www.mindybray.com

JESSICA FORRESTAL - BIO
Jessica Forrestal is an artist based in Denver, Colorado. She holds an MFA from Pratt Institute in
Brooklyn, New York, an MA from the University of Northern Colorado, and a BA from Colorado
State University. Her studio practice is informed by her experience as an art educator and years of
creating alongside young artists. Working primarily in black and white, she draws on the visual
language of diagrams to investigate systems of communication, constructed environments, and the
shifting relationship between order and ambiguity.

Forrestal was selected as the inaugural artist-in-residence for the Campus Commons Gallery at the
University of Northern Colorado. Her additional residencies include PlatteForum in Denver, the
Children's Museum of Denver, and the Firehouse Art Center in Longmont, Colorado.

JESSICA FORRESTAL - STATEMENT
Using the authoritative language of diagrams and schematics, I investigate how we make sense of one
another, the spaces we inhabit, and the systems we create. Composed in black and white, my drawings
move between precision and ambiguity, where recognition meets estrangement. Objects are reimagined
and recontextualized. Patterns become pathways. Building is inseparable from dismantling. My slow,
labor-intensive process stands in contrast to a culture of efficiency and disposability. The drawings
create a space for uncertainty, where understanding remains incomplete and new connections continue
to emerge.

https://www.jessicaforrestal.com/

DREW AUSTIN - BIO
Drew Austin (b.1996) is an interdisciplinary artist and curator living and working in Denver, CO. He
grew up in Great Falls, Montana, and attended the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, in
Denver, which he graduated from in 2017 with his BFA as Valedictorian.

Austin is the Curator and a Board Member for Leon Art Gallery, the Program Manager for The
Wayfaring Band, as well as a contributing editor for The Thalweg. He previously worked as the
Curator of Visual Arts at The Dairy Arts Center, Exhibitions Curator for ReCreative Denver, and put
together independent curatorial projects in spaces such as Redline Denver, The Temple Artist Studios,
The Denver Armory, Lane Meyer Projects, and Alto Gallery.

Portrayed primarily through drawing, sculpture, and light-based installation, Austin’s work functions
as a conduit for understanding and comprehension of everyday things—mundane situations, queer
experience, domestic space, slow growth, and light—both large and small in a human-dominated
world.
www.studiodrewaustin.com

DATES
Exhibition: Friday, August 7 - Saturday, August 29, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, August 7, 6 - 10 PM