Well-Tooled

As kids, we all have our dreams. Tim Flynn’s was to own a hardware store. Not so long ago, Flynn came across a photo of himself as an eight-year-old, standing before a hand-painted sign that brightly declared “Timmy Flynn’s Hardware Store,” and the whole fantasy came back to him. It seems that Flynn, now a fully grown Denver artist known for his works in metal, still hangs on to that rusty old dream. From his viewpoint, it’s not hard to understand the appeal. “A hardware store is a verb,” Flynn says. “Possibility is everything there: There’s always the possibility of doing something, of making something, of building something, that promises to unfold every time you walk through one.”

But Flynn’s an artist, not a workingman’s entrepreneur, and the world of hardware stores is rapidly changing with the rise of big-box retailers. So he’s settling for a temporary outlet and his own last great emporium of functional stuff: Timmy Flynn’s Hardware Store — a group exhibition of hardware-inspired works by Flynn and a crew of his artist cohorts, complete with checkout counter, cash register and aisles to peruse — opens tonight at Edge Gallery, 3658 Navajo Street. And it’s no accident that a number of the artists included are also collectors of found objects, some of them — Phil Bender and Jerry Simpson come to mind — on a grand scale.

It all starts with a reception from 7 to 10 p.m. at which hardware-store couture — aprons, tool belts, caps and the like — is encouraged; Flynn and fellow sculptor Dave Seiler are also rigging an old phone booth to spew recorded hardware quotes during the evening. The show continues through July 13; for details, call Edge, 303-477-7173.
June 20-July 13, 2008