Live Demonstration: The Art of Neon
Art RiNo Festival brings a piece of Denver's neon-lit past back to life this October with The Art of Neon, a live exhibition and demonstration series at the Truss House and Welcome Center Galleries.
The exhibition features four historic neon signs from shuttered Denver-metro businesses, each rescued, restored, and preserved by Save the Signs, a nonprofit dedicated to keeping the region's vintage signage from disappearing for good. Alongside the rescued signs, visitors will find a custom Truss House neon sign created by neon artist and historic preservationist Jeffrey "JJ" Bebout, along with a selection of historic Denver artifacts.
Save the Signs grew out of a photojournalism project Corky Scholl started in 2012 to document the neon and vintage signage disappearing along East Colfax Avenue—a visual record that, over time, turned into a hands-on effort to save the signs themselves.
On Saturday, October 3, the exhibition comes alive with two live demonstrations:
JJ Bebout, a self-taught neon artist and treasurer of Save the Signs, will lead live neon glass-bending demonstrations throughout the day. Bebout's path to neon started somewhere else entirely—he began as a poet and fiction writer, until a chance encounter with a documentary pulled him toward putting text into the physical landscape of American culture.
Samuel Rupsa, a Trinidad, Colorado-based sign painter, will be on-site all day hand-lettering custom paper signs for visitors by request, and will give a live demonstration of chemical silvering, the century-old process of turning plain glass into a mirror. Rupsa's studio, Hemlock Sign Co., specializes in rare historic techniques including reverse-glass gold leaf gilding and glue-chipped glass, and he works with Save the Signs to restore rescued signage across the state.
The Art of Neon is on view at the Truss House and Welcome Center Galleries throughout the Art RiNo Festival, with live demonstrations Saturday, October 3.
Support for the commissioned Truss House neon sign is generously provided by the RiNo General Improvement District (GID).