01 Jul What Remains

Posted at 14:36h in Exhibitions - Past by Desa Beslic

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WHAT REMAINS

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CURATED BY SAMANTHA JOHNSTON

CARL BOWER, DANA STIRLING, AND EMILY (BILLIE) WARNOCK

What Remains, an exhibition inspired by the 2025 selection for One Book One Denver, features three contemporary photographers whose images explore complexities of identity, fear, memory, and the solace that can be found through art.

August 8 – September 27, 2025

COLORADO PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS CENTER

1200 LINCOLN STREET, SUITE 111, DENVER, CO 80203

Art exhibit viewing times: Tues. – Fri. (11 am – 5 pm); Sat. (noon – 4 pm)

OPENING RECEPTION & SPECIAL PROGRAMMING:
FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, & SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6

Opening Reception:
Friday, August 8th between 5 – 8 pm at CPAC. This event is free and open to the public.

One Book One Denver Unveiling Celebration:
Friday, August 8th between 6 – 9 pm at the Denver Public Library Central Branch. A five minute-walk from CPAC, stop by for an evening that celebrates the power of books to spark dialogue, elevate diverse voices, and bring people together. The 2025 selection will be unveiled and launch two months of citywide programming designed to inspire connection and conversation. This event requires registration. Learn more.

In-Person Artist Panel Discussion:
On Saturday, August 9th at 1:00 pm, Samantha Johnston, CPAC Executive Director and Curator, will lead a panel discussion in the gallery with exhibition artists. This event is free and open to the public.

Drop-In Writing with Lighthouse:
On Saturday, September 6th from 10 am – noon draw inspiration from the images featured in the What Remains exhibition and the One Book, One Denver book selection, to inspire your creative writing. Together with Lighthouse Writers Workshop, we’ll explore the exhibition before diving into write and voluntarily share responses to the artwork. Creatives of all types, genres, and experience levels are welcome.

CURATOR’S STATEMENT

Grief doesn’t follow a straight line. Neither does memory.

The Colorado Photographic Arts Center (CPAC) presents What Remains, an exhibition inspired by Stay True by Hua Hsu, the 2025 selection for One Book, One Denver—a citywide literary initiative led by the Denver Public Library. In his memoir, Hsu pieces together memory and loss through the fragments of friendship, identity, and coming of age as an Asian American in 1990s California. Hsu doesn’t write to seek resolution, but to hold on to all that is left.

This exhibition features the work of Carl Bower, Dana Stirling, and Emily (Billie) Warnock—three photographers whose images carry the same quiet, contemplative power as Hsu’s prose. Together, their work explores complexities of identity, fear, memory, and the solace that can be found through art.

Bower’s intimate portraits, paired with raw confessions, confront the unspoken fears we rarely share. Stirling, the child of immigrants, constructs a visual journal that captures the silence and longing of a childhood shaped by cultural displacement. Warnock navigates queer life and love with fragile clarity, documenting expressions of self-identity, grief, and home.

These photographs don’t seek to explain. They make space for what remains. Like Stay True, they don’t offer closure. They offer presence.

— Samantha Johnston, CPAC Executive Director & Curator

Recommended Resources: CPAC has partnered with the Denver Public Library to bring you a curated list of books, films, and music that connect with the themes in the exhibition and the One Book One Denver selection. Continue your exploration.