Featured In House Designers

Elza Jensen

I first was introduced to Elza Jensen's work when I attended the Warlock Pincher's show at the Gothic last month. I saw this super stylish guy on the dance floor, dancing without a care in the world. Besides his fresh dance moves, his outfit inspired me beyond this galaxy! I went up to him and asked him about the designer and was so excited to learn that this designer is Denver based. Jack introduced me to Elza and my heart grew bigger! Elza's pieces inspire me! The colors, the shapes, the details, the message...

Learn more about Elza now.....

Elza Jensen’s earliest work met with either hot or cold reception and rarely in between those extremes. One thing for sure was his work always left an impression on you. The artist credits a meshing of science fiction and underground rock music of the 60’s, 70’s as his earliest influences. Those rebellious times for fashionable hip youth and subterranean style rock served as an incubator for his branding a consistency in cutting edge ideas that fueled his art work. Graphics easily defined as beautifully strange or unclassified. That declassification and people’s loss to define inspired the artist to express more of his imagination which later became better defined as neo-pop or punk alternative styles often receiving requests to design punk band logos as well as tattoos. To name some, the logo for an early Denver punk band called the Broadcasters as well as the logo for Brown and Serve the booking company responsible for bringing national east and west coast punk bands to Denver’s Walabi’s club. At that time you could find his work on scraps of cloth on the walls of the club. The booking agent for that club later was hired to be band manager for Jane’s Addiction before their big fame. Resident artist for Denver’s first punk fanzine called ‘Pulsebeat’ second issue, here’s a link to a picture of that issue.

http://newwave.50megs.com/fanzines.html

Art mediums consisted initially of India ink on illustration board to acrylic on canvas until discovering fabric paints and silk screening in the late seventies which accelerated exposure of his style to the general public in the form of t-shirts and clothing. The idea of ‘art-wear’ was a huge bonus for Elza’s style at that time since most art galleries in Boulder and San Francisco weren’t yet embracing the street raw culture of the unseen new modern underground art scene. During those times Elza didn’t find the time for schooling nor did he feel the need for any since his ambition drove him to be in constant production and expressively content to make a living producing a phrase he coined as one-of-a-kind-originals. Typical with the culture of underground youth and the then unknown art scene, Elza was a student of life with a major in minimum wage. Working about ten years working in restaurants and factories to support him while slowly building what was to become a self supporting small t-shirt empire based in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Normally he sold to practically everyone he worked with in coffee houses and restaurants then those people would order more shirts and clothes for their friends etc. Most fun memories are of selling unofficially and possibly illegal at outdoor rock shows like Red Rocks. Throughout the 1980’s he built his small business up to a wholesale level of several dozen shops throughout the country in other alternative independent retailers as well as local outdoor art fairs.


And as tragedy would have it always having a stake in the undefined and the essential reverence to be unclassified, or we’ll settle for the term ‘underground’, the artist used several transfatty saturated logos during a thirty year period. Those were: End-o-century (from a Ramone’s lyric), di8 (dezign infectious 80’s), e-9 (energy 90’s) and Elzwear. Well there was, uh oh, wholesaling to retail partners in New York, Hawaii not to mention squashbuckling success with two retail locations in Denver, “The Small Store /slash/ ident-o-wear” (1988) smack in the everkoowul Capitol Hill. Let us not forget those desperate times on Telegraph in Bezerkeley, California where he began to use chain link gates for his merchandising fixtures on the side walk there. Competition was tough with resurging flood of tie-dye, pretty but not the same cerebral reference.. Not finally the second Denver store, “Elzwear” (2004) in the south Broadway Terrace bizsection where after the primary leasing tenant sold the building and his sublease wasn’t renewed after the building was sold..

HISTORY BIO:

1969 First Place Artist Achievement Award, Longmont Jr. High

1974 Co-op artists exhibit and retail at Smithereens (local art retailer), Boulder, Colorado

1975 Artist exhibitor and retailer, Annual Boulder Arts Festival

1977 Summer Class, oil painting, San Francisco, California

1978 Beginning medium for art to wear graphic clothing/by special order appt. only retailer

1979-1983 wholesaling one of a kind hand painted original t-shirts at:

Budget Tapes & Records, Boulder, Colorado

The Ritz, Boulder and Denver, Colorado

Roots, Denver, Colorado

Rudely Decadent, Denver, Colorado

Guys & Dolls, Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico

Easy Street, Park City, Utah

1981 Concert Posters and Dance Floor Art, Walabi’s, Denver, Colorado

1981 Art Exhibit, Experimental Painting, (first Denver Show)

1981 Outsider participant exhibitor, Pirate Gallery, Denver, Colorado

1982 Interior Design installation for Paul Garcia’s Salon, Denver, Colorado

1982 Channel Six Art Auction Fund Raiser, Denver, Colorado

1983 Member exhibitor of 6th Avenue Art Gallery, Denver, Colorado

1983-1986 wholesaling one of a kind hand painted originals at

Fashion Disaster, Denver, Colorado

Retail Slut, West Hollywood, California

South Street Seaport, N.Y., N.Y.

1984-1986 Artist retailer, the Bridge Market at Tabor Center, Denver, Colorado

1985-1990 Artist retailer, People’s Fair, Denver, Colorado

1985-1991 Artist retailer student union sponsored, CU student center, Boulder, Colorado

1985 Benefit fashion Show for Colorado Aids Project, Pogo’s nightclub, Boulder, Colorado

1986 Art for Aids, Donation, Denver, Colorado

1988 Vendor wholesaler, Action Sports Retailer Expo (East Coast), Atlantic City, N.J.

1988 wholesaler retailer, Bloomingdales chain, east coast market

1989 First Retail Outlet Partnership, “The Small Store, ident-o-wear”, Denver, Colorado

1989-1992 Artist retailer, Pridefest, Denver, Colorado

1990-2000 Store Artist, Marketing Director for Wild Oats Markets, Capitol Hill, Denver,

Colorado and Berkeley, California

1991 Contributing Artist exhibitor, Alternative Arts Alliance, Denver, Colorado

1996 Telegraph Street Vendor, Art Retailer, Berkeley, California

1996 Artist retailer, Pridefest, San Francisco, California

1997 Featured Artist, Solos magazine, Berkeley, California

2004-2005 (2nd) Retail Outlet-Sole Proprietor, “Elzwear”, Denver, Colorado

2007-present wholesaler for Mona Lucero’s fashion boutique, Denver, Colorado

2009-present –contributing artist, The Denver Art Gallery (DAG), Denver, Colorado

2010-present –contributing artist, the Id Gallery, 821 East 8th Ave., Denver, Colorado