Leah Dixon, Melanie FLood, Sharifa Lafon

Opening reception Saturday July 11, 2026 from 7-10 pm. On View through August 9, 2026

Friend of a Friend is pleased to announce our upcoming exhibition ROCK PAPER SCISSORS featuring artists Leah Dixon (New York), Melanie Flood (Portland, OR), and Sharifa Lafon (Denver) with an opening reception to be held  Saturday, July 11, 2026 from 7-10 pm. ROCK PAPER SCISSORS will be open Thursdays from 2-7 pm and by appointment. 

The dual role of artist and exhibition organizer demands a consistent balance where time spent in one arena almost always takes away from another. ROCK PAPER SCISSORS brings together three artists who have each been playing this intransitive game for over a decade. Whether this entails programming a large scale digital motion art festival, establishing a nightlife and global arts institution, or operating a proper artist-run gallery space, a bit of heavy lifting must be done to maintain robust art practices that touch on the personal, the global and everywhere in between. We could not be more excited to present a range of sculpture and photography as a roundabout game where choosing a fair option does not produce just winners and losers but instead lifts these artists who accomplish daily triumphs by consistently and diligently manufacturing, opportunities, jobs, and income for others. 

Leah Dixon (b. Cincinnati, Ohio / Lives and works in New York City) is an Interdisciplinary Artist whose work creates shape from the moments when conflict begins to harmonize. Her wide-scale sculptural and social practice is motivated through spaces where architecture and bodies collide – igniting a shared geometric imagination, in what Dixon points to as our new origin stories. Her Constructivist / Folk methodologies encompass sculpture, painting, performance, minimalist architecture, set design, and nightlife. Dixon is the founder, designer, builder, and creative director of BEVERLY’S – a full bar, a sculpture, social architecture project, and an Arts and Nightlife institution in Lower Manhattan. 

From adolescence onward, Melanie Flood (b. Queens, NY) has used the camera to regard herself and the world. Her practice is built upon relentless auto-documentation through which she explores her subjectivity as a woman and engages a critique of the “ideal” female body, while considering broader social scripts surrounding aging, sex, and feminine performance.

Flood has had recent solo and two-person shows at ILY2, Portland, OR; Ruschwoman, Chicago, IL; Fourteen30 Contemporary, Portland, OR; and Ditch Projects, Springfield, OR. In 2024, her work was included in a comprehensive solo exhibition of contemporary photography at the Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland, OR. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, such as the Regional Arts and Cultural Council Grant, Precipice Fund Award, Oregon Arts Commission Artist Fellowship, and two Ford Family Foundation Visual Arts Exhibition Grants. Flood holds a BFA in Photography from The School of Visual Arts, NY 2001 and an MFA in Contemporary Art Practice from Portland State University, OR 2017. 

Sharifa Lafon (she/her) is a curator and artist working in time-based experimental media. She creates and presents moving-image projects, installations, and public programs that explore perception, embodiment, and interconnection, often through collaborative, community-rooted production. Her work spans exhibitions, screenings, and large-scale projection projects. Sharifa is currently the executive director and curator at Denver Digerati, and the program director and curator of Night Lights Denver. She is currently working on her PhD in the Department of Critical Media Practices at the University of Colorado Boulder and has an MH in Visual Studies with a focus on experimental film, a BA in Art History, and a BFA in Photography from the University of Colorado Denver.

Friend of a Friend is an artist-run space co-directed by Ilan Gutin, Jenny Nagashima and Derrick Velasquez located on the ground floor of the Burrell at 3575 Chestnut Place, Denver CO 80216. Friend of a Friend aims to showcase a range of regional and national artists broadening the scope of art on the Front Range. Come hang. 

For inquiries or a pdf price list, please email us at friendofafriendgallery@gmail.com