A colorful new piece of public art offers a sense of optimism and a reason to go downtown

August can be a dry season for art. Galleries and museums know their customers are distracted by summer fun and they tend to keep programming on the breezy side, saving the serious stuff for the important fall premieres.

But there is a bright spot this summer in downtown Denver, where I have spent many afternoons in the company of a single piece of art, Rachel Hayes’ “Horizon Drift,” which is installed on the Plaza of the Americas at 15th and Wewatta streets. The piece is co-presented by the Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum and the Biennial of the Americas, two of the city’s powerhouse cultural entities whose frequent collaborations always result in small wonders.

I rarely point people to temporary, single public-art works. The experience of seeing them can come and go so quickly and even the largest projects fade into the background and become nearly invisible in a short time. But “Horizon Drift” keeps calling me back, mostly because it looks different every time I see it.

For the work, artist Rachel Hayes suspended yards and yards of airy, translucent fabric over the public space, using the plaza’s existing infrastructure — building beams, light poles — as supports. The piece consists of four oversized panels, shaped into triangles that overlap one another, creating a kaleidoscope effect.

There is a fifth element to the piece: natural sunshine, which pours down from above, sending light through the material. On clear days, the panels — rendered in richly-hued color blocks of blues, pinks, reds and browns — glow brilliantly, as if they were powered up with electricity.

For people passing through the plaza, there are two ways to enjoy the opportunity: look up to see the colors interact together, or look down to see the multi-shaped shades and shadows that it cast on the concrete ground below. Both options change minute-by-minute as the day progresses. That invites visitors to stay awhile.

There are plenty of art historical references here, as Black Cube points out in its supporting literature. One points to pop artist Frank Stella’s abstract expressionist paintings that were trendy in the 1960s and ’70s. Another references glass artist Dale Chihuly’s glass ceilings, which are installed inside buildings near and far. (There is a particularly famous one in Las Vegas’ Bellagio casino that draws big crowds).

But it is most powerful as a tribute to American quilt makers, who have tended to be female and are rarely known beyond their own friends and families. “Horizon Drift” presents the patterns and handiwork of those obscure artists on steroids, underscoring both the effort it takes to produce and its organic beauty. It’s a wildly feminist work wrapped in rainbow packaging.

Hayes is an internationally recognized fabric artist who lives and works in Tulsa, Okla. She is known for her colorful interventions in public spaces. The artist has installed her panels in such places as White Sands National Park in New Mexico, the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, and among ancient ruins in Istanbul, Turkey.