Melvin Edwards: Five Decades Melvin Edwards has spent the last five decades working in steel. His most famous body of work is a series of small, steel reliefs titled “Lynch Fragments.” These 3-dimensional pieces, which Edwards has been making for much of his career, aren’t overwhelming in size, but carry…
Last Friday afternoon, I stepped into the Dallas Contemporary galleries with select members of the press to get an early view of Loris Gréaud’s The Unplayed Notes Museum, an exhibition meant to fill the mammoth warehouse space — roughly 26,000 square feet of emptiness for the artist to play in…
Dallas Medianale, an experimental film festival programmed by the Video Association of Dallas, has been going on at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary (3120 McKinney Ave.) since January 9. I went to the opening night, which featured screenings and a series of intermedia performances, including an awesome display by a duo…
Jesse Morgan Barnett & Jeff Gibbons It’s a rare opportunity to see two of the smartest artists working in Dallas in the same venue. Which is why you’ll want to head to the Goss Michael Foundation’s exhibition openings from 6-8 p.m. Friday. Jesse Morgan Barnett mines his own life to…
Carolyn Sortor’s Seismic Hive In a city with far too little video art, and an audience with little to no understanding of how to wade into the small pool that does exist, this weekend brings us exciting exhibition. Intermedia artist Carolyn Sortor works in whatever medium catches her interest. For…
Flowers of War In grad school I spent one winter break in Los Angeles, which of course required a trip to Malibu to visit, among other sites, the Adamson House, known in some circles as the “Taj Mahal of Tile.” Since then, I’ve moved back to Dallas and fallen eyes…
Dallas is home to VideoFest, the oldest, largest video festival in the United States. Since Bart Weiss started it in the ’80s, the annual event has screened all kinds of media, ranging from experimental films, to video art, animations, documentaries and features. And January 9, the Video Association of Dallas…
I’ve never seen so many uncomfortable people in an art gallery on a Saturday night. RO2 Art’s display of Joachim West’s Mother Earth Is a Dirty Whore had people crowding around his drawings, pointing at penises and asking questions like, “Is that her ass?” or “He’s licking her where?” Some…
This year the Dallas art scene felt rebellious. While one museum exhibition paid homage to a wonderful Dallas-based painter, another had me wanting to commit acts of destruction. At galleries and other exhibitions, the work dripped with anarchy and frustration with the system — a sentiment felt across the country,…
Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive Dissonance is something most adults understand, and relate to. That two things you believe or value could be in direct conflict with one another is a frustrating, anxiety-filled way to live in this gray-shaded world. The new series of work by Dallas-based artist Gaeb Cardinale shares a…
Between Dog and Wolf It’s highly possible you’ve seen the French idiom: entre chien et loup. It roughly translates to Between Dog and Wolf, inspiring the name for artist Danny Williams exhibition at Barry Whistler Gallery (2909-B Canton St.). It refers to the way dusk can obscure the outline of…
‘Tis the season to shop local and shop well. Just don’t buy your gifts at Walmart, capiche?…
El Mercado Lest we forget, galleries exist to sell art. Is the art often well-curated and are the artists often hand selected? Yes, of course. But they are shops, nonetheless. And in the spirit of the shopping season, Erin Cluley Gallery (414 Fabrication St.) presents El Mercado. It’s inspired by…
Walking into Circuit 12 Contemporary, the first thing you see is the above photograph. It’s titled Sundowner, I’ve been told by one of the participating artists – the exhibition’s curator actually, Gregory Ruppe. But he doesn’t tell me whose piece it is. Well, he tells me at first, but then…
At approximately 2 a.m. Saturday, I jerked awake. In my dreams, my mind had constructed a computer that fabricated dreams based on the tone and pitch of my voice, as I read poetry aloud. On this screen of my subconscious there was a forest scene, and over the futuristic speakers…
Peter Ligon It would be difficult to dig up someone who doesn’t like Peter Ligon’s landscapes. Even if you’re not keen on landscape painting generally, there’s something about Ligon’s emotive, messy pieces that don’t scream of photo source material. The painter captures every Dallas scene from trees in winter to…
It’s a simple conceit. You can almost hear the artist thinking it to herself: I’ll wear my mother’s dresses. Entering Cydonia Gallery’s new exhibition by Mexican artist Julieta Aguinaco, The Depth of Now, I found myself jealous. At least her mom kept hers. My mother forever interested in discarding. Yearbook…
Ed Blackburn’s Ancient History I find myself pointing to shows at Mountain View College’s Cliff Gallery quite a bit recently. I’m not sure if it’s just a string of good shows, recently acquired awareness of the space, or if the programming has seen an uptick. Regardless, this weekend the space…
Art Conspiracy, the coolest art party in Dallas, started a decade ago as a way to raise money for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The brainchild of two Dallas culture-philes, Jason Roberts and Sarah Jane Semrad, that first year a small team cleaned up the then-vacant Texas Theatre, hung the…
Left Hand First In daily life, pretty is quite the compliment. Sure, it may rank lower than beautiful or stunning. But every good flatterer knows the power of telling a woman she’s pretty. In art, pretty is perjorative. You want to insult a serious painter? Tell her that her life’s…
Teenaged girls are a peculiar species. And Twitter is an even weirder place. Put those two together and you have today’s No. 1 trending topic that is #alexfromtarget. Yes, a young girl tweeted a picture of a long-haired boy, who could be plucked out of any current chart-topping boy band,…
Draftsmen of the Apocalypse CentralTrak opens a group exhibition that explores violence and “mankind’s eventual doom.” All the artists in this exhibition use their work to pinpoint or illuminate aspects of violence in either history or the present day. While seemingly apropos for Halloween weekend, it seems the thread that…
