Bi-Biennials, Each Non-Repeating and Fleeting

This week’s artistic melee is invigorating, daunting and the manifestation of many efforts, not the least of those belonging to the Dallas Biennale. Launching in tandem with the Dallas Art Fair is the first and only installment of this internationally seasoned mass attack meant to redefine and comment on the biennial concept. (Unfamiliar with the concept? Think big honkin’ art show every other year.) Artists from Seoul, Paris, Geneva but also Houston, Austin, Denton and more will occupy spaces throughout Dallas and create their own presentations for you to experience. There are 11 locations total with the easternmost belonging to Fair Park’s Oliver Francis Gallery (209 S. Peak St.), and pushing as far west as Le Meridien (13402 Noel Road). Other points of respite include the Goss-Michael Foundation, the Dallas Contemporary (which acts as an anchor to the series), Neiman Marcus, the Nasher and many stops along the Dragon Street area. There is also a promise of online extensions and “interventions,” or spontaneous art popping up around town, either through video on unassuming televisions or performance art. Visit dallascontemporary.org/upcomingexhibit.html. To confuse matters more, but also to mix the vinegar and baking soda regions of your creativity, consider this: There will actually be two “biennales,” or “biennials,” co-existing in the same space. At Oliver Francis Gallery, DB12 is borrowing the gallery’s 300-square-foot office space to give its own nested biennial showing of six artists from five countries under the name Dick Higgins Gallery. This biennial will also have an online component and later a film offering at Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff. Learn more about the Dick Higgins one-time biennial at dallasbiennial.org. Push on. Press forward. Experience everything you can.
Fri., April 13, 2012