Longtime Dallas contemporary art gallery gets a fresh name and new owner

What’s in a name? For gallery owners Kenneth Craighead and Steve Green, it’s become a shorthand for discerning taste. When perusing their renowned space — their namesake Craighead Green Gallery — local artists, collectors, curators and designers knew they would find some of the best contemporary art in Dallas.

For 34 years (and in three locations), Craighead and Green have assured their eponymous space had a spot in the city’s cultural landscape. But when an ambitious young employee joined the team, the duo decided to sell their space and start a new chapter with a new name: Bardin Gallery. 

For Craighead, Green and new director-owner William Bardin, the transition has seemed effortless, so much so, it might have gone unnoticed that Bardin actually took over the gallery back in 2025. 

“I kept the name of the gallery as a transition period because I feel like it was basically paying homage to the previous owners,” Bardin explains. “People are wary about a change, and too drastic of a change will alienate audiences. Too much too soon is not a strategically smart way to go about it, so I took a lot of time in changing the name and the brand… I didn’t want to alienate my audience and also wanted to honor the legacy that Craighead Green had.” 

When the original partners founded the gallery in September 1992, they couldn’t have envisioned its longevity. Initially deciding to take the plunge to help Kenneth Craighead grow his interior design business, the duo found that it took more than just a good eye to guarantee success. 

“We thought it would be a good idea if we had a gallery that offered everything from traditional to contemporary to X-Y-Z,” Craighead recalls. “But we quickly learned people want to see your focus and your goal, so we became more focused on emerging artists and local artists and went on from there.”

Early days

That first spot at the corner of Cedar Springs and Maple Avenue near Stanley Korshak got an upgrade in 2013 when the duo moved to Dragon Street. There, they established deeper roots in the industry, serving on the board of SiNiCa Studios in Fort Worth and contributing to a scholarship for Booker T. Washington High School graduates. The pair continued to travel across the United States and Europe to scout talent.

“You get to the point where you’ve built a base, and then you start working off it,” says Craighead. “You listen to your client and pay attention to what they’re looking for. I think the best help we ever had in putting the gallery together was the artists we were repping because we had gained their trust and they knew we were serious.”

Naturally, the space became more than just a business for the duo.

“The artists have become our friends over the years,” adds Green, a lawyer by trade. “It is like a family, and sometimes there’s an argument between a brother and a sister, but as a family we work together.” 

In fact, one of their stable mixed-media artists, Pamela Nelson, initially introduced Bardin to his future employers.

“A good friend of hers had a nephew in Berlin who wanted to come work in the United States,” says Green. “We had maybe three FaceTime calls with William [while he was] in Berlin, then we flew him over, and he stayed.” 

Bardin had already immersed himself in the German art scene, first as a curious student growing up as the mayor’s son in Gross-Umstadt, where he explored museums with his parents. After studying art history at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, he realized he had a deeper affinity for contemporary art. 

“The university has a great art history program with classical learning about Gothic churches and Renaissance paintings, but then I had a contemporary art class that really got me,” Bardin recalls.

Shortly afterward, he relocated to Berlin, where he worked at EIGEN+Art Lab with the aim of expanding his opportunities in America.  

“I ran across Craighead Green, which is a really funny story as I had an aunt that lived here and is a very social person,” Bardin says. “Pamela Nelson was one of the first people to know a director position was opening up, and I sent over a resume. Two weeks later I was leaving the country and starting a new life in the U.S. — a crazy transition!” 

Art anew

Five years on, the now 29-year-old has acclimated himself to the more commercial elements of the American art world, with its focus on sales and an approach that always considers design. 

“People will buy a beautiful piece of work for their home rather than the intellectual, institutional approach they see in Germany,” he says. “There’s not necessarily a difference in the appreciation for the work, but there’s maybe more a falling in love with the work rather than having that heavily intellectual relationship.” 

Having relocated from the Dragon Street location to deeper in the Design District earlier this summer, Bardin found that the clean slate of a new space prompted him to rebrand. As Craighead Green’s stable of artist relationships spans decades, he plans to keep most of the roster intact while still bringing in new talent. 

“I’ve added around three or four to the roster, so it’s a slow change,” he says. “We have such a rich landscape of artists in Texas, so I want to have that cultural exchange between international artists and local talent. The great thing about Craighead Green, and something I want to maintain, is its diversity of approach. It’s wonderful having different aesthetics because you’re not so predictable and it creates a diverse experience.” 

The last show under the old name will be “Out of Context,” featuring local fashion photographer Thom Jackson’s previously unreleased photographs, along with “Fenestration,” abstract cityscapes from Danish painter Anders Moseholm.

For Bardin, who has put down roots in Dallas (he met his wife, Kendall Papathanasiou Bardin, at one of Craighead Green’s openings), carrying on the legacy of such an expansive and forward-thinking space might mean spending 30 more years in the Dallas art world. 

“The (prior) last name has served me wonderfully well, but by now most people have realized I’m the new owner and it’s important for people to identify me with it,” Bardin muses. “I just actually had a son, Wesley, who is six months old, and if he wants to in 20 years to take things over, he doesn’t have to change the name. It’s time right now to make it my own.”

Bardin Gallery is located at 167 Parkhouse St. Hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.