While we hear a lot about Dallas' emerging artist movement, what's less publicized, though equally compelling, is the emerging gallery force.

In the last couple years we've watched makeshift spaces spring up everywhere, many of which are artist-run or double as homes and studios. At these start-ups you'll find folks doing critically engaging work in contemporary settings, tucked away from the bustle of Dragon Street or the more established Deep Ellum circuit of Barry Whistler, Kirk Hopper, Public Trust and CentralTrak.

Since most of these business' curators and founders would consider themselves artists first, they've extended invitations to show each other's work on their own walls, creating a reflexive, referential web that connects each smaller neighborhood hideout to a larger, more cooperative community.

Here's a roster of newbies to the scene that are expanding the dialogue of "What is a gallery?" and taking that conversation into new directions, many without the aid of a formal gallery dealer alliance.