Back off, McCarthy – by “Commies” we mean the folks at the Shamrock Hotel Studios, a dynamic little pop-up artists’ colony at 4312 ½ Elm. On account of the Shamrock’s history as a former brothel, they figured it would be a perfect place to toss their own damned art fair…

“Purgatory” is perhaps too strong a word, but it is the only term that adequately captures the sense of suspension. Drifting, in-between, among and about but not within, Morehshin Allahyari lives stranded between cultures and countries as an intercontinental wanderer. Since determining not to return to Iran for “awhile,” she…

You must admire Peter Ligon’s chutzpah. The co-founder of the Fallas Dart Air, which opens the same weekend as a festival with a similar name, likens himself to “David Koresh stockpiling not arms, but romaine lettuce.” Operating out of the Shamrock Hotel Studios at 4312 1/2 Elm St., which hosts…

We would say that it’s the “Woodstock of Dallas arts,” but you should envision less mud and more glamour. As the third annual three-day Dallas Art Fair approaches, collectors, artists and art lovers plan their descent upon Big D in a whirlwind of flash and flair. Taking place in the…

Jacob Kassay is being too modest — or, otherwise, too ironic — by naming his newest exhibition No Goal. We’ve seen woefully little so far of Kassay’s exhibition, which drops on April 11 at The Power Station, but the artist has penned a Heideggerian manifesto of sorts that you can…

Once upon a time, Schoolhouse Rock taught children about “The Great American Melting Pot” and how liberty was built on the amalgamation of diverse ethnic, religious and cultural ideas. These days, “immigrant” is often an epithet, and many consider assimilation as the only mode of survival for those not born…

Blayre Stiller ignited a lot of traffic here on Monday with our review of her work in Blair Blayre, an exhibition at Cohn Drennan Contemporary. Seems like everyone is feeling fuzzy and can’t quite get her work off our minds. Since we were just staring wistfully out our office windows…

Andy said, “Don’t pay attention to what they write about you, just measure it in inches.” If the same can be said for “eager discussion,” Blayre Stiller can measure hers for blocks. Admiration for Stiller’s charcoal on paper drawings at Cohn Drennan gushed ceaselessly on Saturday night, as gallery patrons…

Don’t worry — he doesn’t need all your energy, just wants to borrow a little on Saturday night. Miller is gearing up for another live painting performance, and as an adherent of the Reflectionist School, he relies on painting in-the-moment, interacting with an audience and amping up from the excitement…

It was just a little 18-gauge needle, but when you have steel butting coolly against your cheek and forehead, clear across the bridge of your nose and millimeters from the crook of your eye, it tends to evoke a moment of clarity. I was sitting on a studio chair with…

Chances are most Dallasites have meandered through rural Oklahoma a fateful time or two, so few will be surprised by the plot of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize winning August: Osage County (2007). A black comedy filled with jaded intellectuals and familial dysfunction reminiscent of both Faulkner’s classic, The Sound and…

If you’re still not over that time your asshole cousin ruined The Sixth Sense by divulging its “mind-blowing” ending before you could make it to the cineplex, we have a foreboding tale of ghoulish mystery that is beyond spoiling by voluble blowhards. In fact, the debatable “twist” of Henry James’…

“Reach for the stars” and “follow your dreams” was the rhetoric when I was growing up, but they failed to mention that when “everybody’s special,” it’s a hell of a lot harder to make it in a creative industry. See, I’m a kid of the ’90s: The economy was baller,…

When Magnolia Gallery owner Scott Horn told us Bruce Lee Webb’s new exhibition would be a “barn-burner,” we immediately imagined Southern Gothic of Faulknerian proportions. And, though he has traveled the world garnering a “flea market education,” this Texan artist’s homegrown cultural archeology never disappoints. Primarily based in Waxahachie, where…

Jagger is free to do what he wants, any old time. You? You have a slight budgetary restriction now and again, and the McKinney Avenue Contemporary has the perfect idea to keep you from fiscal free-fall with its Free Art Party on March 22. As a financially liberated libertine, you…

She’s Muskogee-born and Bozeman-raised, and in just 42 years, Sarah Vowell has penned five nonfiction books; traveled the country, sardonically exploring American history from a wry perspective; reported back to dreamy Ira Glass for Public Radio International’s This American Life; and, most recently, scored a spot as The Daily Show’s…

When an event’s attendance doubles by more than half like the Dallas Arboretum’s ArtScape has since 2009, the people have spoken, and they clearly want more. In its seventh year, the juried festival takes place each spring among the plush frondescence, featuring more than 100 local artists and artisans, showcasing…

“People have their right to get high and stoned. The fuck, whatever. But, I don’t know why they do it this way when it could just be from a plant on their balcony. Or, from a bowl of French wine, like me.” Teun Voeten shrugs, laughing and pushing his long…

Grab your “Ira Glass-es” and fountain pen and meet us at the intersection of aesthetic and cerebral where art and philosophy collide during two upcoming art talks on Thursday, March 8. First, the DMA and the Nasher partner to bring you The Art of Language: Mark Manders and Elliott Hundley,…