New Details on Friday Memorial for Jeff West

The outpouring of sadness is immense. As soon as the report of Jeff West’s death broke on Monday, comment sections online began rapidly filling with those who’d known and loved his work with the Dallas arts community, a passion that had spanned more than 30 years. You will be hard-pressed…

You Are Not The Father

Maury Povich is nowhere to be found when you really need him: three men, one daughter, no idea who should walk her down the aisle during her impending nuptials. Oh, it’s not merely the formula for blockbuster daytime television, but also the story behind the beloved long-running Broadway hit Mama…

More Art Than You Can Shake a Paintbrush At

For more than 40 years, the CityArts Festival has jam-packed your late spring with more artistic revelry than one Dallasite can handle in a mere three days, so bring friends and strategically plan to shoot iPhone videos to let those poor suckers wearing babies slung around their necks in the…

Sneak Peak: The Chaotic Beauty Behind Ro2’s New Shows

Of the inherent perks of working in Dallas arts, perhaps the sweetest is that of collaboration with brilliant but oft-unsung visionaries. About a month ago, Jordan Roth of Ro2 Art called with an incredibly flattering request — could I help one of his artists document an upcoming exhibition? Here’s the…

Revising and Re-imaging History

When is revisionist history ever a good thing? Well, when artist Betsy Williamson is the one making the cuts and pastes. Williamson’s Rewriting Art History re-imagines the field by reappropriating historically significant works in a way that challenges and surprises the viewer. On exhibition at the Mercantile Coffee House, in…

Shake Ya Ass for Your 2012 DMA Award Winners

Aw, there are going to be some big heads floating around now that the DMA has officially released its 2012 award winners – ten big ol’ heads, to be exact. In a city like Dallas, that could get dangerous. So, to see just how worried we should be with the…

A Gunpowder Social

Baseball debacle or no, everybody still wants to be like Mike. In fact, artist Sergio Garcia has been wearing Air Jordans since the 80s. When it came to choosing an iconic cultural image for his upcoming exhibition, Social, the signature kicks couldn’t have been more appropriate for his silk-screen series…

So Much Better Than A Tote Bag

No word if there will be lattes and arugula served by the twenty-one North Texas movie theaters slated to simulcast This American Life – Live! on May 10, but it is a rare chance for you “Limousine Liberals” to see Ira in his element, as his weekly radio show broadcasts…

The Call of Chihuly

Maybe someday you, too, will have a six-month celebration of your life’s work as you rock an eye patch like whoa, but while you work out your five-year plan to attain Chihuly-level lionization, be sure to check out the nationally renowned, award-winning artist’s local pit stop at the Dallas Arboretum…

Girl, Look at These Prints. I Workshop!

“Bromoil” does not, in fact, mean discord in the Sigma Chi house. A photographic process popularized during the first half of the 20th century, bromoil processing creates an impressionistic, haunting effect with a vintage feel, and it is a preferred method by photographer Jill Skupin Burkholder, who will be on…

High-Octane Self-Esteem

If it were legal in the state of Texas, the state of Texas would marry itself; in fact, after decades of jealous neighboring states telling the Lone Star State to “get a room” with itself, Tejas has followed suit by putting what is promised to be a “boat load” of…

Cinephiles, Start Your Celluloid

Not only is 42 the answer to life, the universe and everything, it’s also the number of years the USA Film Festival has been enculturating this city in the ways of cinema arts. Formed in 1971 when American-made cinema was largely uncelebrated, the Dallas-based nonprofit has grown to incorporate special…

Little Death, Big O: CentralTrak’s HARAKIRI Series Launches Tomorrow

It’s adrenaline at first. And then the serotonin.The feeling of flight and shallow breath. Dry throat, spinning room. It’s frantic, it’s chemicals. Then the euphoria, ohgod the euphoria. The snap-solid moment when everything stops and all that exists is you. A Shakespearean staple, la petite mort is the Renaissance concept…

NPR Voice Diane Rehm Speaks Out on Parkinson’s

One mention of the indomitable Diane Rehm and you can just hear her theme song trumpets can’t you? Let’s face it: Rehm, whose National Public Radio talk program was called “the gold standard in civic, civil discourse” by the 2010 Peabody Award committee, is likely the most intellectually stimulating voice…

I Sing of Myself. The Watzloves, of ’Possums.

Waxahachie probably isn’t the romantic subject of any great Texas country songs, at least not yet, but Webb Art Gallery, owned and operated by perennial favorite Bruce Lee Webb, reminds us that it’s no mere bump in the road en route Austin. About 30 miles south of downtown, this quirky…