Nigel Cooke lives only part-time in what most of us call reality. The rest of the time — well, let’s just say he falls down the rabbit hole. On the other end are characters and images and experiences that Cooke paints and sculpts. Cooke even refers to the figures in…
Quilts have long been misunderstood. People have considered them craft, pretty blankets sewn by women with too much time on their hands. Although many quilts are quite beautiful, they are also incredibly powerful. Frontier women crafted them to shelter their families from the dangerous cold. Slaves created them as creative…
Nothing — and I mean nothing — was off limits last night at Bass Hall. Joan Rivers joked about it all, from falling vaginas to fat people needing two airline seats to Michael Jackson kiddie sleepovers. The show opened with Brad Upton. He did the whole bitter, old guy humor…
What do a desk, logs, cardboard boxes, buildings, a train, fans, radios, a tractor, a bed, blocks, toy trees, a dollhouse, Saturn, record players, a grandfather clock, train cars, cash registers and Tinker Toys have in common? Nothing and everything. Almost everything anyway. That’s the central message in Lance Letscher’s…
Alexander Dijulio’s Alfabeto is as grounded in reality as it floats in the surreal. The show addresses context, authenticity and art itself. Although the show is made up of a number of pieces, you could consider it, Dijulio’s first solo exhibition, a single installation. “The work is about finding harmony…
It was pretty damn magical Friday night in the Arts District. The galleries were open late and light, video, and sound installations of one kind and another dotted the streets as part of Aurora. The Nasher hosted the final ‘Til Midnight of the season with The Bright playing on the…
I had never even been on a roller coaster until five years ago, when I jumped on Disney’s Splash Mountain after taking one look at all of those harried, middle-aged women weighted down with sippy cups and strollers, sitting on the “mom bench” of non-riders. I thought to myself then,…
It felt a little dangerous and inappropriate to be viewing English-born artist Nigel Cooke’s work, as if as viewers we had slipped inside his head to see insecurities, dark humor, questions and answers — some of which it was difficult to feel as if we had the right to see…
Her name is Stacey Maynard but she calls herself Lucky Girl. And rightly so. Maynard, unlike way too many people, is actually doing what she loves — creating art. The high school art teacher working in a variety of media hails from Australia, but she’s celebrating her first solo exhibition,…
Readers, have you experienced a night of unforgettable Dallas-ness? A night you were proud to be a part of, one that represented what you think of when you think of our fair city? Tell us about it. Email Jenny Block and she might feature your experience in a future Dallas…
“Good storms are like hot romance. The wilder the better, as long as they’re safe,” says Stephen Levine who’s currently showing his storm chasing photos of lightning shows and storm clouds at Lago Vista Gallery. Stephen Levine has always been enamored by storms. Every since he was two years old,…
What do clocks, a desk, logs, cardboard boxes, equipment of one kind or another, buildings, a train, meters, fans, a chair, radios, a tractor, a bed, blocks, toy trees, a dollhouse, a telephone, an electrical outlet, Saturn, record players, cut pages from a children’s book,a grandfather clock, train cars, cash…
Linda Dee Guy is a printmaker, a collagist, a painter. But she’s more than that. She’s a historian too. She’s a visionary. And she’s a scientist. Guy’s work is full of patterns: ones she has created, ones she’s found, ones she has manipulated, repeated, and made into something wholly new…
Los Angeles artist Mark Bradford used to create signs for his mother’s hair salon, where he later cut hair. Now, he creates art that’s showing at the Dallas Museum of Art. He holds a BA and an MA from the California Institute of the Arts. But it’s his studies in…
Irritation and pity are not the expressions I imagined a shark would wear upon being captured or killed. But that seems like precisely the expression it has in Dallas and Union Valley, Texas artist Pamela Henderson’s piece “One of Eight part of the series Ellipsis and Hatchet Acrylic.”Three people, presumably…
It was all cowboy boots and even a few hats at last night’s Avant Garde Society event “Art Y’all” at the Nasher Sculpture Center. White lights were strung through the trees; the Josh Weathers Band played Texas tunes; and the Center’s own Nasher Café by Wolfgang Puck put out an…
The show is set in New York in the ’50s. The original Broadway production was in 1957. But sitting in the Music Hall at Fair Park last night, I felt sad at how much the heart of West Side Story still rings true today. Sure, you don’t find many gangs…
In “Fall,” part of a series, not surprisingly titled “The Seasons,” Olga Polunin personifies the season as a beautiful, young, Asian woman. She is bare breasted and the composition ends just beneath them, reminiscent of any number of European paintings, in particular the School of Fontainebleau piece “Gabrielle d’Estrées and…
This weekend is shaping up to be a pretty damn good one. You can eat yourself, laugh yourself and scare yourself silly Friday and Saturday and then walk it all off on Sunday in time for another manic Monday. And, sure, the heat came back for a bit. But with…
Deborah Oropallo’s massive pieces command your attention the minute you enter the Stay ZaZa Art House & Social Gallery, a partnership with Santa Fe’s Turner Carroll Gallery. It’s a relatively small, simple event space with a chandelier interestingly tucked in the back right corner, black floors, and bright track lighting…
Saturday reminded me once again of just how lucky we are in Dallas when it comes to art. Forty galleries, all leading members of DADA (Dallas Art Dealers Association) were open for the Annual Fall Gallery Walk in the Design District, Uptown, Downtown, Oak Cliff, Deep Ellum and on and…
It’s literally the elephant in the room. Only in Kirk Hayes’ “Protective Covering Smoldering,” someone is trying to cover him up. Desperately. But they’re doing a terrible job of it. Terrible. The pink blanket silhouettes what is clearly an elephant. Except, it’s not just an elephant. It’s also some sort…
