Your eyeballs are working hard. As you read this they are processing and interpreting symbols to send to your brain. But how often do you consider your own observational power? It’s something that artists of all varieties dwell upon and then render into their work. For the next exhibition, Ro2…
For the Love of Kettle A lot of people love Kettle Art Gallery. This Deep Ellum staple run by artist Frank Campagna and his partner, Paula Harris, is a haven of emerging and established Dallas artists whose work varies from painting to photography to the phallic sculpture garden I saw…
The opera will always be operatic. This may seem a redundant, or obvious thing to write, but this can be the paramount struggle for a contemporary audience member. If you didn’t grow up on staples like Madame Butterfly or Carmen — and who really does anymore? — it’s unlikely you’ll…
It’s Wednesday night in Frisco, and I’m standing inside a giant, white, big-top tent, double fisting champagne before seeing what was described to me as “Game of Thrones” meets “Cirque du Soleil” with 63 horses. As it turns out, Odysseo by Cavalia is nothing like “Game of Thrones,” and only…
I was out of town for the first weekend of Dallas Medianale, then busy with Artopia for the next event. There are a lot of excuses for not showing up to things. But this week I’ve been resigned to catch up with this inaugural experimental video art event. And boy…
This weekend you can fill your life with prancing ponies, the world premiere of a new musical, acrobatic CATS that play guitar, art exhibitions, and Mozart. And you can do all of that before the Super Bowl on Sunday — or during it, if you’re so inclined. Get planning, slackers…
When you step into the Ochre House Theater (825 Exposition Ave.), you enter another world — a world entirely of artistic director Matthew Posey’s creation. His small group of ruffians puts together shows every six weeks, and they’re consistently magical mixtures of music and storytelling. For the next production, Soft…
They say that love comes in all shapes and sizes. That you should take risks for love. That love is an adventure. Or, in the case of Chop — the one-man play from funnyman Brad McEntire — they say all of those things at once. The dark comedy tells the…
Artistic process as artistic product — you’ve probably heard some version of this idea before. The idea that the act of creation is as important as the final output isn’t particularly new. It’s in the same vein as the notion that the journey is as valuable as the destination. To…
Late last year, artists Thor Johnson and Joachim West brought their delectably irreverent sense of humor to an artist talk ruminating on the pretensions of the art world, and it was as much a performance as it was a serious conversation. These two will be back at it at 7…
Melvin Edwards: Five Decades Melvin Edwards has spent the last five decades working in steel. His most famous body of work is a series of small, steel reliefs titled “Lynch Fragments.” These 3-dimensional pieces, which Edwards has been making for much of his career, aren’t overwhelming in size, but carry…
Recycled Cinema A college football championship win recently brought a swarm of notoriety to the Ohio State name, but there are other badass things happening at that university, outside the athletics department. Roger Beebe is an Associate Professor in Ohio State University’s Art Department and he’s found interesting ways to…
Saturday morning I woke up to a lovely, little Facebook message from an artist by the name of Loris Gréaud. The week prior he’d given the media a tour of his exhibition at the Dallas Contemporary. Much of the art he’d shown us that afternoon was destroyed during a performance…
Mixmaster presents “100 Creatives,” in which we feature cultural entrepreneurs of Dallas in random order. Gina and Dustin Orlando are two cool cats. A few years ago, these two gallerists opened up Circuit 12 Contemporary, which quickly became a go-to space in the Design District, and their programming roster continues…
Last Friday afternoon, I stepped into the Dallas Contemporary galleries with select members of the press to get an early view of Loris Gréaud’s The Unplayed Notes Museum, an exhibition meant to fill the mammoth warehouse space — roughly 26,000 square feet of emptiness for the artist to play in…
Mixmaster presents “100 Creatives,” in which we feature cultural entrepreneurs of Dallas in random order. Since Will Power arrived in Dallas he’s been busy. With a background in performance, writing and education, he’s not just creating his own work but he’s investing in the work of future generations. Originally commissioned…
Fighting my aging body there’s an ungrown child who still wishes for magic of fairytales and superheroes. Although I’ve admittedly never been a comic book fan – I fell into the realism camp of childhood fantasies, with the likes of Nancy Drew/Encyclopedia Brown or Choose Your own Adventure books – I…
Sometime this weekend, in between your rush to catch up on the Oscar nominations, we’d like you to take a minute to notice how much live theater is happening in Dallas. And most of it is worth your time and attention. Stagger Lee, a brand new musical at the Dallas…
It’s a rare opportunity to see two of the smartest artists working in Dallas in the same venue. Which is why you’ll want to head to the Goss Michael Foundation’s exhibition openings from 6-8 p.m. Friday. Jesse Morgan Barnett mines his own life to create abstract sculptural installations. He fills…
To the best of my knowledge, the performers in Shaping Sound don’t actually make noise. They dance. It’s all about the choreorgaphy for this national touring production created by Travis Wall, Nick Lazzarini, Teddy Forance and Kyle Robinson. They bring a mash-up of styles, rhythms and moves that you might…
Acts of terrorism happen every day. But here in America, they often seem far away, perpetrated by people and cultures foreign to us. Not so in Scott Blackwood’s newest novel, See How Small. It tells the story of a random act of violence that devastates the residents of a small…
There’s an ever-shrinking number of us in the world who genuinely love Shakespeare. We love to read the Bard and will see almost any play or adaptation. And though I’d never refer to myself as a purist, I can certainly respect the undertaking of Shakespeare Dallas to stage every single…
