One thing is certain: Dallas Contemporary never fails to capture the imagination. It consistently fills its space with sculptures, photography and paintings that are whimsical and push the envelope. As a testament to its success, the museum always draws large crowds of eager revelers on opening nights to see its newest exhibitions. One standout show was Betty Tompkin's Fuck Paintings. The images were censored in the 1970s for lewdness, yet these photorealistic renderings of genitalia mid-coitus lined the walls of the museum. On the other end of the spectrum, Paola Pivi's life-sized technicolor polar bears danced, lounged and posed mischievously, inviting onlookers to pose with them. A recent favorite, Pia Camil, sewed together second-hand T-shirts from Mexican markets to create interactive fabric sculptures the size of parachutes. The shirts' neck holes begged for onlookers to poke their heads through and experience the installation from the other side.
Readers' Pick: Perot Museum of Nature and Science