Local artist Mark Shane Nelson is a bit of a rock star. And that's not just because he created the cover art for fellow Dallasites and indie nostalgia-pop darlings The Happy Bullets' Hydropanic at the Natatorium. Nelson's work is musical in its own right, mixing brilliant colors and subjects together in unexpected ways that keeps viewers drawn in and interested from one piece to the next--the way an album should from song to song. Over the years his style has gradually mutated from his beginnings in drawing and boxcar graffiti to more studied, yet accessible, examinations of relationships--between both the living and the inanimate. The Magnolia Gallery, located inside Landmark's Magnolia Theatre in West Village, offers a peek at Nelson's fantastical works (in ink, watercolor and gouache on paper) during business hours daily through January 18. Visit markshanenelson.com and magnoliagallerydallas.com.
Dec. 23-Jan. 18, 2010