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Visual Arts

This Week’s Visual Art, Sept. 5-8: Pairing Picks for the First Big Fall Art Weekend

If you’re curious about all the art happening in Dallas this weekend and are having trouble figuring out what to see, we've created a few itineraries, pairing shows that might resonate with each other.
By Peter Simek |
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This weekend brings a deluge of art events as the fall season kicks off. If you’re curious about all the art happening in Dallas this weekend and are having trouble figuring out what to see, we’ve created a few itineraries, pairing shows that might resonate with each other. For some, the juxtaposition of two different art shows makes sense, for others, the connections between the work may be more tenuous. The thought is that by looking at some of this weekend’s art in light of other art on view this weekend might open up some of the work, either by drawing out unseen similarities or noting dissimilarities.

Crossing the Line by Anthony K Giannini at Oliver Frances Gallery (Friday, 7-10 p.m.) / Matt Rich at Holly Johnson (Saturday, 6-8 p.m.)

Anthony Giannini’s paintings are rich and hot, action-packed and disorienting. They take shape as a unmitigated flow of data and imagery formed by the appropriation of photographs, gestural mark making, and a conflation of painting, printing, and collage techniques. The resulting compositions build a visual link between art historical touchstones (Robert Rauchenberg, James Rosenquist, and Sigmar Polke) and more contemporary thematic considerations of media overload and sensory trauma. They seem to stew in aesthetic and political tension, while letting off something both haunting and seductive amidst the visual feedback.

Despite their visual dissimilarity, Matt Rich’s paintings, like Giannini, are products of cutting, collaging, layering, and assembling. His vibrant, kaleidoscopic pieces pick-up on color field painting and early abstraction, covering paper with paint and arranged into geometric configurations that play with the tension between the flatness of the surface and the illusion of depth. And though there may not seem to be an intuitive link between Rich’s and Giannini’s work, but what appears captivating about both artists is how their highly studied strategies belie accidental moments of tenderness or surprise.

 

William Eggleston: His Circle and Beyond at PDNB (Saturday, 5-8 p.m.) / Consuming (Interests) by Debora Hunter at Pollock Gallery (Friday, 5-8 p.m)

In our age of Pinterest and Instagram, you might miss one of William Eggleston’s photos if it just flowed by you in the stream of daily image consumption. That’s more of a reflection of Eggleston’s influence on photography than any statement about the ubiquity or indistinct quality of his art. Beginning in the late 1960s, the Memphis native took his love of Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson and married the two to color, forging a style defined by both candid, yet formally considered compositions and an eye for finding scenes which appear to transmit meaning about people both present and absent from his frame. The use of color contributes to resonating aura of his work, emphasizing spatial texture or palpable loneliness.

The PDNB exhibition that opens this weekend pairs Eggleston’s work with some of his most inspired protégés, people like Birney Imes, Stephen Shore, David Graham, William Greiner, Bill Owens, Peter Brown, Neal Slavin, and William Christenberry. They all share Eggleston’s interest not only in color photography, but in finding abandoned spaces haunted by the feeling of life and the passing of time.

Debora Hunter continues this project with her more recent photographs on view at SMU’s Pollock Gallery. One interesting element to compare between these two photography shows is the way evolving technologies in photographic production affect the aesthetics of the medium. In her photos, Hunter searches for similar scenes of absence and presence – abandoned lots, vacant gas stations – and pays particular attention to the way the geometric qualities of the built environment collide with the organic forms of the natural landscapes they interrupt. The results can sometimes provoke associations with artists like Ed Rusche and Donald Judd (as well as stills from Breaking Bad), and they resonate with a political subtext, use and disuse in consumerist society.

 

Shop Constructions and Drawings from The Hill by James Magee at Kirk Hopper (Friday, 6:30-8:30 p.m.) / Sphere by Stephen Lapthisophon at Conduit (Saturday, 6-8 p.m.)

Here are two elders of the Texas art scene, James Magee and Stephen Lapthisophon, one whose hermit-like existence in the barren West Texas landscape was documented in a 2010 Nasher Exhibition Revelation: The Art of James Magee, and another whose decidably more sociable presence in the Dallas art scene is marked by the near ubiquitous presence of his students in local galleries and art spaces. I won’t force the comparison of these two artists too ardently, but will rather merely point out at that when perusing the examples of their work from these two exhibitions online, I noticed a surprising confluence of form: abstract works comprised of graphic and gestural marks, mixing of organic and synthetic materials, and a similar sense of improvisation and nonchalance.

Those formal comparisons are interesting to me because the conceptual sources of the two artist’s work are as divergent as their lifestyles. Magee’s pieces are part of an ongoing series of studies devoted to mapping out the construction his life’s work, a massive art complex in West Texas called, simply, The Hill. Lapthisophon’s works are part of a exploration of the mechanics of expression, of how visual and textual material construct and deconstruct systems of thought, expression, and memory. Maybe those associations will fall apart when viewing the work in person, but that’s why you need to go out and see it.

 

Moving Pictures at Brand 10 (Saturday, 1-9 p.m.) / Ex. 11 at Brazos Gallery (Friday, 6-8 p.m.)

If you’re looking to get a quick snapshot of some of the most interesting artists living and working in Dallas today, two exhibitions this weekend – one in Fort Worth and one in Richardson – offer nearly two dozen artists in one swipe. Ex. 11 at Richland College’s Brazos Gallery focuses on painting, and it is an event presented in conjunction with The Texas Biennial. Here we have local mainstays like Lapthisophon, Ludwig Schwarz, and Jeff Zilm, alongside some emerging names, like Francisco Moreno and Lucy Kirkrman. At Fort Worth’s Brand 10 and x Art Spaces, locally-dwelling artists like Frances Bagley, Tim Best, and Rebecca Carter, show video work with Austin-based Wura-Natasha Ogunji, New Orleans’ Nina Schwanse, Houston’s Hillerbrand + Magsamen, and others.

 

Here are all the openings:

THURSDAY

“Next Topic: Creative Computation” at CentralTrak – September 5: 7 p.m. 800 Exposition Ave., Dallas, TX 75226.

“Hans Molzberger, Rubin’s Colors” at Tarrent County College – September 5: 6-8 p.m. 5301 Campus Dr., Fort Worth, TX 76133.

“Chaos” by Didier Legros and Timothy Oulton, at Gallerie Noir – September 5: 6-8 p.m. 1525 Dragon Street, Dallas, Tx 75207.

FRIDAY

“Crossing the Line” by Anthony K. Giannini at Oliver Francis Gallery – September 6: 7-10 p.m. 209 S. Peak St. Dallas, TX 75226.

Ex. 11 at Brazos Gallery at Richland College – September 6: 6-8 p.m. Crockett Hall, C164. 12800 Abrams Rd. Dallas, TX 75243.

“Consuming (Interests)” by Debora Hunter at Pollock Gallery – September 6: 5-8 p.m. 3140 Dyer St. Dallas, TX 75205.

“Shop Constructions and Drawings from The Hill” by James Magee, at the Kirk Hopper Fine Art – September 6: 6:30-8:30 p.m. 3008 Commerce Street, Dallas, Tx, 75226.

“Materiality and Identity” by Garth Amundson & Pierre Gour; Paho Mann at The Gallery at UTA – September 6: 5:30-8 p.m. Fine Art Building, room 169, at 502 S. Cooper Street, Arlington, TX.

“Objects Of Desire III” by fifteen artists presenting furniture and lighting, at ILLUME Gallerie – September 6: 6-10 p.m. 4123 Cedar Springs, Suite 107, Dallas, Tx 75219.

SATURDAY

“William Eggleston: His Circle and Beyond” at PDNB Gallery – September 7: 5-8 p.m. 1202 Dragon Street, Ste. 103 Dallas, Texas  75207

“Moving Picktures” at Brand 10 – Septeber 7: 1-9 p.m. 3418 West 7th St. Fort Worth, Texas, 76107.

Members Show at 500x – September 7: 7-10 p.m. 500 Exposition Ave., Dallas, TX 75226.

“September Song” by Benito Huerta at William Campbell Contemporary Art – September 7: 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. 4935 Byers Ave. Fort Worth, TX 76107.

Al Souza: Recent Works; Stephen Lapthisophon: Sphere: Sharka Hyland: Swann’s Way at Conduit Gallery – September 7: 6-8 p.m. 1626 C Hi Line Dr. Dallas, TX 75207.

“Art: In Living Color” at Galleri Urbane – September 7: 6-9 p.m. 2277 Monitor St. Dallas, TX 75207.

“Tripper” at Circuit 12 Comtemporary – September 7: 6-10 p.m. 1130 Dragon St., Suite 150 Dallas, TX 75207

“He Sells Seashells” by Rusty Scruby, at the Cris Worley Fine Arts – September 7: 6-8 p.m. 1415 Slocum Street, # 104, Dallas, Tx 75207.

“The Sweetest Taboo” by Angela Fraleigh, Gabriel Martienz, Colette Copeland, and Libby Rowe, at the RED ARROW Contempory – September 7: 6-9 p.m. 1130 Dragon Street, # 110, Dallas, Tx 75207.

“MATT RICH” at the Holly Johnson Gallery – September 7: 6-8 p.m. 1411 Dragon Street, Dallas, Tx 75207.

“New Work by Michael Blair and Angel Fernandez” by Michael Blair and Angel Fernandez, at the Cohn Drennan Contemporary – September 7: 6-8 p.m. 1107 Dragon Street, Dallas, Tx 75207.

“Commuter” by Kendall Stallings, “Dimming” by Marci Crawford Harnden, and “Candy Gram” by Marcia Ziegler, at the Craighead Green Gallery – September 7: 5-8 p.m. 1011 Dragon Street, Dallas, Tx 75207.

“CAUSE AND EFFECT” by Midge Lynn, at Gallery 422@TheWorkroom – September 7: 5-8 p.m. 422 Singleton Blvd, Dallas, Tx 75212.

“Outlined” by Matt Devine and Mel DeWees at Laura Rathe Fine Art – September 7: 6-9 p.m. 1130 Dragon Street, Suite 130, Dallas, Tx 75207.

“Terrible Hermosa” at Davis Foundry Gallery – September 7: 6 p.m. 509 W. Davis St. Ste. 100 Dallas, TX 75208.

“Light And Form” by Anne Larsen and John Sexton, at the Sun to Moon Gallery – September 7: 5-8 p.m. 1515 Levee Street, Dallas, Tx 75207.

SUNDAY

“New and Recent Work” by Silvia Thornton and Anne Neal, at the Goodrich Gallery – September 8: 12-2 p.m. First United Methodist Church, 1928 Ross Avenue, Dallas, Tx 75201.

“In the Eye of the Beholder” at the Texas Visual Arts Association – September 8: 2-4 p.m. TVAA Downtown Gallery, Plaza of the Americas, Suite G207, 700 N Pearl, Dallas 75201.

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