Earlie Hudnall, JR at PDNB — February 21, 5-8 p.m. 1202 Dragon St. Ste. 103 Dallas, TX 75207.
Earlie Hudnall took up photography while serving in the Vietnam War. Returning stateside, he began photographing neighborhoods in Houston as part of the Model Cities Program, funded through Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty initiative. Throughout his career, Hudnall has remained faithful to documentary photography, creating images that recall Gordon Parks and Charles Burnett alike. Some are quickly posed, others more candid, but they all manage to survey a wide-range of human experience, resonating with a scarcely concealed social and political subtext, each image tremoring with the rawness of life and a sense of individuality and personal dignity.
Stephen Lapthisophon, Jeff Gibbons, and Vincent Ramos at Conduit Gallery — February 21, 6-8 p.m. 1626 Hi Line Ste. C Dallas, TX 75207.
This is a bit of a Daniel-san, Mr. Miyagi pairing as Jeff Gibbons studied with Stephen Laphisophon at the University of Texas at Arlington. Laphisophon is somewhat of a godfather figure to a lot of the artists around town, many of whom you can recognize by a kind of conceptually grounded practice that is driven by deep references or invisible allusions. For his own part, Gibbons is best when he leverages humor and absurdist processes, like working an orange with a work clamp, re-jiggering cameras and televisions into self-canceling loops, or twisting a string of pasta to create a sculpture that functions as a kind of Platonic revision. Laphisophon is still the master, though, and this latest body of work promises more iterations on improvisation — gestural abstractions filtered through coffee grinds, animal fats, and buried literary reference. Los Angeles-based artist Vincent Ramos shows in the project room.
Private Eyes | Grey Sunsets at Circuit 12 Contemporary — February 21, 6-10 p.m. 1130 Dragon St. Ste. 150 Dallas, TX 75207.
Circuit 12 has emerged as the king of the gallery group shows, which is somewhat surprising considering it is not exactly the largest gallery on the Dragon St. strip. Still, proprietor Dustin Orlando knows how to cull together a range of work that feels breezy and loose, with the least common denominator always revolving around something resembling a good time. No wonder the gallery has become art clique party central. The latest group show at Circuit 12 sees works by David Mramor, Zin Helena Song, Esther Ruiz, Cameron Welch, Will Hutnick, Thomas Spoerndle, Mandy Lyn Perez, and Graham Caldwell.
Kevin Todora: New Photographic Work at Erin Cluley Gallery –– February 21, 6-8 p.m. 414 Fabrication St. Dallas, TX 75212.
I’m sitting here, scratching my head, trying to figure out when was the last time I saw work by Kevin Todora. Was it really way way back in 2013 at the Dallas Contemporary? That may not seem like a long time ago, but in the years leading up, Todora was showing all the time, at Oliver Francis, in the Modern Ruin exhibits. Now Erin Cluley, formerly of the Dallas Contemporary, has scooped him up for her new gallery. I’m glad Cluley is going to put Todora back in rotation, and I’m very interested in seeing where the artist has taken his work in the last few years. One of the more interesting aspects of Todora’s practice is his continual rethinking and re-foiling of his approach to his primary medium, photography.
Kristina Paabus: in for it at The Safe Room at The Texas Theatre — February 21, 6-9 p.m. 231 W. Jefferson Blvd. Dallas, TX 75208.
Safe Room curator Lauren Gray may be one of the most under-appreciated figures in Dallas art. Working with minimal confines and what I’m assuming is a minuscule budget, over the last few months the Safe Room has strung together a number of fantastic shows. It shouldn’t be that surprising. Gray co-founded And/Or Gallery with Paul Slocum, a gallery which, if Darryl Ratcliff insists on his inane power rankings and decides to get all historical with his list, would have to sit up in the top five with places like Janie Lee. Gray does more with less, typically a good combination.
This week she brings Kristina Paabus to town in an exhibition organized by Chicago-based curator Lauren Fulton. Paabus makes work that deals with systems and meaning — how things like language, architecture, and beliefs function as organizational tools, expressing meaning and revealing the material, linguistic, or psychological scaffolding that is, in her words, the “anatomy of comprehension.” I like that phrase, but what does it look like? Working with drawings, prints, and sculpture, Paabus makes grids, geometric shapes, furniture renderings, and amorphous forms that feed on repetition and layering, referencing molecular chemistry, microbiology and painterly abstraction alike.
Here are all the openings:
WEDNESDAY
Visiting Artist Lecture Series: Regine Basha at O’Donnell Hall, SMU — February 18, 6:30 p.m. 6101 Bishop Dallas, TX 75205.
THURSDAY
Gypset Series: Decorazon Gallery Art Partnership with the Belmont Hotel Dallas — February 19, 6-9 p.m. 901 Fort Worth Ave. Dallas, TX 75208.
SATURDAY
Earlie Hudnall, JR at PDNB — February 21, 5-8 p.m. 1202 Dragon St. Ste. 103 Dallas, TX 75207.
Dreamscapes / Art Opening at Wall Gallery — February 21, 5-8 p.m. 1529 Dragon St. Dallas, TX 75207.
The works of Jan Ayers Friedman Pat Haverfield at Modartists Gallery – February 21, 5-8 p.m. 2514 Converse Dallas, TX 75207.
Midtown ARTwalk at Gallery at MIDTOWN — February 21, 6-10 p.m. 13331 Preston Rd. Dallas, TX 75240.
Jeff Kellar: Paintings and Sculptures at William Campbell Contemporary Art — February 21, 6-8 p.m. 4935 Byers Ave. Fort Worth, TX 76107.
Private Eyes | Grey Sunsets at Circuit 12 Contemporary — February 21, 6-10 p.m. 1130 Dragon St. Ste. 150 Dallas, TX 75207.
Dornith Doherty: Exchange | Kim Cadmus Owens: Purposely Distorted for Clarity at Holly Johnson Gallery — February 21, 6-8 p.m. 1845 Levee St. #100 Dallas, TX 75207.
Gail Peter Borden: Faceted Line at Galleri Urbane Marfa + Dallas — February 21, 6-8:30 p.m. 2277 Monitor St. Dallas, TX 75207.
Stephen Lapthisophon, Jeff Gibbons, and Vincent Ramos at Conduit Gallery — February 21, 6-8 p.m. 1626 Hi Line Ste. C Dallas, TX 75207.
Ambassadors: New work by Anna Elise Johnson & Charlotte Smith at Cris Worley Fine Arts — February 21, 6-8 p.m. 1845 Levee St. #110 Dallas, TX 75207.
Kevin Todora: New Photographic Work at Erin Cluley Gallery — February 21, 6-8 p.m. 414 Fabrication St. Dallas, TX 75212.
Kristina Paabus: in for it at The Safe Room at The Texas Theatre — February 21, 6-9 p.m. 231 W. Jefferson Blvd. Dallas, TX 75208.
In the Room We Discovered An-Other in the Corner at Beefhaus — February 21, 7-8:30 p.m. 885 Exposition Ave. Dallas, TX 75226.
Mnemosyne at LuminArte Gallery — February 21, 7-10 p.m. 1727 E. Levee St. Dallas, TX 75207.
SUNDAY
El Sicario at Webb Gallery — February 22, 4-7 p.m. 209 W. Franklin St. Waxahachie, TX 75165.
