FDMAGZ011996-029_Article_001_Text_001INDING THE RIGHT ART GALLERY IS AN art, not a science. Whether you are a fan of William Wegman’s dog photos, adore soft Impressionist scenes, or have a yen for Jackson Pollock’s paint-splattered oddities, there’s a painting or sculpture out there with your name on it.
CONDUIT GALLERY
COCOONED ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF the 3 200 Main Street building in Deep Ellum, Conduit Gallery gets respect, but no walk-in traffic. A few art lovers did wander in years ago when director Nancy Whitenack rented storefront space on Elm Street, but now Conduit is a destination spot with a New York-loft feel.
The 24 artists Whitenack represents are all talented, but special kudos to Patrick Faulhaber who created a dance hall out of the gallery’s inflexible, windowless space for his show last year. Juke box music, disco lighting, and dancing figures painted on the white plaster walls made his miniature detailed paintings that much more jewel-like.
The heart of the gallery is the back office, where light streams in from Main Street and where Whitenack works as hard as any mother for her gallery artists. Art hangs, leans against the walls, stacks up in racks and drawers. Art lovers will want to see it all.
Whitenack gushes over her artists like Sherry Owens, who makes magical forms out of crepe myrtle branches; James Sullivan, head of the SMU art department; and painter Tim Orr, recent winner of the Bronze Prize at the 1995 Osaka Triennale. She’s direct, dedicated, and unstoppable when spreading the word about Texas art. A January show spotlighting five to six gallery artists promises to offer good art and great discussion.
3200 Main St., 214-939-0064. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.- 5 p.m.
BARRY WHISTLER GALLERY
Barry Whistler just celebrated 10 years with a gallery of his own, but his involvement in the Dallas art scene goes back to the 70s.
Whistler was at Laura Carpenter’s side when her Delahunty Gallery was Dallas1 lifeline to the contemporary art world. When Carpenter moved on to New York, then to Santa Fe, Whisder took over the space as his own.
He has since moved and shuffled the art a few times but remains in Deep Ellum, Dallas’ best effort to recreate New York’s Soho, complete with galleries, graffiti, lofts, and lin-guine.
The present Whisder Gallery space is not beguiling, but Barry, honest, sincere, and soft-spoken, is. You want to buy his artists’ work. The gallery shows an eclectic group such as Ann Stautberg, who hand paints 5-foot-high, black-and-white photographs, Dennis Blagg, whose landscape paintings calm our lives, Clyde Council the Louisiana artist who creates sculpture and drawings with a spiritual energy that defies her 94 years, and the zany Art Guys from Houston, whose wooden sculptures/toys can convince an office full of non-believers that art can be fun.
A reception desk, two squarish white walled rooms, open racks and shelves of sculpture, paintings, and prints, a no-nonsense desk, and a bulletin board of what’s happening in the art world reconfirm a no-frills, but warm approach to showing and selling.
Two chairs and a corner table strewn with catalogues, newsletters, and magazines invite the weary gallery-goers to sit awhile, A box containing children’s toys tells us that Barry remembers taking his once small son on art excursions and adds a personal touch.
Focusing mainly on Texas talent, the gallery will show prints by Michael Ray Charles and Lorraine Tady in January, as well as mixed-media objects by Bill Davenport. Ask to see the ceramic table-top pieces by Madhvi Subrahmanian. Their muted colors and ancient shapes suggest hidden stories of times and places long ago.
Rely on The Baity Whistler Gallery to mount eclectic and sensitive shows, which often require you to linger and look and learn.
2909B Canton St., 214-939-0242. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 12 p.m.-5 p.m. or by appointment.
STATE THOMAS GALLERY
OPENINGS AT THIS YEAR-OLD GALLERY, DI-rected by Cynthia Mulcahy, are wine and cheese and dip affairs that often seem to benefit a nonprofit-DIFFA, Preservation Dallas, or The McKinney Avenue Trolley, for which Mulcahy is a volunteer driver.
A mostly single, 30-something crowd squeezes onto the back patio, front porch, and tiny rooms of the 19th-century Victorian house-turned-gallery.
The shows tend to be eclectic, varying from found-object assemblages by Tracy Hicks and David McManaway, to pre-Columbian artifacts, to Brian Bosworth’s whimsical, colorful sculptures. The old house doesn’t show off most work to its best advantage, but the irregularly shaped rooms, complete with stone fireplaces and antique moldings, are works of art themselves. It’s a joyous relief not to see another gallery with white walls, no history, and no personality.
Mulcahy’s aware that her space has personality; she rents it out for private social functions. The art on the walls adds ambiance, and the rental fees add income.
You can usually find her at her oversized antique desk, while the addicting scent from a burning vanilla candle permeates the air. She may just as likely be arranging a trip to Peru for clients as selling them art, since she also doubles as a travel agent. Art is long, but the bills keep coming, and a girl has got to make a living,
2613 Thomas Ave., 214-220-2024. Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Saturday, 12p.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, by appointment only.
VALLEY HOUSE GALLERY
VISITING THIS GALLERY IN FAR NORTH DAL-las is like spending a day in the country with your well-traveled, well-read relatives. The gallery is surrounded by 4 1/2 acres of landscaped greenery, ponds, and sculpture. The welcome remains just as warm today as it was in 1954 when Valley House first opened in this location and when visitors probably did have to pack a picnic lunch.
Director Kevin and curator Cheryl Vogel, son and daughter-in-law of patriarch painter and gallery founder Don Vogel, will enthusiastically boast about the 20 contemporary artists they represent, as well as special exhibitions, such as the winter show of “Illuminated Manuscript Leaves.” They’ll share resumes and anecdotes, and point out criteria for quality. And at openings, Cheryl shares her talent for cooking by serving food to gallery guests.
It’s quality that binds the gallery’s diverse group of artists together. Photographer David Gibson creates moody and magical black-and-white landscapes, David Everett carves and paints fanciful moveable wooden sculptures, painters Barnaby Fitzgerald, Lou Ann Barrow, and the others all work in unique styles, and each has developed a loyal following.
Accept Cheryl’s invitation to wander through the gardens and the gallery’s impressive library, where Kevin will be working undisturbed (sadly, gallery drop-ins in Dallas are all too rare), He will probably be editing an exhibit catalogue or planning for the New-York, Chicago, or Miami art fairs, where Valley House rents booths each year to show off its artists. This gallery, the only Dallas member of the Art Dealers Association of America, may be 40 now, but it has not grown old and tired.
6616 Spring Valley Rd., 214-239-2441 Hours: Monday-Saturday, 10a.m.-5 p.m.
CRAIGHEAD-GREEN GALLERY
The owners of this three-year-old gal-lery know they’re not No. 1 or No. 2. So they try harder, and they’re learning as they’re earning their staying power, Once a spot for purely decorator art, the installations have become riskier and offer an occasional real find like Austin artist James Scott Ogden, one of 23 artists shown in their “New Texas Talent” show last June.
Owners Steve Green, an attorney with enthusiasm for art, and Kenneth Craighead, an interior designer, are avid collectors of contemporary art. But Craighead doesn’t sell art just to match the sofa. He puts in Realtors’ hours, matching up painting and buyer.
The gallery’s mission is also that of a matchmaker, introducing emerging contemporary artists to Dallas. The space invites you to walk in, linger on the couches, and leaf through the art materials on the coffee table. There are nooks to wander in, and the work area is invitingly glassed-in, but out of the way.
The energy is there. It’s in the staff. It’s in the space, and it’s in the Cedar Springs Road/ Maple Avenue location. It may not yet consistently be in the art, but Craighead-Green is a gallery to watch as it develops an audience which promises to be there as the owners take chances and unearth fresh art in the area studios. Promising Picassos should send slides and resumes ASAP.
2404 Cedar Springs Rd., 214-855-0779. Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 10 Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
FLORENCE ART GALLERY
Now here’s a place where Tammy Fa Baker would feel at home. The an reminds you of women who wear too much make-up and too many colors. Too much sun yellow. Too much cotton-candy pink.
Oversized Chinese ceramic vases are mixed with a table top bronze buffalo, a 5-inch-tall acrylic fish, a Salvador Dali menorah, and lots of Simbari paintings.
Some might say the gallery lacks sophistication and quality control, but Estelle Shwiff, who has owned Florence since the mid-70s, and her co-worker and daughter-in-law Janice Meyers don’t care what people think. They’re proud of what they’ve done. They’re running a business, and they’re making money. Most of die sales are from Sbwiffs brainchild of seven years ago, the Art Mart at the Florence Art Gallery, a secondary market for art.
Shwiff takes unloved pieces, frequently from the biggest homes in Highland Park and once booming downtown businesses on consignment. She generally moves them quickly, some for under consignment, some tor under $50, others for several thousand dollars. The buyers get a bargain, die sellers get a percentage, and Shwiff makes money-a rarity in the gallery business.
Regulars, I’m told, check out the secondary market inventory almost once a week, and a gallery in Aspen, Colo, bought two Nieto works over the phone. You can bet they sold them there for a lot more.
The Florence Art Gallery is the Terry Costa outlet of the art world. Those addicted to cotton candy, sugar, and empty calories will find it like a well-stocked candy store. Others will feel they’ve wandered into a cheap motel in a ’70s time warp.
2500 Cedar Springs Rd., 214-754-7070. Hours: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; or by appointment.
TURNER BYRNE & RUNYON
A GLASS AND STONE, NO-NONSENSE FACADE greets you at this Deep Ellum gallery. Go with a friend to give you self-assurance or talk yourself into pushing through the intimidating double glass doors alone, because the art is consistently, reliably good.
The space is sparse. No chairs on which to relax and reflect, and the list of works on display, which I had to request, offers no prices, But owner Kenneth Turner is eager to elaborate on the work, share catalogues, and furnish folders of reading material. This serious classroom approach seems to work.
“The focus of the gallery is to show good art,” says Chris Byrne. He and Turner met eight years ago when they were students at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and as a team they have been successful in showcasing important contemporary artists with a global reach.
Working with Annegreth Nill, the former curator of contemporary art at the Dallas Museum of Art, the gallery placed two of its artists in the Museum s collection: Ian Davenport from London and Richmond Burton from New York. The Burton show ($8,000-$28,000) sold out of the gallery two weeks after it opened in the fall.
If you’re looking for the names in the news like Peter Saul and Ross Bleckner, this is the place. Here’s where you’ll find art with good references looking for homes with good references. A group show planned for this winter will save us a trip to New York.
2642 Elm St., 214-653-1130. Hours: Monday-Saturday, 10a.m.-6p.m.
PHOTOGRAPHS DO NOT BEND
This gallery with the catchy name may be on the sleepy side of Routh Street, but it’s in the center of the art scene. A small wooden house amidst trees and grass welcomes the serious collector or casual visitor. A potted plant on the porch, comfortable chairs, art periodicals, and an open library invite browsing, borrowing, and buying. At last, a gallery that says, “Stay a while and visit.”
Owners Missy and Burt Finger (a photographer himself in the 1970s) have collected and dealt in photographs for the past five years. They opened the gallery only last spring and show no fear in personalizing the space and the focus: “Collectible contemporary cutting edge photography, with an emphasis on Latin American work.”
Soft Mexican-baroque music in the background, Missy’s colored glass collection, and a carpeted floor (a relief from the hard wood or usual concrete chic of gallery floors) set the tone.
In only five months, the Fingers have introduced Dallas to exciting emerging artists like Peruvian Lorry Salcedo and the works of photography heavyweights like Joel-Peter Witkin, Jack Delano, and Luis Gonzalez Palma. A winter show will feature the platinum prints and haunting memory boxes of Dallas artist Michael Rkker. Expect Photographs Do Not Bend to become a major player in the Dallas art scene.
3115 RouthSt., 214-969-1852. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; or by appointment.
EDITH BAKER GALLERY
THE OWNER OF THIS ERENNIALLY INTEREST-ing space has been in the gallery business for more than 20 years, an amazing feat in this or any other city. Originally in the business of selling editioned prints in North Dallas, Baker is now in a high-profile Uptown location near the Crescent. Very supportive of local causes and contemporary Texas art (not cowboys and horses), Baker represents about 20 artists, mostly from the Dallas area and most with a strong narrative bent.
The open inventory space and moveable interior gallery wall help create new adventures for regular gallery-goers, A small niche for framing creates a cash flow for the gallery and works well to aid art buyers in picturing what art will look like at home.
The works of local talents Carol Wilder, Tom Pribyl, and Denise Brown stand out, This month, the paintings of Dan Blagg will join the gallery for the first time in a group exhibition.
The desk at the gallery’s entrance is laden with fliers promoting area art activities; EASL (Emergency Artists’ Support League) coloring books; and a basket of hard candies. Baker, who was a recognized sculptor, and co-director Nancy Cohen are eager to talk and teach. And if you don’t find something you can’t live without, Stanley Korshak is across die street.
2404 Cedar Springs Rd., 214-855-5101. Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
GERALD PETERS GALLERY
The white floors here usually need re-painting after William Wegman’s show of dog photos. The gallery then is filled white wall-to-white wall with dog lovers, children, and art collectors. The dogs, rest assured, wait outside.
Seriously, all Gerald Peters openings attract a crowd. Serious buyers tend to stop in before or after, when the space is empty and the art is the only voice. And the art at G.P. generally speaks softly. No couch-matching cobalt blue abstractions or limidess editioned blue-bonnet prints. Artists from a carefully curat -ed stable take their turns in uncluttered installations of one-person shows.
Showing regional, national, and international contemporary art stars like painter Alex Katz, glass artist Dale Chihuly, native sons Davis Bates (who has a spring show planned) and James Suris, G.P. has cornered the market on the icons of the area, the stars of New York, and an occasional emerging talent, Recent work of Houston artist Annette Lawrence will be shown in January. This is where you’ll find the fete set, where the art is hot and the space is cool
2913 Fairmount St., 214-969-9410. Hours: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Saturday, 12 p.m.-5p.m.
