My readers know that I am an antiques and art enthusiast, and celebrate the opportunity to experience meaningful art in my own home town. According to its website, “The Dallas Contemporary is a non-collecting art museum, presenting new and challenging ideas from regional, national and international artists. The institution is committed to engaging the public through exhibitions, lectures, educational programs and events.”  Truly, a must visit gallery in Dallas.

Patricia Meadows founded Dallas Contemporary, originally known as the D’Art Visual Arts Center, in 1978. Originally, the museum hosted annual exhibitions of artwork created by its members and offered rental exhibition space to emerging artists. The museum evolved over the next few years to include exhibitions by nonmember artists from various regions around Texas.  Today, Dallas Contemporary, a must visit gallery, is an art hall, a welcoming exhibition site for art of the moment. As a non-collecting institution, the museum commissions the creation of new artwork by emerging artists from all walks of life.

CURRENT EXHIBIT:  Eric Fischl:  If Art Could Talk

April 12-August 26, 2018

According to the Dallas Contemporary web site, “Fischl was born in 1948 in New York City. He currently lives and works in Sag Harbor, New York. His paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints have been the subject of numerous solo and major group exhibitions and his work is represented in many museums, as well as prestigious private and corporate collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.”

” ‘If Art Could Talk’ is the first large-scale thematic exhibition of Eric Fischl’s paintings focusing on art works in situ. From South Pacific souvenirs to Andy Warhol paintings, Fischl has positioned art within his compositions as a driving narrative force. Like a film director, Fischl composes his paintings carefully to create a compelling narrative. At first glance, his works seem to be decisive moments in a larger storyline, captured and frozen, but the surrounding story remains elusive to the viewer.”

“From the beginning of the 1980s, Eric Fischl established a renewed interest in painting with his blending of film and photography based decisive moments that incorporated awkward or surreal scenes set in bourgeois suburban situations. The hallucinogenic depictions probed beneath cheerful relationships to discover violence, abuse, corruption, and perversion. The voyeuristic and psychoanalytic themes create instant reactions from viewers.”

“Fischl has always been a keen observer of the relationships between people, and between people and their surroundings. These paintings demonstrate the artist’s observation of body language and the small details that reflect social relationships, particularly in the heady environment of the art fair, with its charged atmosphere of money and taste, financial, and cultural capital. The paintings in If Art Could Talk are sharp social satire as much as they are a loving tribute to the world the artist knows best: the international art scene.”

CURRENT EXHIBIT:  Harry Nuriev:  6 Fears

April 12-August 26, 2018

“Playing with divergent visual directions in the installation, Nuriev positioned tire swans throughout the gallery. These swans, inspired by Soviet lawn kitsch, have been repurposed in quantity to create a new and contemporary Eastern European design language. ”

CURRENT EXHIBIT:  Sara Rahbar:  Carry me home

April 12-August 26, 2018

“Carry me home reflects upon the relationship between self and Other as well as the socio-political tensions present in nationalism’s relationship to violence. The exhibition brings together works that express the range of Rahbar’s practice from cast sculpture to constructions of accumulated objects and textile works. ”

A must visit gallery, the Dallas Contemporary offers many special events, ranging from conversations with the artists, life drawing sessions, and a summer institute for young artists.

The Dallas Contemporary is located in the Dallas Design District.  Open Tuesday-Saturday 11:00-6:00, and Sundays 12:00-5:00.  Closed on Mondays.  And FREE!

Get yourself down there people!  I’d love to meet you there!!!

Interested in other places to experience art in Dallas?  Click here!