David Everett, Sunfishers, 1993, polychromed mahogany, Courtesy of Vallery House Gallery, Dallas
Dallas Art Fair, February 5-7, 2010, Fashion Industry Gallery and Environs
The blog is back, after a lengthier hiatus than originally anticipated. Apologies!
It is not for want of material to write about this season. There has been so much great art in the area all winter. All the World’s a Stage, which will be at the Dallas Museum of Art for another week is a must-see. Jaume Plensa’s exhibition at The Nasher is fantastic and will be discussed in the next blog.
But today, even though the event has come and gone, I wanted to talk about the Dallas Art Fair and the day Art à la Carte spent there.
This is the second year that the city has hosted this Fair. It was wonderful last year. This year there were more galleries, including a strong showing of locals, which was nice. The addition of a few international galleries made it feel like a serious event.
We visited six galleries: Holly Johnson, Conduit and Valley House from Dallas; William Campbell Contemporary Art from Fort Worth; Forum from New York and Jerald Melberg from Charlotte, North Carolina. What a diverse group. The gallerists welcomed us so graciously and each spent a good deal of time talking to us about their stable of artists. I discovered wonderful new artists in each booth.
There was some time to wander through the Fair before lunch. Not too surprisingly, I kept running into people I knew so I didn’t get to see as much as I had hoped. But one highlight was Rachel Hovnanian’s exhibition, Power and Burden of Beauty, from Jason McCoy’s Gallery. While both McCoy and Hovnanian are New York based, Hovnanian grew up in Texas. She is represented by Meredith Long in Houston. Her current body of work delves into the question of what is beauty and what are we willing to buy into to achieve it. An eight foot beauty queen welcomed visitors to the booth. According to Hovnanian, the sculpture’s proportions personify cultural definitions of the perfect body. The work is thoughtful, engaging and aesthetically appealing.
We lunched at the Pyramid Room, at the Fairmont Hotel, where Kenneth Craighead of Craighead-Green Gallery talked to us informally about art fairs, galleries and the art business. It was a wonderful opportunity to have all those questions answered about galleries and the workings of the art world.
The Fairmont was also the site of Art in the District, a satellite to the Dallas Art Fair. The work ranged from experimental to really good. Spread over three rooms, each had a different vibe while all showing local work. One room was artist sponsored and curated, one had smaller galleries and the other had more established galleries. There was definitely some good work to be seen. EASL also had a table set up, giving it the feel of a Dallas art world event. And it seemed as if those not across the street at the Fair were here. I saw tons of old friends and met some new ones. It was really fun.
Finally, on my way home, I popped into the McKInney Avenue Contemporary to see Sedrick Huckaby’s fantastic installation. Four enormous canvases seemingly rippling with quilts hung on each of the four walls. It was like a big warm embrace. By that point, my eyes had taken in as much as they could for one day. It was the perfect ending to a fantastic event. Let’s hope the Fair keeps going and growing.
