The McKinney Avenue Contemporary celebrates it's fifteenth year anniversary with a member's show inspired by the number fifteen. The MAC asked members to submit work that incorporated the number fifteen in the work by any means the artist might choose. There is a lot of work in the show this year, and it is always well attended. Also of note, Gail Sachson will be giving an art talk about the membership show on Wednesday, August 12 from 6:30-7:30 PM. She is incredibly knowledgeable about the Dallas art community and beyond.
The opening is this Saturday from 5:30 - 7:30 PM at The MAC.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Symbolism and Turducken
Heyd Fontenot artist talk at Conduit Gallery, Saturday, July 11, 2009
After a brief introduction by Nancy Whitenack, owner of Conduit Gallery, Heyd Fontenot (pronounced hide font-in-o) began taking questions from the audience. The artist’s easy-going attitude kept the conversation light, even when discussing serious subjects. His muttonchops and blue southwestern shirt with white embroidery was an appropriate compliment to his casual delivery. Many aspects of the artist’s life and art were revealed in the dialogue, beginning with his childhood on a farm in Louisiana.
Heyd Fonenot talked about his early rural lifestyle, part of which meant taking care of livestock. Early on Fontenot developed an affinity for the farm animals, especially goats. His bond with goats remains intact today, though in Austin he is far from the rural setting of his youth. The artist pointed to the tarnished reputation of the goat that he had once bonded with, citing the transformation of the god Pan in the pagan world into a demon in the Christian world as an example of how perceptions shift in time. Fontenot discussed the shift as symbolized in his exhibition with a shoulder mounted silver leafed gazelle, transformed with a beard made from a flokoti (Greek rug) into a goat.
Gluttony was pointed to as another aspect of rural Louisiana life, particularly when it came to food. The marvels of the Turducken were discussed at length. For the uninitiated, a Turducken is a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken. I have been told that it originates from royal renaissance cuisine. Today it has a more down-home quality. As Fontenot remarked, “If anything is against nature, it has to be stuffing animals one inside another until you can’t fit anymore.”
Ribbons and plaques mounted on the walls with stars, feather plumes, and mounted animal heads point to a commemoration of rituals past. The artist discussed his devotion to the Roman Catholic Church growing up. Eventually he broke from the church at the age of 22 because of the conflict he felt between Catholicism and his sexual persuasion. The importance of symbolism in the religious relics of his formative years resurfaces in his current work. Portraits on wood panels are assembled as though they are altarpieces and point to the artist’s religious conflict through use of pagan symbols.
There is a lot of figurative work in the show, both painted and drawn. The figures are contra-mannerist with child-like proportions; yet, they maintain the feel of an adult body. Working with friends as models, Fontenot takes photos that he uses later for the finished work. The artist said that the abstracted figures were born of an opposition to portraits of a more academic appearance.
Fontenot began outlining the high points of his artistic career by talking about an early installation at Lawndale Art Center in Houston, Texas, that was important. That show helped him find gallery representation in Houston. A move to Austin, Texas, in the 1980s was also an important step in the artist’s development. Today, Fontenot exhibits across the country, including Art Palace in his adopted home of Austin and Conduit Gallery in Dallas, Texas. Heyd Fontenot’s current installation at Conduit, titled “Get Your Wood On,” consists of work completed within the last 14 months. “Get Your Wood On” closes Saturday, July 18, 2009.
After a brief introduction by Nancy Whitenack, owner of Conduit Gallery, Heyd Fontenot (pronounced hide font-in-o) began taking questions from the audience. The artist’s easy-going attitude kept the conversation light, even when discussing serious subjects. His muttonchops and blue southwestern shirt with white embroidery was an appropriate compliment to his casual delivery. Many aspects of the artist’s life and art were revealed in the dialogue, beginning with his childhood on a farm in Louisiana.
Heyd Fonenot talked about his early rural lifestyle, part of which meant taking care of livestock. Early on Fontenot developed an affinity for the farm animals, especially goats. His bond with goats remains intact today, though in Austin he is far from the rural setting of his youth. The artist pointed to the tarnished reputation of the goat that he had once bonded with, citing the transformation of the god Pan in the pagan world into a demon in the Christian world as an example of how perceptions shift in time. Fontenot discussed the shift as symbolized in his exhibition with a shoulder mounted silver leafed gazelle, transformed with a beard made from a flokoti (Greek rug) into a goat.
Gluttony was pointed to as another aspect of rural Louisiana life, particularly when it came to food. The marvels of the Turducken were discussed at length. For the uninitiated, a Turducken is a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken. I have been told that it originates from royal renaissance cuisine. Today it has a more down-home quality. As Fontenot remarked, “If anything is against nature, it has to be stuffing animals one inside another until you can’t fit anymore.”
Ribbons and plaques mounted on the walls with stars, feather plumes, and mounted animal heads point to a commemoration of rituals past. The artist discussed his devotion to the Roman Catholic Church growing up. Eventually he broke from the church at the age of 22 because of the conflict he felt between Catholicism and his sexual persuasion. The importance of symbolism in the religious relics of his formative years resurfaces in his current work. Portraits on wood panels are assembled as though they are altarpieces and point to the artist’s religious conflict through use of pagan symbols.
There is a lot of figurative work in the show, both painted and drawn. The figures are contra-mannerist with child-like proportions; yet, they maintain the feel of an adult body. Working with friends as models, Fontenot takes photos that he uses later for the finished work. The artist said that the abstracted figures were born of an opposition to portraits of a more academic appearance.
Fontenot began outlining the high points of his artistic career by talking about an early installation at Lawndale Art Center in Houston, Texas, that was important. That show helped him find gallery representation in Houston. A move to Austin, Texas, in the 1980s was also an important step in the artist’s development. Today, Fontenot exhibits across the country, including Art Palace in his adopted home of Austin and Conduit Gallery in Dallas, Texas. Heyd Fontenot’s current installation at Conduit, titled “Get Your Wood On,” consists of work completed within the last 14 months. “Get Your Wood On” closes Saturday, July 18, 2009.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Weekend Wish List
This Thursday the Dallas Museum of Art is hosting an artist talk with Mark Bradford. Featured in the fourth season of Art:21, Bradford creates his work from found posters and found street ephemera in Los Angeles. When complete, his works often look like topographical maps.
Please note that Conduit Gallery's 25th Anniversary celebration is this Saturday from 6-8 PM. Congratulations to Conduit owner and director Nancy Whitenack and assistant director Danette Dufilho on this accomplishment.
Please note that Conduit Gallery's 25th Anniversary celebration is this Saturday from 6-8 PM. Congratulations to Conduit owner and director Nancy Whitenack and assistant director Danette Dufilho on this accomplishment.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Weekend Wish List
Conduit Gallery is hosting an artist talk with Heyd Fontenot on Saturday, July 11 at 3 pm. His show at the gallery titled "Get Your Wood On" is heavy with symbolism and allusions. Hopefully some of his references will be illuminated.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Weekend Wish List
Lots of first Thursday shows tonight on Dragon Street and Bishop Arts in Oak Cliff to kick off this independence weekend. The galleries are deep into poppy summer shows at the moment, so get out there and see some of the great work at Conduit, Holly Johnson Gallery and Barry Whistler to name but a few. Also, the Dallas Museum of Art is open until 9 tonight.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sleep to Dream
Polly Lanning Sparrow's Sleeper at Barry Whistler Gallery
Polly Lanning Sparrow's works in Sleeper are graphically painted panels. Had she hung the works on the wall they would be paintings, but leaning against the wall and sprawled out on the floor they fall into minimalist sculpture territory. There are similarities that can be drawn between these works and those of Ellsworth Kelly or Donald Judd's rhythmic sculptures. They share bright colors, precision and a similar use of space. There is a shared refinement of craft that links these artists.
Painting on panels has rich art historical roots, especially when it comes to religious iconography. Ms. Sparrow's works don't share much visually with icon panel paintings, but like Dan Flavin's spiritual bent using light tube configurations, simplicity lends itself to reverence. The artist's work appears focused on formal concerns, but the title Sleeper is so evocative when placed in a context with icon painting. If this is sleep, are we on the cusp of an awakening?
Blue Configuration, 2009
Red & Blue (diptych), 2009
Red Configuration #2, 2009
Polly Lanning Sparrow's works in Sleeper are graphically painted panels. Had she hung the works on the wall they would be paintings, but leaning against the wall and sprawled out on the floor they fall into minimalist sculpture territory. There are similarities that can be drawn between these works and those of Ellsworth Kelly or Donald Judd's rhythmic sculptures. They share bright colors, precision and a similar use of space. There is a shared refinement of craft that links these artists.
Painting on panels has rich art historical roots, especially when it comes to religious iconography. Ms. Sparrow's works don't share much visually with icon panel paintings, but like Dan Flavin's spiritual bent using light tube configurations, simplicity lends itself to reverence. The artist's work appears focused on formal concerns, but the title Sleeper is so evocative when placed in a context with icon painting. If this is sleep, are we on the cusp of an awakening?
Blue Configuration, 2009
Red & Blue (diptych), 2009
Red Configuration #2, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Ladies First
Femme Fatale with Virginia Fleck, Sharon Louden, Kim Cadmus Owens, Kim Squaglia, and Sarah Walker at Holly Johnson Gallery
This exhibition is the work of five women, all with their own particular approach and vision for art making. Despite the fact that the show is solely women, it's first a group of artists that fit nicely in the oeuvre of work shown at Holly Johnson Gallery.
Dallas' Kim Cadmus Owens is the only local in the show, and the most exciting with paintings that make roadside scenes look as though they have been digitally unraveled. Breaking apart signage into a streak of colors overlapped with something like yellow channel artifacts from Photoshop, the work was at once traditional painting and contemporary with technological flair.
The plastic bags that were the basis for Viginia Fleck's art didn't transcend their origins, but have an intrinsic value in re-use of materials. The mandala is used for it's meditative and healing properties in the east, and the argument could be made that art from one person's promotional products (that would end up in a landfill) has a healing effect on the environment.
The definition of a femme fatale is an attractive and seductive woman, especially one who will ultimately bring disaster to a man who becomes involved with her. Significantly less ominous than that, this is definitely a group of women artists with a plan.
Kim Cadmus Owens
Virginia Fleck
This exhibition is the work of five women, all with their own particular approach and vision for art making. Despite the fact that the show is solely women, it's first a group of artists that fit nicely in the oeuvre of work shown at Holly Johnson Gallery.
Dallas' Kim Cadmus Owens is the only local in the show, and the most exciting with paintings that make roadside scenes look as though they have been digitally unraveled. Breaking apart signage into a streak of colors overlapped with something like yellow channel artifacts from Photoshop, the work was at once traditional painting and contemporary with technological flair.
The plastic bags that were the basis for Viginia Fleck's art didn't transcend their origins, but have an intrinsic value in re-use of materials. The mandala is used for it's meditative and healing properties in the east, and the argument could be made that art from one person's promotional products (that would end up in a landfill) has a healing effect on the environment.
The definition of a femme fatale is an attractive and seductive woman, especially one who will ultimately bring disaster to a man who becomes involved with her. Significantly less ominous than that, this is definitely a group of women artists with a plan.
Kim Cadmus Owens
Virginia Fleck
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