Review: Bon Appétit!
A presentation of Dallas Opera at the Dallas Farmer’s Market Demonstration Kitchen February 9, 2013 At the heart of Bon Appétit are affection, admiration, and respect. The signature sign-off phrase of one of television history’s largest figures, Julia Child, is the title of a curtain-raiser written in 1988 by composer Lee Hoiby, with a libretto [...]
Review: Jennifer & Matthew Guest
Jennifer and Matthew Guest: Doing Wrong Right Mighty Fine Arts, Dallas January 12 – February 24, 2013 Cracked Magazine, Garbage Pail Kids, and an ebullient colorful technique all come together as fine art in El Centro professor Matthew Guest’s paintings at Mighty Fine Arts in Oak Cliff this month. Matthew’s style involves thousands of brush [...]
Review: “Environs”
Cohn Drennan Gallery, Dallas “Environs” presents the work of three artists and it’s readily apparent that one is wholly unique and, in fact, outstrips the other two. Put bluntly, Ron Clark and Betty Sewell work on large canvases that are muted and unremarkable. They’re not shocking; they’re not lucent. They offer no spark or burn. [...]
Review: Victor Vasarely
“Optical Spaces: The Art of Victor Vasarely” MADI Museum, Dallas Victor Vasarely, who was born and died in Paris (1906-1997), founded Op Art (or Optical Art), a style based on optical illusions, always geometric and abstract. His work shows how this style is intentionally related to how vision functions in the use of vibrating pattern, [...]
REVIEW: The Joffrey Ballet
On Saturday, January 19, the Joffrey Ballet returned to Dallas after twenty years, bringing with them a historical event: the recreation of Vaslav Nijinsky’s 1913 “Le Sacre de Printemps” (The Rite of Spring). But before we could see what 100 years had done do it, we were witness to its effects on contemporary dance. In [...]
REVIEW: Scottie Parsons
Scottie Parsons: Selected Works From The Artist’s Estate 1925-2011 Currently on view at William Campbell Contemporary Art is the life work of Texas artist Scottie Parsons, Selected Works From The Artist’s Estate (1925-2011). Carrying the vestiges of the likes of Ellen Frankenthaler and Richard Diebenkorn, Parsons dedicated her life to the field of abstraction, using [...]
REVIEW: Randy Twaddle, New Drawings
Art has many purposes and distinctions. The most significant recurring theme states that There Is Beauty To Be Found In All Things. Houston artist Randy Twaddle has elegantly reminded us to keep looking, with his new work at the Holly Johnson Gallery in Dallas. Jewel thieves and snipers know that most people rarely look up. [...]
REVIEW: A Behanding in Spokane
I’m not sure Martin McDonagh likes his audiences very much, but who knows? Presenting someone with a challenge, breeching their comfort zone, forcing them to reconsider assumptions, these could arguably be acts of love. If I pander to your notions of morality and humor, you’ll be entertained for an evening, if I refuse to [...]
Review: Archie Scott Gobber – “What I Meant to Say”
The work at Marty Walker Gallery is sometimes refreshing and sometimes soporific. Archie Scott Gobber’s show, “What I Meant to Say,” unfortunately falls into the latter category. It’s so bleak that, sadly, the most virtuosic thing about the show is the gallery’s press release. Rather than stay tethered to reality, I wish I could attend [...]
Review: The 99 Names of God
The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas November 3-December 8, 2012 The 99 Names of God is a collaborative social commentary art project by artists Sandow Birk and Elyse Pignolet. Much of the show is comprised of 5 large and intricate bird’s eye view drawings of US airports. These, we learn, are the airports used by terrorists [...]
