161 Glass Street Dallas Texas 75207 USA +214 821 2522

past exhibitions
contact: exhibitions@dallascontemporary.org
 

photo: Dallas Contemporary

SOUR GRAPES: Rest in Power

12 February - 4 December 2011

Collective members: Eddie Castro, Alejandro Diaz, Arturo Donjuan, Carlos Donjuan, Emily Donjuan, Miguel Donjuan, Jose Granados, Ricardo Oviedo, Adam Peña, Elias Torres, Isaias Torres, Mike Vasquez and Adam Werner.

Rest In Power is presented by the graffiti writer collective Sourgrapes and is two major wall paintings at Dallas Contemporary; one on the interior and one on the exterior of the building. The production on the interior walls of Dallas Contemporary is a dedication to graffiti writers that have passed away and were a major influence on the artists. The homage to these fallen artists will show the impact they have had on the culture of street and urban-focused art. On the exterior of the building is a continuation of a project of the last several years by Sourgrapes. Four giant paletas (Mexican popsicles) painted as an on-going memorial to those involved in a series of killings and robberies of ice cream vendors in the community.

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photo: Andrew Ryan Shepherd

 

JASON BROOKS

25 September - 4 December 2011

Dallas Contemporary will present tatto artist Jason Brooks’s first exhibition with a contemporary art institution. A short documentary film created by Quin Mathews Films will be shown alongside selections from Brooks’s own collection of historical tattoo photography.

"Embracing and exhibiting contemporary culture is what Dallas Contemporary does best. Jason Brooks is the most important tattoo artist between both coasts and we are proud to be working with him on this seminal exhibition", said Peter Doroshenko, director at the Dallas Contemporary. "Tattoos have become very mainstream, yet this exhibition will examine Jason's connection to mid-century tattoo artists from Hawaii and later Austin. There is a real progression of tattoo styles and it will be important to present this to large audiences."

Brooks is the owner of Great Wave Tattoo in Austin, Texas. His work is influenced by Japanese style tattooing particularly the work of artist Horiyoshi the Second as well as Western masters Mike Malone and Ed Hardy.

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Jennifer Rubell, Nutcrackers, installation view Dallas Contemporary
photo: Andrew Ryan Shepherd

JENNIFER RUBELL Nutcrackers

25 September - 4 December 2011

The LEGENDARY event will take place just days before the opening of a large-scale exhibition of the artist’s work, JENNIFER RUBELL: Nutcrackers, on view at Dallas Contemporary from September 25 through December 4, 2011. An opening celebration will be held Saturday, September 24, 2011 from 9pm to midnight.

In Gallery 3, Dallas Contemporary’s largest gallery space, Rubell’s Nutcrackers will consist of 18 life-size interactive sculptures of women alongside a pedestal holding one ton of Texas pecans. Each prefabricated female mannequin is mounted on her side in an odalisque position and has been retooled to function as a nutcracker.  Visitors interact with each sculpture, by placing a pecan in the mannequin’s inner thigh.  The leg is brought down to crack the pecan leaving the nut for the visitor to eat.

Inspired by nutcrackers depicting female figures - and in particular one found on the internet of Hilary Clinton - these interactive sculptures embody the two polar stereotypes of female power; the idealized, sexualized nude female form and the too-powerful, nut-busting uberwoman.  The work also serves as a prompt to action, encouraging the viewer to transgress the traditional viewer-to-artwork boundary and complete the work by interacting with it.

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Aaron Parazette, Color Key 23, 2011
photo courtesy of the artist

 

AARON PARAZETTE

25 September - 4 December 2011

For Aaron Parazette's exhibition at Dallas Contemporary, he will exhibit a combination of new and recent paintings along with a large-scale, site-specific wall painting. Parazette employs the formula of formalist painting through text imagery. For Parazette, his work is painting meeting both the past and future abstraction.

Houston based, Parazette's one-person exhibition history includes: Cloud Break: New Color Key Paintings, McClain Gallery, Houston, 2011; Site Objects, Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas, 2010; Drive Thru, The Suburban, Chicago, 2005; and Perspectives 141: Aaron Parazette, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, 2004.

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Juergen Teller, Vivienne Westwood
Courtesy Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York.

JUERGEN TELLER: Man with Banana

8 April - 21 August 2011

opening reception – Friday 8 April 20.00 – 24.00 (8.00 - Midnight)

Juergen Teller’s work in books, magazines and exhibitions is marked by his refusal to separate the commercial fashion pictures and his most autobiographical un-commissioned work. Teller will present an exhibition of photographs specifically created for Dallas Contemporary. His work has been published in influential international publications such as W Magazine, i-D and Purple and has been the subject of solo exhibitions including The Photographers Gallery in London, the Kunsthalle Wein and the Fondation Cartier Pour l’art Contemporain in Paris, his most recent solo show being "Calves and Thighs" at Alcala 31 in Madrid, as part of Photo España.

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Ezra Petronio

EZRA PETRONIO: Bold & Beautiful

8 April - 21 August 2011

opening reception – Friday 8 April 20.00 – 24.00 (8.00 - Midnight)

For more than a decade, Ezra Petronio has been independently publishing Self Service, a bi-annual fashion and lifestyle magazine. In an Andy Warhol 1970s style, Petronio’s exhibition at Dallas Contemporary is the Polaroid documentation of the creative people that have been involved in the magazine --- curators, designers, editors, photographers, thinkers, musicians, artists, socialites, troublemakers. Never before seen in an institutional setting, Petronio’s exhibition explores the diversity of fashion, photography and art. Ezra Petronio was born in New York City in 1968. Petronio lives and works in Paris, France.

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Alexandra Ferreira & Bettina Wind, The Cactus as Instigator of Social Change, 2011;
Gintaras Didziapetris, Compass and Bird Space, 2011
Photo: Christian Merlhiot

LE PAVILLON NEUFLIZE OBC: The Lost Art of Travelers

Jérome Allavena, Einat Amir, Elisabeth S.Clark, Gintaras Didziarapetris, Alexandra Ferreira, Florence Lazar, Morten Norbye Halvorsen, Christian Merlhiot, Fabrice Pichat, Charlotte Seidel, and Bettina Wind. Curated by Estelle Nabeyrat.

8 April - 26 June 2011

opening reception - Friday 8 April 20.00 - 24.00 (8.00 - Midnight)

A dynamic group exhibition by the current participants from Le Pavillon - a post-graduate arts residency program at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France, which includes 11 artists and 1 curator from all over the world. This exhibition at the Dallas Contemporary begins an annual series of collaborations with international residency programs to create the opportunity for their first real world exhibition experience, along with creating focused art works or a curatorial theme about Dallas or Texas.

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An exhibition produced by Le Pavillon Neuflize OBC, laboratoire de crèation du Palais de Tokyo.


 
 
 
 

Surasi Kusolwong
photo courtesy of the artist

SURASI KUSOLWONG

12 May 2011

Thai artist Surasi Kusolwong encourages audience participation, blurring lines drawn conventionally between art and life. He makes large-scale, interactive installations combining sound, sculpture and everyday objects. For his project in Dallas, the artist takes up residence in the old factory space, which will build-up to a one evening performance extravaganza during the PEEK celebration.

Combined with neon work and fluorescent lighting, Kusolwong creates an atmosphere of collective play and experimentation. The project recalls spirits, memories of history relating to music and visual art, and expands the freedom of performance and artistic practice. Kusolwong has exhibited internationally at institutions such as the Tate Modern, London and Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Bejing.

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MICHEL VERJUX: Breathe, Walk, Look

12 February - 21 March 2011

Primarily composed of directed, framed and focused light projections, Verjux’s sculptural exploration of light serve not simply as simple forms and geometric shapes, but as indexes and symbols of an event. On view both at Dallas Contemporary and an off-site location in downtown Dallas at 601 Elm Street, Verjux will use high-lumen architectural lights in conjunction with the gallery walls to create his first institutional exhibition in the United States since 1997.

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DAVID WILLBURN:The Overuse of Everything

12 February - 27 March 2011

Willburn’s interest in collections of objects and their potential to create narrative results in an installation of hand built wooden constructions upon which austere embroidered drawings of spaces in his home are displayed with clips.  Conceived as a group of conversations, each display structure will have a companion structure upon which an industrial clamp light will be fixed.  Viewers will find themselves navigating through and negotiating with these “characters” engaged in both private and public dialogue.

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CHRISTIAN WULFFEN: Bridges and Constructions

11 November 2010 - 30 January 2011

Bridges and Constructions, is a site-specific installation comprised of 24 carts throughout the 8,000 square feet space. Each cart acts as a vehicle for the distribution of information and represents a specific location on the map of Downtown Dallas. Accompanying the carts are 76 pre-fabricated boards, which act as kiosks of information holding photographs, illustrations of maps and blank canvases. Referencing concrete art, a European movement coined by Theo van Doesburg in 1930, Wulffen bases his artistic examinations on real objects, structures, and spaces. His handmade and pre-manufactured works combine familiar materials like graphite, wood, and newsprint with an artistic vocabulary often based on the grid.

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JASON REYNAGA: Bling Bang!

11 November 2010 - 30 January 2011

Dallas artist Jason Reynaga presents an exhibition based on his fascination with the seductive qualities of gaming and toy design and its affect on Western culture. Using dynamic, color-rich, multidimensional surfaces, Reynaga’s work captivates the viewers on a sensory level. Glittery surfaces will be seen in graphic images of war and weaponry.

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GABRIEL DAWE: Plexus no. 4

18 September 2010 27 March 2011

Plexus No. 4, an installation by artist Gabriel Dawe, will be remain on display in the Contemporary Gallery 4 through 27 March 2011.

In his most recent piece, Plexus 4 (2010), giant veils of yellow, orange, and blue thread evidence Dawe’s long-time interest in Op-Art and Minimalism. Concurrently, Plexus 4 makes reference to the artist’s concern for the function of architectural space and its relation to clothing – both shelter humanity, but on quite different scales. This piece appropriates the chief tool of garment making for the creation of architectural components; the careful placement of two walls of vibrantly hued thread directs the viewer’s movement through space. Thus an experience of this piece, and gallery that holds it, is guided by the calculated structure and visual sway of the thread. By combining overt formal concerns with his interest in systems of group control, Dawe offers something novel to our understanding of both.

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