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SEE ALSO Short Show Reviews from 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 2008 and All Our Long Reviews

Recent Dallas Art History
2009 Short Reviews

Stories + Photographs by J R Compton
unless otherwise noted

This page was intended to be a repository for short show reviews that ended up on the calendar page, but only these two made it. No telling where the others are. I will attempt to find the pictures for Frances' show. I remember having them.

Frances Bagley Mixed Messages at Marty Walker through April 25

Frances Bagley The Strategist, 2008
mixed media 145 x 101 x 132 inches

Frances Bagley’s new work (and here, too) engages the viewer with an alluring and provocative layering of mixed-media, combining the artist’s signature figures with carefully constructed although seemingly haphazard assemblages of objects and materials –the end result is a mutation of mediums, fantastically depicting abstract narratives that can be seen as both painting and sculpture. Bagley continues to explore and address aspects of the body and perceptions of absence and presence.

Frances Bagley and husband Tom Orr's work will be included along with works by distinguished international artists in the Fall 2009 exhibition Performance/Art at the Dallas Museum of Art. Bagley has exhibited extensively throughout her career, recent exhibitions include the 2007 Texas Biennial in Austin, and the 10th Kajima Sculpture Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan, for which Bagley was an award recipient. Bagley’s work is included in several museum and corporate collections, including The National Museum of Women in Washington D.C., The El Paso Museum, and American Airlines, among others. Bagley has also been involved in numerous public art projects, including a collaboration with her husband, artist Tom Orr, to create sets and costumes for Verdi’s Nabucco, which opened Dallas Opera’s 50th anniversary season.
 

1. See also Nabucco (Tom & Frances Do Their First Opera) and Art Here Lately #4 at the links above.
2. And you might as well visit our extraordinarily popular page, Exploring the art of Tom Orr and Frances Bagley from way back before high-speed internet when web pictures had to be small.

 

Natura Fragilis

Mirtha Aertker   Infection   mixed media

We've watched in awe as Mirtha Aertker's forms have metamorphosed and got so better they're amazing this last year, and we were already excited, now so much more as her heavy, charm-laden, already imaginative forms got light and flew.

We'll miss her south to Peru but what a visual adventure! Can't imagine what directions her work will rise to there, but we'll miss seeing each new shape.

Mark Monroe   Time Table   mixed media

I've seen a lot of art clocks — I even have one in my living room whose motor died years ago, but this one will lways be right‚ can you imagine a more direct sun dial? I laughed when I saw it, circled back around it several times before settling on this most obvious view to photograph. More than a joke, this is sublime and on time.

Natura Fragilis with work by Mirtha Aertker, Kathy Boortz, Bryan Gooding, John Green, Yesenia R. Martinez, Nikki Myers, Skip Noah, Shayne W. Ridenour, Joe Sarate, Shawn Saumell, Juan Valdez, and Julie Zarate and curated by Enrique Fernandez Cervantes opens at the Bath House Cultural Center through April 18

Click links to DallasArtsRevue Supporting Members to see their work.

Mirtha Aertker   Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz   mixed media

A well-curated show tips the hands that beheld it, put it together. A theme show that holds its collective mind on track, fills it out with quality and deep craft. Bravo.
 

"This exhibition sets out to investigate the failure of society to perceive the significant similarities, connections, and interaction between humans and nature. In a time when materialism and consumerism tend to overshadow any attempt to promote an awareness of the human-nature relationship, the twelve artists in this show elevate the environmental and spiritual nature of our lives to a more prominent stage."

Julie Zarate   Metamorphosis   mixed media assemblage

We've got some mighty good assemblage artists around here, so it's pleasing to see a new one with whole new ideas, at once simpler and more complex. Can't wait to see what she does next. —JRC

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