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SEE ALSO Short Show Reviews from 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 2008 2009 and All Our Long Reviews

2010 Short Reviews

Stories + Photographs by J R Compton
unless otherwise noted

The most recent stories are at the top. Most shows are introduced by their listing from the DallasArtsRevue calendar including, when the institution has bothered to send us one, the full list of participating artists.

 

David Donovan   The Touch   photograph

Some galleries don't have shows so much as they have showings. Although The Afterimage's shows sometime fit the category of opening on a date and running through another and promoting them in emails, mostly it sends informal messages illustrated with interesting images owner Ben Breard wants to share and sell.

Some, especially the current one, I think of as mini-exhibitions. This latest — and they seem to arrive every couple weeks, in various formats — features work he calls "eight classic photographs that have really been popular here locally, and all are by Metroplex photographers."

These include "Big Tex" at the state Fair, 2000 by Carolyn Brown, that DARts readers can see in many sizes at www.afterimagegallery.com/browndallas.html.

I'm struggling to decide which of this spectrum I like best. It's between the late Peter Feresten's Stockyards Shorty's Mural, June's Lounge, W. Exchange Ave., Fort Worth, TX, 1976 and David Donovan's gentle portrait called The Touch, although former Dallas artist Ron Evans' Farm Dog, Denmark, Arkansas, 1997 has its runaway charm and Alfred Gillette Means, Jr's Hand with Spurs, Y-6 Ranch, Valentine, Texas, 1992 has grit. — J R Compton

 

500X Expo

500X Expo with works by Adam Palmer, Olagunju Adeniyi Tokunbo, Alfredo Salazar-Caro, Alison Starr, Andrew Douglas Underwood, Ashley Milow, Billy Zinser, Carrie Stout, Chelsey Mulnix, Daniel Birdsong, Danny Haslett, Devon Nowlin, Elizabeth MacDonald, Ignatius Peacher, James Lassen, Jennifer Gooch, John Dickinson, Jonathan Foisset, Kenneth Rajspis, Kerry Pacillo, Kristen Chochran, Leticia Emestina Gomez, Nancy Lamb, Nate Glaspie, Oscar Mejia, Rachel Cox, Rachel Fisher, Ricardo Paniagua Garcia III, Saul F. Waranch, Sibylle Bauer, Timothy Harding, Todd Camplin, Vance Wingate, and Yovanny Canales at 500X through January 30 2010

Kerry Pacillo   untitled   2009   tulle and latex   $300
 

This has got to be one of the more mind-boggling Dallas art shows of this century. Amazing diversity. Startling ideas and techniques. Harkens back to the 500X of old. Yet very young.
 

Kristen Cochran   Little Hybrids   2009  
oil, acrylic, srpay paint, tape, thread, wood, cotton
 

A knock-out competitive exhibition, juried from actual pieces, not digital, not slides. I really wanted to crash the jury party, to watch the paring game, but I waited for the opening, though got there early. Nice show.

Wowed on my first trip. The second brought me to the reality that there's a lot of junk in this show, as well as the fascinating few. I even found some copies of American classics from early-middle last century in The Pit.
 

Rachel Cox   Red Sheet, Strong Wind   2009   Lambda print

These pictures are of the more absurdist / enigmatic pieces — that characterize the exhibition, but there's so many more images there — stranger and in more unexpected expressions —J R Compton

See previous Expo show stories:  2002  2003  2007

 

Milarepa Enlightens

Milarepa - performance by Fred Curchak and Laura Jorgensen at Bath House Cultural Center, 8 pm, Thursdays-Saturdays, through January 30 $15.

I'd watched Curchak's mastery of simple stagecraft twice before so was eager to again, and it was a superb magical mystery duo through enlightenment and en-light-enment — funny, thoughtful, serious, entertaining and visually stunning. Closer to Performance Art than traditional theater, Curchak is amazing, but so are Laura Jorgensen and her many alter egos clicking past faster than thought. —JRC

 

Valton Tyler vs. Primitive Masks at Valley House

Valton Tyler   Destination Black Hole   1988   oil on canvas   76 x 84 inches

Beauty and Power - Valton Tyler and Miguel Zapata at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, through February 28, although the following images are from Valton's show at Valley House before that.

Valton Tyler - On Top of the World   1987   oil on canvas   30 x 48 inches

Valton Tyler is a self-taught Dallas original who's not nearly as famous as he should be. Or as he will be, though that may take him dying. Many buyers, sellers and long-time self-righteous borrowers of his work are impatiently waiting for the day when Valton goes platinum.
 

Valton Tyler   A Child Walking   1979   oil on canvas   27 x 23 inches
 

The gallery's founder Donald Vogel bought the paintings in these shows when they were new, and Valton was much less known, and few could see his genius, self-evident though it had to be. The decades make it more obvious. Vogel even bought paint for the struggling artist, but Valton sold it to friends to pay rent and food between his patron's purchases.
 

Valton Tyler   The Artist Apprentice   1980   oil on canvas  58 x 72 inches 
 

If Tyler's world is an anxious and mistrustful place, the art he paintsed it into was beyond strange, though his sense of humor lilts through those dark, pessimistic visions. Valton's work long ago achieved a stylistic cohesiveness that is instantly identifiable as his alone, never derivative or faddish.
 

Valton Tyler   Queen Bee-Male   1986   oil on canvas   16 x 20 inches
 

None of the work in either show are from this Century, because Valton may have learned his lesson and now deals only with commissions, side-stepping some of the greed. Can you imagine a family portrait? - J R Compton

Valton Tyler   Still Life   1990   40x46 inches
one of the few light-hearted moments in Valton's show.
 

Channeling Other Worlds - Valton Tyler at Valley House Gallery & Sculpture Garden, through February 20

We actually attended the opening way north on Spring Valley (I remember when it was a two-lane blacktop through thousands of acres of trees. It's changed since then, but Valley House and Sculpture Garden can still be an oasis of trees, big art and water features, and certainly the best outdoor sculpture space in Dallas.
 

Valton Tyler   Hold On   1979
oil on canvas   58 x 74 inches
courtesy Valley House Gallery
 

Enjoyed seeing all the Valton Tyler paintings in the gallery but was dismayed that none of them are from this century, and so many of them seem gloomy, pessimistic, even spooky.
 

Kom stylized buffalo mask with feather cape
First Half 30th Century   57 inches high   -  J R Compton photo
 

Shown with them and looking amazing are tribal and ceremonial masks and other pieces from around the world via Shango Galleries, and many of them steal the show. Like this buffalo mask with magnificent feathered cape made almost entirely of brown feathers that I stared at for many minutes and came back and stared at again.
 

Buffalo Mask   circa 1900   wood and paint
15 7/8 inches wide   -  J R Compton photo
 

Or this face that seems almost diabolical to this Westerner's eyes — another Buffalo mask, this time from Bali, Indonesia. Thematically the masks and other objects in this show are similar to the spooky figures and shapes in Valton's last century paintings.

But juxtaposing the two art forms seemed strange, like somebody decided Valton's dark paintings wouldn't hold the show by themselves. Many of Tyler's work there may be seen on the Valley House website, but you'll have to click around, there's no direct link.
 

Ecuadorian Ceramic Mask from La Tolita, Las Esmeraldas, Northwestern Ecuador
400 B.C. - 300 A.D.   ceramic   10.25 inches wide
 

I wanted to like Valton's paintings more, but the three-dimensional forms kept pulling my attention away. —J R Compton

Back to the Calendar page, where there's another review of this show, only this time, it's Valton Tyler I write about.

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= since January 29 2010