Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 04:01PM Jenny Vogel from the new media program at UNT gave a great artist talk for the Modern's Graduate series. It was good to hear from another artist who deals with issues of surveillance and online media. Loved her works that used webcam footage.
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 05:43PM Paintings from Caroline Oliver look as frosted as her dessert table, though I'm pretty sure they are not edible.
Sunday, May 22, 2011 at 03:55PM Loved this work by Rachel Rodenkirk & Tiffany Wolf in the 500x upstairs project room.
Friday, May 20, 2011 at 03:51PM 500X Gallery is currently home to Day Old Donut - a group exhibition by Matt Clark, Clayton Hurt and Joel Kiser. The co-op gallery brought many wandering and offbeat shows this season, but none more playful than Day Old Donut. Since no actual donuts were involved in the exhibition, the title presented a semi-serious question: is Day Old Donut an inside joke, or simply a collection of sculptural leftovers?
Matthew Clark’s front room sculpture It’s too early to forecast this struggle’s outcome, Machine-Gun Mike! is both a mouthful and an eyeful. A cartoonish cardboard car sits atop a handmade wooden trailer, and is crowned by a giant deflated lizard that would make Oldenburg’s fabric hamburger look fresh. This work is so absurd in form and content that even the most sober art viewer might gawk at the accident scene.
Smaller, but equally comical sculptures dominate the rest of the exhibition space. Clayton Hurt’s Untitled and Low Calorie Baby Bird Sandwich feature inexplicable plaster baby birds and text so bubbly that it reads as adorably friendly no matter what it says. The cast bronze pieces in Joel Kiser’s Big Fish Tale are an amalgamation of tiny figurines that appear to act out some narrative where Jesus can finally be reunited with his Warhammer army.
If you can find common threads between the works within Day Old Donut, they would circle around themes of youth and humor. These themes came to life most evidently in the Pinewood Derby installation. The majority of the upstairs space was filled with adorably hand-made derby cars on shelves and a large yellow race track. Cigars, violins, paintbrushes, hotdogs, and a tiny replica of Damien Hirst’s shark were all available to race down the derby track. There was no question that the installation’s design was appreciated by the many kids who lined up again and again to race the homely wooden cars.
Much of the work in Day Old Donut felt like an inside joke seen from the outside. We can assume that the work is funny, but it remains ambiguous enough that we aren’t certain why its funny. The lack of seriousness, while confusing, is simultaneously refreshing in a gallery environment that can often feel pretentious or over-thought. Though much of the work in Day Old Donut was enjoyable without a full understanding of its purpose, I can’t help but think, “If you have to explain the joke, it isn’t funny.”
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 09:06PM Virginia Fleck has some interesting work at Holly Johnson right now . Read my full review on Dallas Art News Here: Virginia Fleck: Consumed at Holly Johnson Gallery
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 02:12AM @ The MAC
Beasts and Bunnies is a group show of works by Helen Altman, Frances Bagley, Celia Eberle and Margaret Meehan. The first room (call and response) was an installation of sculptures, some moving, that were lit to create shadows on the walls of the gallery.
The second room exhibited more sculpture and two-dimensional works depicting animals, or exploring new forms with animal characteristics. I was drawn to a work by Meehan that appeared to be a normal branch, but was sewn up meticulously in glove leather.
The show is unique, a little creepy and on view through February 12.
