Whitehot Magazine
"The Best Art In The World"
BY PAUL LASTER, April 2018
Looking to start a contemporary art collection? There’s no better way to begin than with our curated list of works that will be on view at the Dallas Art Fair this week. With nearly 100 exhibitors from close to 30 different cities, the fair returns to the Fashion Industry Gallery in Dallas for its 10th edition with an impressive selection of contemporary art in a variety of media.
Taking place during Dallas Arts Month, the fair is accompanied by major exhibitions presented by local institutions, including Laura Owens’ traveling retrospective at the Dallas Museum of Art; Eric Fischl’s art scene paintings, a survey of Sara Rahbar’s figurative sculptures and Harry Nuriev’s contemporary design objects at the Dallas Contemporary; Adam Gordon’s immersive installation art at the Power Station; and the annual Eye Ball at The Joule Hotel.
Thirty new galleries are participating in the fair this year. Amongst prize pieces at some of the newbies, we have our eye on colorful abstract paintings and photographs by Shara Hughes, Eric Shaw and Mariah Robertson at New York’s Rachel Uffner Gallery, The Hole and Van Doren Waxter, respectively, and a striking bronze, shawl-like sculpture by Michelle Grabner at James Cohan, also from New York.
Solo presentations include Sarah McKenzie’s realistic paintings of exhibitions in museums, galleries and at art fairs at Denver’s David B. Smith Gallery; Frances Goodman’s portraits of femme fatales, intriguingly constructed from hand strung sequins on canvas at South Africa’s SMAC; the Haas Brothers whimsical “Mini Beast” sculptures at Austin’s Lora Reynolds Gallery; and Claudio Parmiggiani’s haunting still lives, rendered in smoke and soot on board, at Simon Lee Gallery, which has spaces in London, New York and Hong Kong.
Several galleries are offering two- and three-person booths, with Luis De Jesus Los Angeles presenting expressive, figurative paintings and sculptures by Erik Olson and and process oriented abstractions by Andre Hemer; New York’s Albertz Benda featuring dynamic abstract ceramics by Brie Ruais and John Mason; NYC’s Magenta Plains displaying mythically minded canvases by Bill Saylor and Zach Bruder; and Nathalie Karg Gallery, another New York venue, presenting minimalist paintings by Nathlie Provosty and Nancy Haynes and classical realism with a twist by Jesse Mockrin.
Considering the high quality and quantity of collectors in Dallas and nearby Fort Worth, as well as Houston and other largely populated parts of Texas, most of our picks will hopefully find homes soon.
Scroll through the images to see more fascinating artworks from the fair. WM
Paul Laster is a writer, editor, curator, artist and lecturer. He’s a contributing editor at ArtAsiaPacific and Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art and writer for Time Out New York, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, Galerie Magazine, Sculpture, Art & Object, Cultured, Architectural Digest, Garage, Surface, Ocula, Observer, ArtPulse, Conceptual Fine Arts and Glasstire. He was the founding editor of Artkrush, started The Daily Beast’s art section, and was art editor of Russell Simmons’ OneWorld Magazine, as well as a curator at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, now MoMA PS1.
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