Local fare at the Nasher (shop)

by Lucia Simek September 7, 2011

work by Jonathan Cross, on view in the Nasher store during the Tony Cragg exhibit

I recently learned that the gals who run the Nasher Sculpture Center’s store, Heidi Smith and Carolyn Spinelli, have been showing work by local artists in tandem with the museum’s major exhibitions. “We think there are talented artists in this city,” says Smith, ” and furthermore, customers are interested in something made in Dallas, from Dallas… Each artist that was chosen for these exhibits were because their work reflected the nature and characteristics of the exhibiting artist(s) in the museum.”

Previously, the store has shown the work of Yelizaveta Nersesova during last winter’s Calder exhibit and Billy Zinser during the Statuesque show this past summer. During the upcoming Tony Cragg exhibit, the store will feature the work of ceramicist Jonathan Cross, who, full disclosure, Smith discovered at a little show I curated of his work back in June at Bows and Arrows.

“So far Yelizaveta and Billy’s presentation of work was very successful for the store, so we decided to continue it for Cragg’s exhibit,” says Smith, who adds that the Sculpture Center’s “hope is to keep showing exceptional Dallas artists to promote their careers.” All three artists make work that meets retail demands — small objects that find correlaries in the work by major artists in the Center and that is affordable, by artists with promising careers. Simple enough. The Nasher store is a much needed, tasteful, alternative commercial venue.

1 comment

1 comment

David R Smith September 26, 2011 - 16:36

This is a very interesting and worthy article. Merchandising work of local artists is a win win program for the artist, The Nashers, but especially for patrons of the museum.

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