Cigarettes and Candy: Some Winter 2021 Exhibitions in Dallas and San Antonio

by William Sarradet February 20, 2021
DALLAS
Jeremiah Onifadé: Surreal Figures, at SITE131, January 9–March 27, 2021

Jeremiah Onifadé, Speaking of Which, 2019, acrylic on canvas at Site 131

 

Jeremiah Onifadé, Leventis (Detail), 2019, acrylic on canvas at Site 131

 

Jeremiah Onifadé, A Visit to State Camp, 2020, acrylic on canvas at Site 131

Read the titles of Onifadé’s cartoon stills, and they feel not-fictional. A Visit to State Camp depicts the candies that soldiers would hand out to children in placation during the heavy military presence in the artist’s native Nigeria. What’s fantastical about them is the squinty character he’s created, pinched at the neck and limbs, with a radio frequency bouncing through it.

Talley Williams: Playing in the Dark: Burned but not Consumed, at the Arthello Beck Gallery, South Dallas Cultural Center, January 25, 2021–March 2, 2021
Talley Williams, a MoveMe(a)nt, 2018

Talley Williams, a MoveMe(a)nt, 2018, at the South Dallas Cultural Center

 

Talley Williams, Playing in the Dark, Burned but Not Consumed (Installation View) at the South Dallas Cultural Center

Talley Williams, Playing in the Dark, Burned but Not Consumed (Installation View) at the South Dallas Cultural Center

 

Talley Williams, E737 Bone Collector, 2018

Talley Williams, E737 Bone Collector, 2018, at the South Dallas Cultural Center

 

Talley Williams, Burning Declaration of Prosperity, 2018

Talley Williams, Burning Declaration of Prosperity, 2018, at the South Dallas Cultural Center

 

Talley Williams, Accomplished, With My Arms Tied Behind My Back, 2020

Talley Williams, Accomplished, With My Arms Tied Behind My Back, 2020, at the South Dallas Cultural Center

 

Talley Williams, Accomplished, With My Arms Tied Behind My Back (Detail), 2020

Talley Williams, Accomplished, With My Arms Tied Behind My Back (Detail), 2020, at the South Dallas Cultural Center

Williams’ artistic journey begins on May 5th, 2010, when she had an out-of-body experience. Her work carries a kind of visionary impulse, an urge to get the word out. What that word is you may read for yourself, scrawled along the clothing of her figures. The mannequins in this exhibition are costumed in cotton, jute, denim, leather, and other natural materials.

Andrea Tosten: Paper Altars, at Terrain Dallas, December 13–February 6, 2021
Andrea Tosten, Paper Altars

Andrea Tosten, Paper Altars at Terrain Dallas

 

Andrea Tosten, Paper Altars

Andrea Tosten, Paper Altars at Terrain Dallas

 

Andrea Tosten, Paper Altars

Andrea Tosten, Paper Altars at Terrain Dallas

Terrain Dallas is the lawn of a house, a space offered by artist Iris Bechtol, who has been hosting multimedia installations since 2014. Terrain Dallas went on hiatus from 2016 until April 2020, when Bechtol exhibited her own work. Bechtol has stated that her own experiences with art began outdoors, before she ever entered an institutional exhibition space. The lawns of the United States have been mobilized for art before; Sabina Ott founded Terrain Exhibitions in Oak Park, Illinois in 2011.

On view for my visit: Andrea Tosten’s dedication to craft is primarily spent with calligraphy and bookbinding. As a thoughtful artist working in craft, she has taken the substrate of the medium (paper), and applied a variety of uncommon applications. Here, exposure to the elements, and a non-lexical approach to a 2-dimensional surface are the rule. After extending the show through February 6, I was sure that the winter rain would have compromised the integrity of the origami boxes sewn into the ground. My visit revealed that they had survived the weather — a little sun-bleached but still intact.

The group show Eye Candy, at Cerulean Gallery, January 16–February 26, 2021
Karen Woodward, Gaze

Karen Woodward, Gaze, at Cerulean Gallery

 

Karen Woodward, Meditations (Orange Dreamer)

Karen Woodward, Meditations (Orange Dreamer), at Cerulean Gallery

 

Karen Woodward, Girl With Flower

Karen Woodward, Girl With Flower, at Cerulean Gallery

The flameworked miniatures inside the eyes of Karen Woodward’s flat portraits glow with dimension and LED light. A busy mind carries lots of shiny characters in these beautifully constructed paintings with cerebral cavities.

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SAN ANTONIO

The group show Here’s to Hello, Clamp Light Studios & Gallery, January 15–February 6, 2021
Taylor Galvan, Let it Sleep, 2020

Taylor Galvan, Let it Sleep, 2020, at Clamp Light Studios

 

Randy Guthmiller, Not Titled, 2020

Randy Guthmiller, Not Titled, 2020 at Clamp Light Studios

 

Jose Villalobos, Horses Mouth, 2021

Jose Villalobos, Horses Mouth, 2021 at Clamp Light Studios

Member artist Randy Guthmiller gave me a tour of Clamp Light Studios. On view was Here’s to Hello, a group exhibition featuring Clamp Light residents — Jose Villalobos, Sarah Fox, Raul Rene Gonzalez, Alethia Jones, Randy Guthmiller, Ursula Zavala, Taylor Galvan, Xavier Gilmore, Sara Corley Martinez and Cassie Gnehm. Studio membership spaces are one of the most direct ways to interact with emerging and early-career artists without mediation from galleries or the art managerial class. Guthmiller, a transplant, had spent time working with the curatorial collective Beefhaus in Dallas before moving to San Antonio. Clamp Light artists show in various capacities across town and beyond. Sarah Fox colored the studio’s entryway space in a design of her cerulean animals for Spring 2020, and Jose Villalobos’ de los otros installation will be at Artpace’s main space through April 25, 2021.

Current exhibitions at the McNay Art Museum
John Dyer, Selena, 1992, Solvent ink on vinyl

John Dyer, Selena, 1992. Solvent ink on vinyl at the McNay Art Museum

 

Charles Umlauf, War Mother, 1939, cast stone

Charles Umlauf, War Mother, 1939. Cast stone at the McNay Art Museum

 

Karen Mahaffy, Still Life with Zhuang Zhi, 2005, digital video

Karen Mahaffy, Still Life with Zhuang Zhi, 2005. Digital video, at the McNay Art Museum

The McNay is open to the public, even as the lawnscape update and next major exhibition are still in progress. The various wings of the McNay amble around a garden, and include a library, a collection of art glass, and plenty of contemporary art. It recalls the idyllic quality of the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa, another mansion-turned-museum.

Lawrence Markey Gallery
Glenn Heim, Untitled, 2012, oil on wood panel

Glenn Heim, Untitled, 2012, oil on wood panel at Lawrence Markey

 

Glenn Heim, Untitled, 2013, oil on wood

Glenn Heim, Untitled, 2013, oil on wood at Lawrence Markey

 

Publication projects at Lawrence Markey Gallery

Publication projects at Lawrence Markey Gallery

Lawrence Markey is between exhibitions, but currently on view are small paintings of oil on wood panel by Glenn Heim. These pieces are birds-eye views of extra-terrestrial plank bodies, possibly in the moments before they orchestrate a crop circle over some remote stretch of Scotland. Markey relocated the gallery to San Antonio in the mid-aughts, and is known for his roster of national artists and publications.

Theresa Newsome: Objects of Aggression at Blue Star Contemporary, November 6, 2020 – May 9, 2021
Theresa Newsome: Objects of Aggression at Blue Star Contemporary

Theresa Newsome: Objects of Aggression at Blue Star Contemporary

Theresa Newsome: Objects of Aggression showcases photographs of items that played a “pivotal role” in the murders of Black men in the United States. In one photo, a haphazard pyramid of cigarettes, possibly in reference to the death of Eric Garner, who was murdered by chokehold by New York City police in 2014, sits plaintively against a black abyss. The image of cigarettes increasingly reads as a bygone emblem of social currency, especially in the cultural sphere. Newsome’s series is a document of reasonless death sentences and taboos made visible.

San Antonio Museum of Art
Gilbert Denman Gallery for Ancient Sculpture at the San Antonio Museum of Art

Gilbert Denman Gallery for Ancient Sculpture at San Antonio Museum of Art

 

Garland Sarcophagus, Roman, ca. 130 150 A.D., Marble

Garland Sarcophagus, Roman, ca. 130 150 A.D., marble at San Antonio Museum of Art

San Antonio is among the oldest cities in America. It has yet to experience the explosive growth of modernity like Dallas, Austin and Houston. In 100 years, the latter set will have nothing to prove to archivists, as cultures and waves of condos replace each other with each economic movement. San Antonio will (hopefully) always have the largest concentration of Spanish colonial missions in North America.

The Gilbert Denman Gallery for Ancient Sculpture at the San Antonio Museum of Art is a room full of funerary artifacts and busts. Antiquities collections are minute dots on the timeline of history, which means that they can be understood not so much as the most significant pieces from the culture of their time, but rather the ones that survived. Seeing such pristine ancient objects after a year of rampant turnover felt grounding in ways I had forgotten possible. Permanent collections sit all across the world, waiting patiently to be remembered while we barrel through newness.

Ruby City (temporarily closed)
Linda Pace, Red Project 2001

Linda Pace, Red Project 2001, at Ruby City

 

Chuck Ramirez, White 1 and White 2, 1998

Chuck Ramirez, White 1 and White 2, 1998 at Ruby City

Temporarily closed, Ruby City is also experiencing its own transition. A major power line will be relocated among the fields of dirt that face San Pedro Creek.

The red cast concrete of Ruby City sparkles in the sunlight, as intended. The interior is equally transformative, whisking one away to another place, where plans have been fully realized.

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1 comment

Keer Tanchak February 21, 2021 - 10:18

Thank you so much for this tether. So many exciting pieces! Also, I love your description of the permanent collections waiting and our physical energy in relation to ‘newness’. Perfect.

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