Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1243824
OBSESSIONS. DECORATION. SALIENT FACTS. F rom now until we have a new normal, this column has a single- minded focus: to promote a Dallas gallerist and one of its artists who's especially deserving of attention and acquisition. Cue Ro2 Art, co-owned by Jordan Roth and Susan Roth Romans. I have personally known Jordan for a decade, since he and mother, Roth Romans, first unveiled Ro2. Their gallery tracks and represents more than four dozen artists, whom they exhibit in charming retro/historic spaces downtown and in The Cedars. Ro2 Art is unique, democratic, and one of the most interesting galleries in the state because of its connection to the grass-roots energy of the Texas scene. One of Ro2's stars is this month's feature artist: Bumin Kim. The Korean-born painter emigrated to the U.S., where she studied and graduated from the University of North Texas with an MFA. But don't expect the usual oil on canvas from the Dallas-based Kim: Her media is thread upon wood panel — a few of her paintings can even be combed. Fresh from an exhibit at Women & Their Work in Austin in 2019 and inclusion in "New American Paintings 2018," juried by The Modern's Alison Hearst, the artist's nature-informed practice literally and metaphorically weaves in a dialogue about craft versus high art. Kim has said of her latest line "drawings" made via a sewn surface: "The transformative power of materiality is at play in these works … I've repurposed the context of thread and string to emphasize the energy, delicacy, and grace of painting and drawing." Kim's spring solo exhibit, "Coalescence," was originally scheduled for Ro2 Art's Cedars space. COVID-19 changed all that, but you can still view her works on the gallery's Artsy page ($240 to $4,200) or make an appointment to see them in person. Contact Jordan Roth, jordan@ro2art.com. Catherine D. Anspon ART NOTES COURTESY THE ARTIST AND RO2 ART Bumin Kim's Untitled (Coalescence), 2020, at Ro2 Art A s sheltering in place went from days to weeks to months, we missed visiting our local museums for inspiration, or just to lose ourselves in the canvases of Rothko and Rembrandt. Many institutions had opened exhibitions shortly before those directives were made. The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth had unveiled "Flesh and Blood: Italian Masterpieces from the Capodimonte Museum" while its neighbor, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, had welcomed Mark Bradford and a show of his work focusing on end papers, which he learned to use during his days as a hairdresser in his mother's salon in South Los Angeles. Organizations began to pivot to stay engaged with their audiences who were now at home. Taking a cue from the restaurant industry's robust to-go services, PaperCity assisted our cultural friends by providing our online and social media platforms to launch the Museums Delivered series. Curators whipped out smartphones and shared insights into paintings from recently opened exhibitions, as well as favorite works from the permanent collections. Others in the queue: MUSEUMS TO-GO Kehinde Wiley and Andrea Karnes with Kehinde Wiley's Morpheus, 2008, at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Bartolomeo Schedoni's Charity, 1611, at the Kimbell Art Museum Alison Weaver at Rice University's Moody Center for the Arts walks us through " R a d i c a l R e v i s i o n i s t s : Contemporary African Artists Confronting Past and Present," and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, pulls back the curtain on works by Houston artists Susan Plum and Sharon Kopriva in "Entwined: Ritual Wrapping and Binding in Contemporary Southern Art." In the future, watch for more from the Meadows Museum at SMU, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and the Dallas Contemporary. View videos at papercitymag.com. Billy Fong DAVID WOO MUSEO E REAL BOSCO DI CAPODIMONTE, NAPLES the permanent collections. Others in the queue: the Kimbell Art Museum 14