PaperCity Magazine

PaperCity Dallas September 2023

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164 Seeing By Catherine D. Anspon. Portrait Jacob Carroll. I n just two years, the Green Family Art Foundation, showcasing under- represented artists, has emerged upon the Texas scene. Its bold entry — first at River Bend, now in the Dallas Arts District Green ERIC MEDSKER — has added a museum-level discourse to the city's vibrant visual culture. Dallas is vying with Miami for its share of spaces for contemporary viewing (The Warehouse, The Power Station, The K arpidas Collection), but unlike those destinations, the Green Family Art Foundation is open five days a week. Its pristine exhibition space, both accessible and highly visible, is located on the ground floor of a residential high-rise on Flora Street, one block from Nasher Sculpture Center. Inside is some of the most ambitious programming in Texas. I first heard about the foundation during an interview with artist Jammie Holmes in the summer of 2021. When he mentioned his inclusion in an upcoming group show organized by the Greens, which opened in October 2021 ("Black Bodies, White Spaces: Invisibility & Hypervisibility" at Dallas Art Fair Projects gallery in River Bend Center in the Dallas Design District), even the astute Holmes couldn't share many details about his patrons' curatorial endeavor. Intrigued, I vowed to investigate. Flash forward to this summer. A trek to Dallas providentially coincided with an email from Adam Green, who invited me to visit his family's foundation in their new location. I strolled into the handsome space anchoring a sleek high- rise building (which, I learned, the foundation occasionally programs), where a front-desk vestibule led to polished, light-filled galleries and a topical exhibition that's been a year in the making: "Full and Pure: Body, Materiality, Gender." The convivial, laser-focused Adam Green gave the tour. "The show has about 40 artists of varying generations and touches on gender fluidity, which is somewhat of a sensitive topic here in Texas," said Green, a trustee of the foundation established by his parents, collectors and philanthropists Debbie and Eric Green. "But we thought it was important to do this show. There are a lot of artists in this field that are making great work … I think it's sometimes too controversial for a museum to do a show like this. Fortunately, having a foundation and not having any kind of board or having to really answer to anyone, we can make this happen." Experiencing the exhibition was impactful — especially Ren Light Pan's Sleeping Paintings (2015, 2021), which reflect the artist's gender transition, positioned alongside a bed where viewers were encouraged to rest beside a bouquet of decaying funeral flowers. Other visceral works included late artists Breyer P-Orridge's collaborative Alchymical Wedding (Study) (1997-2012) with its hand-blown glass container filled with hair, skin, and nails, and Ana Mendieta's unflinching nude self-portraits, Untitled (Glass on Body Imprints) (1972/1997), Adam Green, Bailey Summers at Green Family Art Foundation

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