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T exas volleys a visual m i l e s t o n e T h u r s d a y through Sunday, April 4 t h ro u g h 7 , w h e n Dallas Art Fair returns to Fashion Industry Gallery for its 16th edition, with 91 international, national, and Texas galleries. Co-founded by visionary developer John Sughrue and led by longtime director Kelly Cornell, this influential boutique fair in the heart of the Dallas Arts District has come a long way from its fledgling arrival in 2009 during precarious financial times. Flash forward, and Dallas Arts Month, staged annually each April, is a spinoff of the fair, as is one important entity that no other place in Texas currently has in such abundance. That would be collectors. With the exception of the niche collecting group Latin American Maecenas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Dallas has undeniably eclipsed every other city in Texas as a 21st-century nexus for investigating and acquiring visual culture. Expect big players come April, arriving from 49 cities in 17 countries, including global powerhouses Perrotin a n d M a r l b o r o u g h a n d u n i q u e internationals such as Mexico City dealer Proyectos Monclova; London-based gallerists Hales Gallery, Josh Lilley, and TAFETA (with its topical focus on 20th-century and contemporary African art); Italian export SECCI; and, in from Dublin, the elevated Kerlin Gallery. Among the U.S. delegation are iconic- to-cool NYC dealers, including Derek Eller Gallery, Fredericks & Freiser, Franklin Parrasch (home to West Coast pioneers such as Peter Alexander, Billy Al Bengston, and John Altoon, as well as mythic Texan Forrest Bess), Yossi Milo, and DIMIN; buzzy Southerners SOCO Gallery of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Wolfgang Gallery of Atlanta; plentiful L.A. action (always one of the fair's calling cards), especially Shulamit Nazarian, Anat Ebgi, Louis Stern Fine Arts, Charlie James Art Fair DALLAS Sweet Gallery, Luis De Jesus L o s A n g e l e s , M a r c Selwyn Fine Art (ask for work by Jay DeFeo of The Rose fame), and Rusha & Co.; as well as bi-coastal decorative arts source Hostler Burrows ( N Y C , L . A . ) . T h e s e dealers join 15 Texas-founded galleries, including Houston trifecta Inman Gallery, McClain Gallery, and Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino. Turn to page 44 for insider insights from three Dallas art-world cognoscenti. Peruse papercitymag.com for updates, including our reveal of what top Texas galleries are planning for their booths. From top: Carter Flachbarth's SFTLY, 2024, at Wolfgang Gallery. JooYoung Choi's The Table of Love, 2022, at Inman Gallery. David Aylsworth's Fraughter Than I Thought, 2023, at Inman Gallery. John Alexander's Night Stalker, 1991, at McClain Gallery. All images courtesy the artists and their respective galleries. Dallas Art Fair, April 4 – 7, at Fashion Industry Gallery; Dallas Art Fair Foundation Preview Benefit, Thursday, April 4, 5 to 9 pm, supporting Dallas Contemporary, Dallas Museum of Art, and Nasher Sculpture Center; tickets, dealer lineup, info dallasartfair.com. Catherine D. Anspon THOMAS DUBROCK ALLYSON HUNTSMAN 28