Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1543536
OBSESSIONS. DECORATION. SALIENT FACTS. T exas becomes the epicenter of the contemporary art world Thursday through Sunday, April 16 through 19, when Dallas Art Fair returns to Fashion Industry Gallery for its 18th edition, with 87 international, national, and Texas galleries confirmed at press time. Co-founded by visionary developer John Sughrue and led by longtime director Kelly Cornell, with VIP relations director Sarah Blagden, this influential boutique fair in the heart of the Dallas Arts District has birthed the citywide cultural phenomenon Dallas Arts Month, staged annually each April. Together, they redefine our state as a nexus for investigating and acquiring today's most important avant-garde art. Expect big players come April, as well as those with independent vision, as the fair showcases galleries that deal art in more than 30 cities and hamlets spanning five continents. Among the highlights: global powerhouse Perrotin; unique internationals such as Mexico City dealers OMR, Galería Ethra, and Saenger Galería; London-based gallerists including Cadogan, Hales Gallery, Josh Lilley Gallery, and Ronchini Gallery; Italian exports SECCI and Luce Gallery; the elevated Kerlin Gallery, in from Dublin; intriguing Japanese dealers including Osaka- based Tezukayama Gallery, Koki Arts of Clockwise from top: Rick Owens' Plug Table, 2013, at Carpenters Workshop Gallery. John McAllister's lazing incandesce no less (detail), 2020, at James Fuentes Gallery. Daniel Rios Rodriguez's BB Chiskis, 2012-2025, at Seven Sisters. Tokyo, and Tokyo/NYC Seizan Gallery; and Sydney gallerist PIERMARQ*, bringing its smart global- to-Aussie stable. Notable design dealer Carpenters Workshop Gallery underscores a new direction for the fair in the realm of museum-caliber functional art and design; London-founded, with additional locations in NYC, L.A., and Paris, Carpenters is home to talents such as Rick Owens and the Campana Brothers. Among the U.S. delegation are NYC dealers including ACA Galleries, Canada, Hollis Taggart, Franklin Parrasch Gallery (home to West Coast pioneers such as Peter Alexander, Billy Al Bengston, John Altoon, and the mythic Texan Forrest Bess), Yossi Milo, and Morgan Lehman Gallery, as well as Brooklyn dealer Carvalho; buzzy Southerners SOCO Gallery of Charlotte and new arrival Sheet Cake Gallery of Memphis; and Detroit's Library Street Collective, whose stable includes Dallas- based master of Black-narrative tableaux Jammie Holmes and Houston's reductive modernist Paul Kremer. Showcasing L.A. action (always one of the fair's calling cards) are Anat Ebgi, Louis Stern Fine Arts, Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Make Room, Michael Kohn Gallery, and newcomers Jacob Arthur Gallery and Philip Martin Gallery, the latter presenting a solo for Canadian painter Sky Glabush. These dealers join 16 Texas-founded galleries, including must-check-out dealers making their DAF debut: Dallas' James Harris Gallery and Nature of Things, as well as Houston's new powerhouse Seven Sisters. Just in: Dallas Art Fair partners with Bank of America on the inaugural Dallas ArtPrize to the tune of $20,000, which goes this spring to UT grad/Massachusetts-based painter John McAllister; you'll find his Day- Glo landscapes in James Fuentes Gallery's booth. In other news, fair director Kelly Cornell has an additional big-brim art hat to wear. While she continues in her high- profile position as Dallas Art Fair director, a post she's held since 2016, now Cornell has also been anointed as director of The Aspen Art Fair, unfurling its third edition this summer, July 29 through August 1, at Hotel Jerome (aspenartfair.org). Dallas Art Fair, April 16 – 19, at Fashion Industry Gallery; Dallas Art Fair Foundation Preview Benefit, Thursday, April 16, 5 to 9 pm, supporting Dallas Contemporary, Dallas Museum of Art, and Nasher Sculpture Center; fair admission from $40, Preview Benefit $275; tickets and dealer lineup, dallasartfair.com. Catherine D. Anspon 18 Candles Dallas Art Fair 32