Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1545129
From top: Emily Mae Smith, Poetry (Toy in Blood), 2024, at Dallas Museum of Art. Alex Katz, September Afternoon, 1994, at Dallas Museum of Art. Bruce Burris, Today Free Dental Clinic, 2022, at Spazio Morandi. Art Notes G raphic Pizzazz at DMA: Top to see is the Dallas Museum of Art's group exhibition culled from the remarkable trove of contemporary printmaker Brand X Editions, founded NYC, 1979, by master printer Robert Blanton. "X Marks the Spot" takes the viewer through the rich visual history of the avant-garde screen-printing press, which has collaborated with art titans across four decades, multiple generations, and a range of art movements, subjects, and aesthetics, from Pop Art to now. Among the 70-some works are inventive creations by Donald Sultan (wet ink rubbed with sand), Mickalene Thomas (applied collage), Robert Indiana, Marisol, Alex Katz, Rashid Johnson, Robert Kushner, Deborah Kass, KAWS, Emily Mae Smith, Tschabalala Self, Adam Pendleton, Daniel Arsham, Glenn Ligon, and the latest talent to produce an edition with Brand X, Loie Hollowell. The latter is known for her transcendentalist take on the human body. It's also a full-circle moment for the DMA, which was among the first museums to recognize screen printing as an art form (versus commercial application) by organizing an exhibition in 1940. "X Marks the Spot" marks a curatorial collaboration between the DMA and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where the show debuted. The DMA's Dr. Emily Friedman, exhibition co-curator, says in her press statement: "The works on view illustrate Brand X's special alchemy of artistic collaboration and technical mastery" (through November 8). Gallery Rising: How many art enterprises launch with a 10-point manifesto. Such was the case with Spazio M o r a n d i , a j o i n t venture between pals/ i n s i d e r s S t e f a n i a Morandi and Wanda W. Dye. We predict great things from this newly minted space at 203 S. Haskell, on the edge of Deep Ellum. Spazio Morandi bridges the worlds of interior design (Morandi) and art (the curatorial chops of Dye), all while holding court in a hundred-year-old building, the former Haskell Hotel. With an inaugural show for cool, deadpan Brad Tucker of the DIY '90s and aughts skateboard culture, as well as this month's smart group view, "Put It in Writing," Spazio Morandi promises to make Deep Ellum relevant again. The latter, a s i x - p e r s o n s h o w spun around artists incorporating text, encompasses works by Oregon-based Bruce Burris alongside elevated Texans Stephen Abernathy, Candace Hicks, Ludwig Schwarz, Michael Wynne, and Allison V. Smith (through June 20). Smith contributes a limited-edition photo of I . M . P e i 's e n d a n g e re d B r u t a l i s t masterpiece, Dallas City Hall, whose sales include a donation to the Save Dallas City Hall coalition. Catherine D. Anspon PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART. COURTESY THE ARTIST, BRAND X EDITIONS, AND PETZEL, NYC. PHOTO BY SARAH CROOP. PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART. © 2026 ALEX KATZ / ARS, NYC. PHOTO BY SARAH CROOP. 38