Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/184659
THE POWER OF 3 ONCE THE BYWAY FOR WATTAGES OF ELECTRICAL CURRENT, A DEEP ELLUM SUBSTATION NOW FLOWS WITH CONTEMPORARY ART — IN A MOST AMPLIFIED MANNER. BY CHRISTINA GEYER. PORTRAITS STEVE WRUBEL. ARCHITECTURE RENOVATION RON WOMMACK. first look, a historic former Dallas Power & Light building erected at 3816 Commerce Street is simple — even modest in an industrial, characteristically Deep Ellum way. The three-story brick edifice is marked by the telling initials DP&L, Co., yet it is here, at the structure's façade, where the straightforwardness ends. This is The Power Station: the boundariespushing, not-for-profit art space founded by collectors Alden and Janelle Pinnell and funded by their namesake nonprofit, The Pinnell Foundation. "It's all carefully considered," Alden says of The Power Station. "It's a serious project." For this, he notes, is a Kunsthalle of sorts — an art facility wherein three artists a year are invited to live, work and construct long-term installations within the raw confines of its first and second floors. The building's dynamic roots run deep with energy, beginning in 1920 when it was one of three substations built by the Dallas Power & Light Company. It was at this very spot that power was received and distributed, illuminating the entirety of East Dallas. Nearly 80 years later, the Commerce Street building was converted into a living space, where Alden resided from 2000 to 2006. But it wasn't until April 2011 — after years of extensive research and travel, and a structural freshening and renovation by architect Ron Wommack — that The Power Station finally opened its doors to the Dallas art world. Projects such as this, founded on the principle of displaying world-class art in a unique, somewhat challenging setting, are prolific in Europe, but rare in the Southwest. "It's a laboratory in a way," says Alden, who found inspiration in international artist studios and the unconventional work of the Dia Art Foundation — a New York–based institution that encourages longstanding installations outside the traditional museum setting. In less than a year, The Power Station has become hallowed ground for ambitious, forward-thinking works and the internationally known artists who conceive them. The latest creator to take on these digs is Brooklyn-based artist Virginia Overton. Her installation, dubbed Deluxe, begins with a road trip she took from Norfolk, Virginia, to Memphis, Tennessee. The dusty-blue pickup truck she drove, as well as the myriad materials she found along the way — lumber, discarded furniture, electrical fittings — are all thoughtfully installed and on view through March 30. Prior to Overton, Norwegian artist and writer Matias Faldbakken had his AT Manager Danielle Avram Morgan Founder Alden Pinnell MICHAEL LYON PHOTOGRAPHY MICHAEL LYON PHOTOGRAPHY Above: Interior pages of Oscar Tuazon's exhibit catalog The nuts and bolts: An interior peek at the art space Left: Oscar Tuazon Die, published by The Power Station in a 1,000-piece edition FOR TOURS AND INFORMATION 214.827.0163 INFO@POWERSTATIONDALLAS.COM POWERSTATIONDALLAS.COM MARCH | PAGE 58 | 2012 go, responding to the massacre in Oslo, Norway, with his installation Oslo, Texas. As part of his work, Faldbakken covered the space's concrete floor with gun shells. Then, there was Die by Oscar Tuazon, the Parisbased artist who constructed a geometric array of monumental wood, concrete and metal sculptures. While preparing each exhibition, artists are asked to move into The Power Station's third-floor apartment. The sparsely furnished space is barren except for a simple wood-frame bed, a locker unit and mementos that each artist has left behind, from a framed collage by Tuazon to Overton's Texas maps and guidebooks. Alden explains, "The idea is that over time, people will look at these things and think, 'Oh, he stayed here?'" Leaving a lasting mark is a common thread, spun into every well-planned happening. With each exhibition, The Power Station publishes a catalog as an extension of the artist's work. Production of these limited-edition books is a creative process in itself; the artist helps dictate the editorial direction, from generating ideas for critical essays, suggesting writers, even contributing to each tome's literary content. Simply put, these publications provide yet another angle of understanding for each installation. But behind the artist scheduling, installations and book production, there is a detail-oriented world of planning. Enter The Power Station's en pointe manager, Danielle Avram Morgan. The sharp art guru comes by way of Georgia, where she was a curatorial assistant of photography and contemporary art at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. It was there that Avram Morgan worked under Jeffrey Grove, now the Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Dallas Museum of Art — a link that helped lead to her current post. From her sleek third-floor office, Avram Morgan assumes the role of expert juggler, multitasking the ins and outs of the Pinnells' vision and the operation's minutia. The next artist in line to light things up? Jacob Kassay, whose April 11 opening coincides with the debut of the Dallas Art Fair. In October, another exhibition — the starring artist is yet to be named — will pair with the TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art weekend.