Editor’s Note

October / November 2022

TERRI PROVENCAL

Publisher / Editor in Chief terri@patronmagazine.com Instagram terri_provencal and patronmag

During this all-inclusive season, visual art punctuates the months of October and November in its many surprising forms. Working within a wide range of media—sculpture, film, painting, drawing, and installation—Rashid Johnson is this year’s TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art amfAR Honored Artist. He is among the pantheon of artists who commit not only to their own practice but also foster the work of today’s emerging artists. Johnson’s Seascape “Jitter Bug” enhances our cover, a painting donated to TWO x TWO to raise funds for amfAR and the Dallas Museum of Art. Anna Katherine Brodbeck, DMA’s Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, caught up with the remarkable artist in Rashid Johnson’s Space of Sovereignty and of Contemplation.

Art star Matthew Wong’s meteoric rise was cut short by a tragic, untimely death that sent shock waves through the art community. Lucky to have met him during his prolific six years of painting in earnest, I too was struck by his quiet spirit and talent that runneth over, that combined influences from artists and art movements he admired. Matthew Wong: The Realm of Appearances, curated by Vivian Li, the Lupe Murchison Curator of Contemporary Art, opens at the DMA this month. Read about his life and work in Fallen Star Burns Bright by Nancy Cohen Israel.

The fascinating Richard Prince, a pioneer of appropriation art, is the subject of a new show opening at The Karpidas Collection this month, organized by Sara Hignite. Eve Hill-Agnus describes the work of the enfant terrible in Picture Show, which will include an exhibition catalogue edited by Hignite and featuring esteemed art contributors.

Black Abstraction: From Then ‘til Now, curated by Dexter Wimberly, brings together a cadre of works by major art figures and midcareer artists, reframing the history of abstraction. The show opens this month at the Green Family Art Foundation’s new space in the Dallas Arts District; Darryl Ratcliff offers insight in A Visual History in Color.

The Kimbell Art Museum marks its 50th Anniversary with an exhibition that takes us back to the time of Murillo and the secular subjects he painted with the same signature soft-focus, predilection for realism, and delicate hand with which he treated his religious subjects. Brian Allen takes us through Murillo: From Heaven to Earth in The Extraordinary Ordinary.

Moving from exhibitions to the stage, Trammell Crow of EarthxFilm and Michael Cain president of M3 Films joined forces to bring Sibylle Szaggars Redford’s The Way of the Rain—Hope for Earth to Dallas Symphony this month. It’s a multimedia performance with spoken word by Robert Redford. Lee Cullum describes the collaborative work in Sibylle Szaggars Redford’s Conservation Cry.

Gabrielle Goliath’s Chorus, a two-channel video installation, addresses an unspeakable event through voices in union on view at Dallas Contemporary. The lament, in the form of a hum, gives permanence to the lost life of a young college student, Uyinene Mrwetyana, but also includes a roll call of other victims of violence within these communities in South Africa. Curated by Emily Edwards, the work of this South African artist, who dedicates her life work to reverence, beauty, and ritual, will be the subject of discourse regarding violence against women, children, and LGBTIQ persons.

Also in this issue, Chris Byrne visits with curator Phillip E. Collins regarding Fire! The Resurrection of Mr. Imagination, on view at the African American Museum in Fair Park. Steve Carter’s In Glorious Black and White accentuates the sumi ink work of Dallas-based artist Nishiki Sugawara-Beda. Brandon Kennedy plumbs the work of Matthew Ronay in Amorphus Body Study Center, and tells of Gavin Morrison’s work with Atopia Projects in The Curse of Exile Within the Limits of a Particular Landscape: And Charlie Adamski Caulkins highlights her picks from TWO x TWO in Auction.

Speaking With Light: Contemporary Indigenous Photography at the Amon Carter brings together the intentionality of Indigenous artists determined to reclaim their identity and conversation. We admire art that speaks loudly. Enjoy the issue.