PATRON's August/September 2026 | The Art & Design Issue
THE
ART & DESIGN ISSUE
ART MEETS ARCHITECTURE: Bodron/Fruit Designs
DAVID BATES
HUMA BHABHA
JONATHAN BOROFSKY
ANTHONY CARO
TONY CRAGG
MICHAEL CRAIG-MARTIN
RAÚL DE NIEVES
ARIA DEAN
MARK DI SUVERO
JIM DINE
LEONARDO DREW
JEAN DUBUFFET
BARRY FLANAGAN
LIAM GILLICK
KATHARINA GROSSE
KAWS
JOAN MIRÓ
JONATHAN MONK
HENRY MOORE
IVÁN NAVARRO
PAMELA NELSON AND
ROBERT A. WILSON
JEAN-MICHEL OTHONIEL
BEVERLY PEPPER
DEBORAH ROBERTS
JOEL SHAPIRO
FRANK STELLA
HANK WILLIS THOMAS
LEO VILLAREAL
URSULA VON RYDINGSVARD
ANDY WARHOL
HE XIANGYU
A MUSEUM UNLIKE ANY OTHER. THE ART OF SHOPPING.
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EDITOR’S NOTE
August / September 2026
TERRI PROVENCAL
Publisher / Editor in Chief terri@patronmagazine.com
Instagram terri_provencal and patronmag
Some homes impress because they're large. Others because they’re lavish. The one on our cover earns your attention for a different reason: its confidence. Designed from the ground up by Bodron/Fruit, with art advisory by Michael E. Thomas, it demonstrates what happens when architecture, interiors, and art are treated not as competing elements but as collaborators. Sterling Ruby’s TURBINE. LITANY OF HAWKS., 2024, provides an unmistakable jolt of color and energy, reinforcing a residence conceived as much for contemplation as for living.
That spirit of thoughtful restraint continues in Erin Sander Design’s The Sophisticate, an expansive home where art, natural light, and disciplined editing prove that sophistication is often about knowing what to leave out.
Elsewhere in the issue, Ben Lima explores the remarkable tradition of Japanese bamboo art in Bending the Rules, tracing the medium’s evolution through works from the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation collection, which will be on view this fall at the Crow Museum of Asian Art in the Dallas Arts District. Nancy Cohen Israel previews Picasso: Beyond the Canvas at the Meadows Museum, opening August 23, an exhibition that turns its focus to one of the artist’s most inventive—and often overlooked—chapters: his ceramics.
Much of this issue is seen through the discerning eye of Rob Brinkley, whose reporting and observations shape both our featured homes and many of the stories in Space. That continuity is fitting. The most memorable interiors are rarely about individual rooms; they’re about the conversation between them. Here Rob turns his attention to the season ahead with designer Doniphan Moore, who makes a persuasive case that fall decorating is less about adding than editing. Alice Cottrell heads south to Austin, returning with a short list of design discoveries that justify the drive, and a stay overnight.
Back in Dallas, Heritage Auctions prepares to offer an extraordinary François Linke Coquille table, while we celebrate several of the inaugural recipients of the AIA Dallas Residential Design Awards. We also linger over a striking two-story fireplace clad in book-matched Eclipse Black granite through Texas Counter Fitters, detailed by Elaine Raffel, and take stock of the Knox Street neighborhood, where projects like The Knox, Auberge Collection hotel, and design destinations such as KD Biel signal an enclave confidently coming into its own.
One of the most encouraging signs of any city’s cultural health is the way art becomes more than something to admire—it becomes something that rallies a community. This fall, Dallas offers several compelling examples. Dallas Contemporary’s Candela gala, chaired by Catalina Gonzalez Jorba, Peter Augustus Owen, and Ramiro Garcia, promises to ignite the season on September 26 while honoring Iván Argote, whose How to Move a Monument on a Tuesday Morning opens at the kunsthalle the following week. As Dallas Contemporary—a nearly 50-year-old noncollecting museum—looks toward its future, Jeremy Strick and John McBride reflect on the institution's distinctive role in The Kunsthalle Advantage, in conversation with writer Ben Lima.
Meanwhile, Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center again turns to the city’s artistic community in support of its mission. For the Art for Advocacy Colors of Courage gala, local artists contribute works that will be exhibited at NorthPark Center before the September 12 auction, underscoring the many ways creativity can shape a community not only through what it expresses, but through what it makes possible.
And finally, congratulations are in order. Mark Lamster, recipient of the 2026 Pulitzer Prize, publishes his new book, Welcome to Paradox City, this month through Deep Vellum. It is an apt reminder that the best writing about cities, like the best architecture, has a way of making the familiar seem surprising again.
–Terri Provencal
FEATURES
58 A LIFE FOR LOOKING
Architecture, interiors, and art come together in a Dallas home designed for contemplation.
By Rob Brinkley
66 ROOM TO BREATHE
Designer Erin Sander fashions an expansive residence shaped by art, light, and the discipline of restraint.
By Rob Brinkley
74 BENDING THE RULES
An exhibition of Japanese bamboo art from the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation celebrates innovation in an ancient material.
By Ben Lima
78 PICASSO MULTIPLIED
A landmark Tonti family gift expands the Meadows Museum’s Picasso collection—and enriches its holdings of Goya and Chillida.
By Nancy Cohen Israel
82 THE NEW LUMINARIES
The trio making Candela one of the art world’s brightest nights. By Terri
Provencal
88 FRAMING A BRIGHTER FUTURE
Inside the annual exhibition and auction transforming creativity into critical support for children on the journey to healing.
By Terri Provencal
On the cover: Sterling Ruby’s TURBINE. LITANY OF HAWKS. , 2024, sets a bold visual while Ricky Swallow’s Standing Half Vessel (Gold), 2010, rests atop a KGBL Blackburn coffee table, through Sutherland. Photograph by John Smith.
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DEPARTMENTS
6 Editor’s Note 12 Contributors
26 Noted
Contemporaries
42 THE KUNSTHALLE ADVANTAGE
As Dallas Contemporary enters a new chapter, Jeremy Strick and John McBride reflect on the unique possibilities of a noncollecting museum.
By Ben Lima
Studio
44 GROUND WORK
Jarrod Beck makes drawings in, on, and against the world. His studio is wherever that takes him.
By Eve Hill-Agnus
Space
46 ALICE COTTRELL’S AUSTIN EDIT
Known for blending vintage finds into modern interiors, the Dallas interior designer shares her favorite spots just three hours south.
By Rob Brinkley
48 THE SOULFUL SHIFT
Doniphan Moore shares a more considered approach to fall decorating.
By Rob Brinkley
50 KNOX EDITED
Architecture, interiors, and hospitality converge in a new chapter for one of the most walkable Dallas neighborhoods.
By Terri Provencal
52 A NEW IDEA OF HOME IN NORTH TEXAS
AIA Dallas honors 14 projects exploring a wide range of approaches to contemporary living.
By Terri Provencal
54 HAUTE ROCKS
Natural stone for timeless interiors.
By Elaine Raffel
56 FRANÇOIS LINKE’S MASTERPIECE COMES TO MARKET
Heritage Auctions presents an extraordinary work from the pinnacle of the Belle Époque.
There 93 CAMERAS COVERING CULTURAL EVENTS
Furthermore
96 A MIRROR TO THE FUTURE
Mark Lamster’s Welcome to Paradox City: A Critical History of Dallas as Told Through Its Architecture.
By Brandon Kennedy
CONTRIBUTORS
ROB BRINKLEY
is a writer, editor, and creative director whose career spans social media, short films, and books. He co-authored the Assouline book Domestic Art: Curated Interiors, a celebration of composed spaces. With a discerning eye for design and storytelling, in this issue he detailed a home designed by Erin Sander and a residence by Bodron/Fruit with art advisory by Michael E. Thomas, and he checked in with Doniphan Moore and Alice Cottrell on fall home finds.
LAUREN CHRISTENSEN has three decades of experience in advertising and marketing. As a principal of L+S Creative Group, she consults with nonprofits and businesses in many sectors, including retail, real estate, and hospitality. Lauren is a Dallas native and a graduate of SMU. Her clean, contemporary aesthetic and generous spirit make Lauren the perfect choice to art direct Patron
NANCY
COHEN ISRAEL
is an art historian, writer, and educator at the Meadows Museum. Based in Dallas, she is an ongoing contributor to Patron, where she covers the city’s arts scene. After her summer trip to Belgium, Nancy dove into the exciting forthcoming exhibition Picasso: Beyond the Canvas, opening August 23, which highlights 18 ceramic objects, including works donated from the Tonti Collection, at the Meadows Museum.
EVE HILL-AGNUS
is a writer, editor, and translator with roots in both France and California and a BA and MFA from Stanford University. An award-winning writer, her career spans teaching literature and journalism, critiquing dining, and writing across genres—from nonfiction and fiction to poetry. Ground Work takes Eve inside the nomadic studio of Terlingua-based artist Jarrod Beck during his residency in Corsicana.
BEN LIMA is the founding editor of Athenaeum Review, the UT Dallas journal of arts and ideas. Born in the Bay Area of California, he studied art history at Harvard and Yale. For Patron, Ben found John McBride, Dallas Contemporary’s new interim executive director, and strategic advisor Jeremy Strick busy in their new roles. He also previewed the Crow Museum’s Twisted, Plaited, Sculpted, featuring Japanese bamboo art drawn from the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation collection.
TREY BURNS
is an artist and writer who cofounded Sweet Pass Sculpture Park. He moderated the Nasher Graduate Symposium and authored the keynote essay for the 2025 Nasher Prize Compendium on artist Otobong Nkanga. Burns is a 2024/2025 Research Fellow at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, UK. He currently lectures at Texas State University. In Ground Work he documented Jarrod Beck’s studio at the Corsicana Artist & Writer Residency.
BRANDON KENNEDY
is an artist, book scout and collector, and freelance curator and writer. He is the proprietor of 00ps b00ks, a project charting the margins and overlaps of used/ rare/collectible art/ books/culture and the persistent demands of commerce. In this issue, Brandon discusses the new book by Dallas Morning News architecture critic Mark Lamster, a 2026 Pulitzer Prize winner, in Framing the Future.
PEYTON MIXON
is a photographer and founder of Mixon It Up Photography. Through bold color, movement, and constructed light, she creates portraiture and event imagery that explore embodiment, performance, and human connection. Her practice emphasizes immersive visual storytelling and photographs that feel both energetic and emotionally grounded. Peyton is Patron’s go-to photographer for arts and culture events, bringing her keen eye to the people shaping the arts community.
ELAINE RAFFEL
is a local creative director, stylist, and graphic designer who brings her expertise in fashion and luxury goods to Patron ’s pages, drawing from her extensive experience working with leading names in the retail industry. In these pages, she turned her refined eye to the art of stone in Haute Rocks, which features a fireplace, in Eclipse Black granite from Texas Counter Fitters, that anchors Lauren Rose Sanders’ home.
NATHAN SCHRODER
is an editorial interior and architectural photographer with more than 25 years of experience specializing in high-end residential design. His attention to detail ensures that each image strikes a perfect balance between technical precision and artistic expression. Nathan photographed the featured design project by Erin Sander in Room to Breathe, bringing his signature attention to detail and collaborative approach to capturing the space.
JOHN SMITH is a photographer whose architectural background lends a sculptural sensibility to capture spaces as living expressions. His appreciation for projects by architects, interior designers, and artists is evidenced through his 25 years of experience behind the camera. In A Life for Looking , John captures the essence of a home and art collection designed by Bodron/Fruit with art advisory by Michael E. Thomas.
PUBLISHER | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Terri Provencal terri@patronmagazine.com
ART DIRECTION
Lauren Christensen
DIGITAL MANAGER/PUBLISHING COORDINATOR
Anthony Falcon
COPY EDITOR
Sophia Dembling
PRODUCTION
Michele Rodriguez
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Rob Brinkley
Nancy Cohen Israel
Eve Hill-Agnus
Brandon Kennedy
Ben Lima
Elaine Raffel
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Trey Burns
Sydney Brown
Jeremy Daniel
Charles Davis Smith
Stephen Karlisch
Matt Lemoine
Joan Marcus
Peyton Mixon
Marc Montplaisir
Matthew Murphy
Katilin Saragusa
Nathan Schroeder
John Smith
Allison V. Smith
Kevin Todora
Sherwin Rivera Tibayan
Robert Tsai
Joshua White
ADVERTISING info@patronmagazine.com or by calling (214) 642-1124
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York, 2023; Entanglement, 2022. Emmanuel Taku. Screenprint, printed in
of
X Editions, New York, 2023. Courtesy the Artist studio and
Shakuntala Kulkarni, Photo Performance: Juhu Beach, 2010–12
Photography by Shivani Gupta, Production Support
Arundhati Chattopadhyaya, Art Direction
Samarth Art Service, Processing and Printing by Photokina, Courtesy
the Artist and Chemould Prescott Road Gallery, L2026.7.3
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Dallas Contemporary invites you to an evening inspired by the cultural awakening of 1950s Latin America an immersive celebration of art, design, and community rooted in the heat, rhythm, and elegance of a world that has never stopped moving.
by Ann
let it be known far and wide, the 2026 Gala marks a bold new chapter for Dallas Contemporary. Tables, tickets & sponsorship opportunities available at dallascontemporary.org/gala-2026
Presented
& John McReynolds. Co-Chairs: Catalina Gonzalez Jorba, Peter Augustus Owen, and Ramiro Garcia. Honorary Co-Chairs: Joyce Goss & Kenny Goss. Honorary Artist: Iván Argote.
30th Anniversary Texas Art Auction Saturday, October 10th, 2026
David Dike Fine Art will host the highly anticipated 30th Anniversary Texas Art Auction on Saturday, October 10th at the gallery in Alpha Plaza. The sale will be a live auction and will showcase over 300 lots of Texas Art ranging from early and traditional to contemporary works. Headlining in this year’s auction are two major Merritt Mauzey paintings from the 1930s and 40s, along with a strong selection of paintings by Everett Spruce, William Lester, John Douglass and others.
This exciting sale will be conducted live by auctioneer Jason Brooks TXS 16216. There will be In-Person Bidding, Live On-line Bidding, Phone, and Absentee Bidding. Auction guests will enjoy Bubbles and Bites, catered by Rodeo Goat.
Auction Date: Saturday, October 10th – Doors open at 9:00 AM; Bidding starts promptly at 10:00 AM, CST
Preview & Auction Location:
Preview Dates & Times:
David Dike Fine Art September 21st – October 9th, 2026 4887 Alpha Rd., Suite 210 Mon-Fri: 10 AM - 5PM
Farmers Branch, TX 75244
If you have any questions, please contact the gallery by sending us an email: info@daviddike.com or call: 214-270-4044
DeForrest
NOTED
THE LATEST CULTURAL NEWS COVERING ALL ASPECTS OF THE ARTS IN NORTH TEXAS: NEW EXHIBITS, NEW PERFORMANCES, GALLERY OPENINGS, AND MORE.
01
AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM
Through Aug. 11, People Who Make the World Go ‘Round: The Legacy of Sepia Magazine spotlights some of the 20th century’s most influential Black icons, from Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles to Maya Angelou, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Thurgood Marshall The exhibition draws from the museum’s renowned Sepia photographic archive of more than 40,000 images. Mandela: The Official Exhibition remains on view through Nov. 1. Developed in collaboration with the Mandela family, the immersive exhibition traces the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela through four experiential galleries exploring his journey from rural South Africa to the presidency. Image: Mandela: The Official Exhibition Courtesy of the African American Museum, Dallas. aamdallas.org
03 CROW MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS
At the Dallas Arts District location, Fire and Earth: Early Chinese Pottery from the MacLean Collection remains on view through Sep. 26, 2027; Paper Knife: Objects of Beauty in Early Modern Japan through Aug. 29, 2027; Du Chau: Tracing the Threads of Memory through Mar. 14, 2027; and The Rainbow My Mother Shows Me: Echo Morgan through
Oct. 11. At the UT Dallas campus new exhibitions include Unseen Worlds: Southeast Asian Textiles from the Spancake Collection, opening Aug. 22 and on view through Jun. 20, 2027, and The Hedge of Halomancy, opening Aug. 29 and continuing through Feb. 21, 2027. Intersections: Photographs by Carolyn Brown continues through Mar. 28, 2027. Image: Canopy for shamanic and Buddhist rituals, early 20th century, cotton canvas with pigments, Myanmarese, Shan State. On loan from Steven and Jenny Spancake. Crow Museum of Asian Art. Photograph by Kevin Todora. Courtesy of UT Dallas. crowmuseum.org
04 DALLAS CONTEMPORARY
Francisco Moreno: Historia Sintética , curated by Thomas Feulmer, highlights DC through Aug. 30. In his first solo museum presentation, Dallas-based Mexican American artist Francisco Moreno presents new mural-scale paintings and immersive works that merge Old Master traditions with science fiction, mythology, and Mexican iconography, exploring cultural hybridity, history, and the narratives that shape identity dallascontemporary.org
05 DALLAS HOLOCAUST AND HUMAN RIGHTS MUSEUM
The Walt Disney Studios and World War II features more than 500 artifacts, film clips, and original artworks. This traveling exhibition explores how Walt Disney and his studio supported the Allied war effort through training films, propaganda, military insignia, and morale-boosting animation following the attack on Pearl Harbor. On view through Sep. 10. dhhrm.org
06
DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART
Samurai to the Imperial Court: Japanese Metalwork continues through Sep. 6 and showcases more than 90 works spanning five centuries of Japanese metal artistry, from samurai armor and weaponry to imperial commissions, enameled vessels, and sculptural forms drawn from the DMA and major private collections. Paradise on Earth: Florals in Indian Textiles, through Nov. 15, explores the enduring influence of plant and floral motifs across India’s 6,000year textile tradition, bringing together Mughal-era garments, embroidered shawls, carpets, and contemporary fashion pieces. X Marks the Spot: Contemporary Screenprinting at Brand X Editions remains on view through Nov. 8. Image: Emily Mae Smith, Poetry (Toy in Blood), 2024, screenprint, printed in 47 colors. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of Brand X Editions, New York, 2024. Courtesy of the artist, Brand X Editions, and Petzel, New York. dma.org
NOTED: VISUAL ARTS
07 GEORGE W. BUSH
PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
America’s Birthday: A History of Independence Day StoryWalk , through Oct. 31, traces how celebrations have evolved across generations through an outdoor exhibition exploring the traditions and history behind America’s Independence Day. Game Changer: United by Sports, opening Sep. 6 and continuing through Jan. 10, 2027, explores the role of sports in shaping American history through more than 50 artifacts and memorabilia connected to iconic athletes, historic moments, and the unifying power of competition. bushcenter.org
The inaugural Dallas Latino Film Festival, takes place Sep. 5. The festival celebrates Latino filmmakers and stories through screenings of independent films from across the United States and Latin America. lcc.dallasculture.org
10 MEADOWS MUSEUM
Spectacles of Power and Faith: Colonial South American Art from the Thoma Foundation and Picasso Beyond the Canvas open Aug. 23 and run through Jan. 24, 2027. Spectacles of Power and Faith brings together 63 paintings from the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation exploring colonial art produced in present-day Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, while Picasso Beyond the Canvas presents 18 ceramic works by Pablo Picasso, highlighting the artist’s inventive approach to clay during the height of his ceramic practice. meadowsmuseumdallas.org
11 MODERN ART MUSEUM
OF FORT WORTH
Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers, remaining on view through Sep. 27, marks the artist’s largest exhibition to date and his first major museum survey in more than a decade. Bringing together nearly 90 works across painting, sculpture, film, and installation, the exhibition traces Johnson’s evolving practice and its engagement with history, philosophy, and Black popular culture, exploring themes of identity, masculinity, and self-reflection. themodern.org
12 MUSEUM OF BIBLICAL ART
The Color of Devotion, through Aug. 16, reveals Sister Mary Frances
Judge’s lifelong pursuit to translate faith into form. From her quiet studio to international installations, the exhibition traces her journey of luminous abstraction. Awakened Horizons: The Art of Meditative Place by Jeffrey Brosk opens Sep. 10. Through sculpture and immersive installations, Brosk draws on the landscapes of the American West, using natural materials. biblicalarts.org
13 NASHER SCULPTURE CENTER
Sculptures and Related Works by Roy Lichtenstein is on display through Oct. 24, presenting prints, drawings, and sculptures from a major joint acquisition gifted by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. Through Aug. 16, Nic Nicosia: Everyday Surreal is a survey of the last 25 years of the artist’s five-decade career that reveals the material and conceptual evolution of one of the city’s most important living artists. Opening Sep. 19 and continuing through Mar. 21, 2027, in his first exhibition organized by a Texas museum, Bruce Nauman: Identical presents recent sculptures and drawings of animal forms that extend his longstanding exploration of artistic practice, the studio, and the role of the artist. nashersculpturecenter.org
14
PEROT MUSEUM OF NATURE AND SCIENCE
Soccer: More Than a Game, through Sep. 7, presents a fast-paced, interactive exhibition that explores how physics, biology, and technology shape the world’s most popular sport. Through handson challenges and behind-the-scenes innovations, the exhibition examines performance, teamwork, and design inspired by World Cup soccer’s return to North Texas. Image: Soccer: More Than A Game. Courtesy of Perot Museum of Nature and Science. perotmuseum.org
15 SIXTH FLOOR MUSEUM
On Assignment: Dallas Times Herald 1963 places visitors inside the newsroom during the weekend of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination through original photographs, field notes, press credentials, and Pulitzer Prize–winning images created by Dallas Times Herald reporters and photographers. Centered around a recreated 1960s newsroom, the exhibition explores how journalists documented the unfolding national crisis in real time while navigating the pressures of deadline reporting and the responsibility of telling history as it happened. On view through Mar. 28, 2027. jfk.org
16 TYLER MUSEUM OF ART
Keith Carter’s Peaceable Kingdom: Photographs from the Wittliff Collections remains on view through Sep. 26, featuring photographs by Carter that examine the relationships between humans and animals. Encased: Jessica Ninci, through Aug. 30, presents ceramic works inspired by objects collected along the Texas coast, and At 55: Recent Acquisitions & Collection Highlights, through Aug. 9, showcases recent additions to the museum’s permanent collection alongside collection highlights. tylermuseum.org
01 AMPHIBIAN
The Shark Is Broken runs through Aug. 16. Before Jaws ate the box office alive, three actors nearly ate each other. Trapped on a boat with a broken mechanical shark, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, and Roy Scheider turn a film delay into a testosterone-soaked pressure cooker. Les Liaisons Dangereuses continues as part of the Screening at the Modern series on Aug. 16. BAFTA Award-winner Lesley Manville ( Phantom Thread ) joins Aidan Turner ( Rivals) in a striking new staging of Christopher Hampton’s celebrated adaptation of the classic novel. amphibianstage.com
02 AT&T PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
See Rick Ross’s Port of Miami: Celebrating 20 Years of BO$$ Classics on Aug. 22; Classic Albums Live: Hotel California is next on Aug. 29. September opens with Undertale: The Determination Symphony, Sep. 4–6; Boosie and Webbie, Sep. 5; and AFRIMMA Music Fest, Sep. 12, the ultimate celebration of African music, fashion, and culture at the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Annette Strauss Square. Dance Me: The Music of Leonard Cohen, Sep. 18–19, presented by TITAS/ DANCE UNBOUND, was created with Leonard Cohen’s personal blessing, bringing a breathtaking translation of a legend’s soul into an exciting new show. Late Night Catechism: ‘Til Death Do Us Part, Sep. 18–20, brings the sister back to tackle the Sacraments of Marriage and Last Rights at the Wyly Studio Theatre. Image: Ballets Jazz Montréal, Dance Me: The Music by Leonard Cohen. Photograph by Marc Montplaisir. Courtesy of TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND. attpac.org
03 BASS PERFORMANCE
HALL
Suffs , the Tony Award–winning musical by Shaina Taub, Aug. 4–9, follows the women who fought for the right to vote, exploring the triumphs and complexities of the American suffrage movement. Image: Part of the Broadway at the Bass Series presented by PNC Bank, Monica Tulia Ramirez (Inez Milholland) and company in the First National Tour of Suffs . Photograph by Joan Marcus, 2025. basshall.com
04 BROADWAY DALLAS
The Sound of Music opens Sep. 8 and runs through Sept. 20 as part of the 2026/27 Broadway Series at the Music Hall at Fair Park. Directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien (Hairspray), this vibrant and romantic tale of Maria and the von Trapp family will captivate audiences with its universal themes of love, resilience, and the power of music. Join the Dan and Phil: Hard Launch World Tour on Sep. 24 for a night of outrageous oversharing, scream-laughing, and celebration. Image: Broadway Dallas presents The Sound of Music. Photograph by Jeremy Daniel. broadwaydallas.org
05 CASA MAÑANA
The Music of Elton John returns for one night only on Aug. 22, followed by Ain’t Too Proud, Sep. 12–20. The Broadway musical tells the story of The Temptations through the group’s greatest hits, from “My Girl” to “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone.” casamanana.org
06 THE CLIBURN
Cliburn Concerts celebrates America’s 250th anniversary at Bass Performance Hall with All-American Concerto Evening , featuring three iconic concertos performed by renowned American soloists with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Spano. cliburn.org.
07 DALLAS BLACK DANCE THEATRE
Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s 2026/2027 50 Years in Motion anniversary season brings DanceAfrica to the Moody Performance Hall, October 9-10. dbdt.com
08 DALLAS CHILDREN’S THEATER
Stay tuned for Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience based on the hit children’s book by Mo Willems on Oct. 3. dct.org
09 THE DALLAS OPERA
Mark your calendars for the comedic opera The Elixir of Love on Oct. 9, where a hopeless romantic falls head over heels for the town’s schoolteacher, who barely notices he exists. Along comes a traveling salesman with the perfect “magical elixir” to give him all his heart desires. dallasopera.org
10 DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Highlights at the Dallas Symphony include Harry Potter and the HalfBlood Prince in Concert, Sep. 4–6; The Music of Elvis with Frankie Moreno, Sep. 11–13; a recital by Lang Lang on Sep. 15; and Scheherazade & Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, Sep. 24 and 27. The annual Dallas Symphony Gala and Concert, chaired by Allison and Brett Brodnax, features DSO Principal Conductor Enrico Lopez-Yañez and Tony Award–winning guest artist Idina Menzel on Sep. 26. Image: DSO Pop Series presents The Music of Elvis with Frankie Moreno. Courtesy of Dallas Symphony. mydso.com
11 DALLAS THEATER CENTER
Reykjavik 86 opens Sep. 11 and runs through Sep. 27 at the Dee & Charles Wyly Theatre. Written by Gabe McKinley and directed by Jaime Castañeda, the world premiere Cold War thriller imagines the pivotal 1986 summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev as the two leaders confront the human stakes of nuclear diplomacy. dallastheatercenter.org
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“Thoughtfully customized with uncompromising attention to detail, this property combines two residences into an expansive living experience with commanding views of downtown Dallas.”
12 DALLAS WIND SYMPHONY
Mark your calendars for Fiesta Sinfónica on Oct. 27. The Dallas Winds will perform two works by renowned Mexican composer Arturo Márquez, including his famous Danzon No. 2 and one exciting world-premiere performance of his new Symphony No. 5 dallaswinds.org
13 EISEMANN CENTER
The late summer lineup begins with Matthew Banks & Friends, Aug. 20 and Gita Sugita Kartavya on Aug. 29. September brings Freedom’s Song by Vocal Majority on Sep. 11; Halwa featuring Amit Tandon on Sep. 12; Waterloo: A Celebration of ABBA presented by Tribute Masters, Sep. 19; slowdanger’s Story Ballet , from Sep. 25–27, a surreal dance theater quintet re-interpolating Hector Berlioz’s historic 1830 composition, Symphonie Fantastique. The 7 Bridges: Ultimate Eagles Experience , follows on Sep. 26. Stay tuned for Richardson Symphony Orchestra’s opening night concert, Prokofiev & Brahms on Oct. 3. eisemanncenter.com
14 FORT WORTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The season opens with Stars of the Symphony on Aug. 21, followed by NieR: Orchestra Concert 12026 [YoRHa] Aug. 29. September performances include Infinity Rising: The Music of Journey , Sep. 4–5; Opening Weekend: Beethoven’s Fifth, Sep. 11–13; Haydn, Schubert, and Beethoven at the Kimbell Art Museum on Sep. 20; and Brahms and Haydn, Together, Sep. 25–27. fwsymphony.org
15 KITCHEN DOG THEATER
Construction delays pushed KDT’s opening from August to February, forcing the company to postpone two productions and its planned gala opening celebration. Kitchen Dog is asking its community to help raise funds so the theater can begin its next chapter with momentum. kitchendogtheater.org
16 MAJESTIC THEATRE
August brings The Mavericks and Friends, Aug. 8, Ari Matti Live, Aug. 14, Gary Clark Jr , Aug. 27, and Buddy Guy: 90, Aug. 30. September continues with Comedy Bang Bang! Ground Beefing Tour 2026, Sep. 9; GEN-X The Takeover Tour, Sep. 18; Jonathan Van Ness: Hot & Healed Comedy Tour, Sep. 26; and Indigo Girls with special guest Linda Perry on Sep. 27. majestic.dallasculture.org
17 TACA
Stay tuned for TACA Unscripted, a community conversation featuring a keynote speaker and a panel of Dallas-based arts leaders on Oct. 13. taca–arts.org
18 TEXAS BALLET THEATER
Texas Ballet Theater returns with Casanova a ballet by Kenneth Tindall on Sep. 18–Oct. 4 with performances at AT&T Performing Arts Center Sep. 18–20, and at Bass Performance Hall Oct. 2–4. Set amid the opulence of 18th-century Venice, this visually striking ballet fuses Baroque splendor with bold, cinematic choreography. Beyond the seduction, it offers a compelling portrait of a soul torn between indulgence and introspection. Image: Principal dancers Samantha Pille and Brett Young and soloist Adeline Melcher for Casanova . Courtesy of Texas Ballet Theater. texasballettheater.org
19 THEATRE THREE
Spring Awakening runs Sep. 10–27. With music by Duncan Sheik and book and lyrics by Steven Sater, the Tony Award–winning rock musical follows a group of young people confronting desire, repression, and self-discovery in a society determined to silence them. theatre3dallas.com
20 TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND
Ballets Jazz Montréal: Dance Me runs Sep. 18–19 at Moody Performance Hall. Developed with the blessing of Leonard Cohen, the production translates the singer-songwriter’s music and poetry into movement, pairing BJM’s athletic contemporary dance with Cohen’s unmistakable emotional world. titas.org
21 TURTLE CREEK CHORALE
Better Is Peace: 9/11 Remembered Through Song and Dance takes place Sep. 16 at the Meyerson Symphony Center. Marking the 25th anniversary of September 11, the one-night-only concert brings together Turtle Creek Chorale, Bruce Wood Dance, and the Dallas Chamber Symphony for the world premiere of the men’s chorus arrangement of Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace turtlecreekchorale.com
22 UNDERMAIN THEATRE
Evening at the Talk House, Sep. 17–Oct. 4, is written by Wallace Shawn and directed by Bruce DuBose . The regional premiere follows a group of theater artists reuniting after a decade in a world where authoritarianism has normalized violence, suppression, and cultural disappearance. undermain.org
23 WATERTOWER THEATRE
WaterTower Theatre will return Nov. 27–29 opening the 31st season with Broadway by North Texas: with Miriam-Teak Lee. watertowertheatre.org
01 12.26
Herald, curated by Brittani Arnold, runs through Aug. 1, featuring new work by Jennifer Carvalho, Em Kettner, and Simon Petepiece. Sean Cairns will fill the gallery Aug. 29–Oct. 17. gallery1226.com
02 AKIM MONET FINE ARTS
Time Capsule-Rodin–The Sculpted Voice brings together studio casts, intimate studies, and monumental bronzes produced under the stewardship of Musée Rodin. akimmonetfinearts.com
03 ALAN BARNES FINE ART
Alan Barnes Fine Art will return with exhibition programming this fall. alanbarnesfineart.com
04 ARTSPACE111
Texas Juried Exhibition runs through Aug. 29, presented by the Love Texas Art Foundation. Juried by Patron publisher and editor-inchief Terri Provencal, the 13th annual exhibition features 40 artists selected from more than 2,400 artwork submissions by 725 artists statewide. Crosscurrents: Daniel Blagg and Jay Wilkinson opens Sep. 19 and runs through Nov. 7, bringing together paintings by two Fort Worth artists whose practices explore memory, time, place, and the traces of human experience. Image: Tiffany Williams, 1 Peter 2:9, oil on canvas, 20 x 30 in. artspace111.com
05 BARRY WHISTLER GALLERY
Andrea Rosenberg / New Works, Sep. 19–Oct. 31, presents 12 new works by the Dallas- and Montana-based artist. The exhibition debuts a new approach in the artist’s practice, with drawings mounted on linen. Image: Andrea Rosenberg, Untitled 9, 2026, mixed media on paper mounted on linen, 52 x 67 in. barrywhistlergallery.com
06 BEATRICE M. HAGGERTY GALLERY
Haggerty Gallery will resume exhibitions in the fall. udallas.edu/gallery
07 CADD
The Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas hosts gallery days, happy hours, scholarships, and other events supporting artists and galleries in the North Texas area. Design District Gallery Night takes place Sep. 19. caddallas.org
08 CHRISTOPHER MARTIN GALLERY
Established in Dallas in 1995, Christopher Martin Gallery displays the reverse-glass paintings of Christopher H. Martin along with 25-plus mid-career artists who work within painting, photography, mixed media, and sculpture. christophermartingallery.com
09 CONDUIT GALLERY
Ted Larsen: New Sculptures ; Rosalyn Bodycomb: The Worked Shoot ; and Jordan Bruner: Space Hotel will be on view Sep. 10–Oct. 17. Larsen creates abstract sculptures from salvaged materials, while Bodycomb’s gestural figurative paintings examine political theater, populism, and pro wrestling through the lens of kayfabe. In the Project Room, Bruner presents Space Hotel, a series of paintings set in an imagined future shaped by unease, leisure, and unstable connection. Image: Ted Larsen, 1979 Dodge Ram, salvage steel and hardware, marine-grade plywood, silicone, vulcanized rubber, hardware, 16.25 x 17.25 x 6.5 in. conduitgallery.com
10
CRAIGHEAD GREEN GALLERY
New Texas Talent 33 continues through Aug. 22. Thom Jackson: Out of Context and Anders Moseholm: Fenestrations open Aug. 29 and run through Sep. 26. Jackson presents previously unreleased photographs drawn from his fine art and fashion photography practice, while Moseholm’s paintings transform urban spaces into hazy psychological landscapes. craigheadgreen.com craigheadgreen.com
11 CRIS WORLEY FINE ARTS
New exhibitions by Sherry Owens and Isabelle du Toit will be on view Sep. 12–Oct. 24. Image: Sherry Owens, Wild Weather with a Pool of Light, 2026, crape myrtle, paint, wax, 16.25 x 26.75 x 15.5 in. crisworley.com
12 CVAD, UNT COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN GALLERIES
The annual group show through the Foundations program, organized by director and professor Binod Shrestha, will take place Aug–Sep. cvad.unt.edu
13 DAVID DIKE FINE ART
Recent Arrivals features a selection of newly available and recently discovered works by artists including Porfirio Salinas, Martin Grelle, Olin Travis, Jerry Bywaters, William Slaughter, Dan Rizzie, and Marcus Stone. Works are available for viewing by appointment. Save the date for the 30th Anniversary Texas Art Auction on Oct. 10. Highlights this year include two Merritt Mauzey paintings along with paintings by Everett Spruce, William Lester, John Douglass, and others. daviddike.com
14 ERIN CLULEY GALLERY
Nic Nicosia: a little more runs through Sep. 1, featuring multimedia works. A group exhibition, Aug. 22–Sep. 26, brings together work by Gary Goldberg, Jumaadi, Magdalena Rantica, Florencia Rothschild, Antonio Turok, and Sarita Westrup. erincluley.com
15 FERRARI FINE ART GALLERY
Ferrari Gallery is an artist-owned fine art gallery offering a refined, private viewing experience. The gallery represents six artists working across painting, sculpture, wall installations, collage, and mixed media. Each work is presented with whiteglove delivery and installation, supporting a considered and intentional approach to collecting. ferrarigallery.net
16 FORT WORKS ART
Stay tuned for a 50 Years of Punk exhibition for Fall Gallery Night on Sep. 19. fortworksart.com
17 FWADA
Fort Worth Art Dealers Association’s Fall Gallery Night will be held on Sep. 19. fwada.com
18 GALLERI URBANE
New exhibitions by Joseph Carway and Shinya Azuma mount Aug. 22–Sep. 26, with Carway’s work presented in Gallery 1 and Azuma’s in Gallery 2. Image: Joseph Carway, Get Bucked, 2025, acrylic on board, 11 x 8 in. galleriurbane.com
Dorothea Tanning mounts Aug. 29–Oct. 17. The gallery also presents work by Jennie Haddad at The Armory Show, Sep. 24–27. jamescope.biz
21 JAMES HARRIS GALLERY
David Willburn: Surface and Radical Vision run Sep. 9–Oct. 24. Willburn’s solo exhibition brings together paintings, textiles, and mixed-media works shaped by abstraction, queer domesticity, and the physical and social landscapes
Art Glass Gallery
Chad Holliday
of West Texas. Curated by Missy Finger of PDNB Gallery, Radical Vision traces abstraction in photography across four decades, considering how artists pushed the medium beyond documentation through experimentation with process and form. Image: David Willburn, Plemons Ground , 2026, braided and coiled fabric, acrylic, graphite, woven canvas on panel, 26 x 18 x 2 in. jamesharrisgallery.com
22 KEIJSERS KONING
Keijsers Koning will return from summer break in the fall. keijserskoning.com
23 KIRK HOPPER FINE ART
Kirk Hopper Fine Art is on a summer break; for more information visit their website. kirkhopperfineart.com
24 KITTRELL/RIFFKIND ART GLASS
The 36th Anniversary Celebration opens Sep. 26 with a group exhibition continuing through November. kittrellriffkind.com
25 LAURA RATHE FINE ART NEXT
Cut to Color, a group exhibition , continues through Aug. 22 . Convergence opens Aug. 29, bringing together work by Stallman, Matt Devine, and Nick Veasey through Sep. 26. laurarathe.com
26 LILIANA BLOCH GALLERY
Kathy Lovas: Holdfast , opening Sep. 19, presents 49 unframed DASS digital prints of algae through Sep. 30. The gallery will also show selected prints by Misty Keasler. lilianablochgallery.com
27 LONE GALLERY
Lone Gallery showcases a diverse array of artists, including painters Bradley Kerl, Danny Joe Rose III, and Camille Woods, alongside mixed-media artists such as Cruz Ortiz and Heather Sundquist Hall. lonegallery.com
28 MELIKSETIAN | BRIGGS
From Oct. 2–4, Meliksetian | Briggs will participate in Untitled Art Houston with a solo presentation by Dave Muller, a conceptual artist whose paintings and installations explore music as a cultural force, examining how it permeates everyday life and shapes individual and collective identities. meliksetianbriggs.com
29 NATURE OF THINGS
Featured works by Ellen Khansefid and Clint Bargers remain on view in earthlicker through Aug. 15. The exhibition considers the act of looking through Khansefid’s references to alternative subcultures and voyeuristic imagery, alongside Bargers’ ceramic wall works, which engage themes of the body and surface through forms that reveal themselves only from oblique viewpoints. natureofthings.xyz
30 PASSAGE ARTS
AUG 15–JAN 3
The Statue of Liberty from Bartholdi to Warhol is co-organized by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Denver Art Museum. The Carter’s presentation of The Statue of Liberty from Bartholdi to Warhol is supported by The Ann L. & Carol Greene Rhodes Charitable Trust, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee; and the Alice L. Walton Foundation Temporary Exhibitions Endowment. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), Liberty Enlightening the World (Statue of Liberty) (detail) 1894-1901, bronze with brown patina and black lacquer, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, Purchase with assistance from the Ruth Carter Stevenson Acquisition Endowment, Pat and Shelby Adams, Anonymous, Susan and Stephen Butt, Sue and John Allen Chalk, Julie and Glenn Davidson, Subie and Phil Green, Debra and Ken Hamlett, Karen Hixon, Diane Jacobsen, Christina and Mark Johnson, Luther King Capital Management, Mary Potishman Lard Trust, Dana and David Porter, Richard Russack, Clara and Stephen Smiley, and Barbara and David Wyatt, 2024.26
James Surls: From the Old Growth opens Sep. 19 and runs through Apr. 17, inaugurating Passage Arts’ new 7,500-square-foot exhibition space near Fair Park. The exhibition brings together approximately 25 monumental sculptures, including major suspended works , and drawings, marking one of the most significant presentations of Surls’ career. passagearts.org
31 PENCIL ON PAPER
Rapheal Crump: Home remains on view through August, offering another opportunity to experience the artist’s oil paintings of intimate interior spaces shaped by place and memory. Charly Palmer’s new Blue Series opens toward the end of September, launching the gallery’s fall season with a presentation of new work. pencilonpapergallery.com
32 PHOTOGRAPHS DO NOT BEND
From Sea to Shining Sea, through Aug. 15, presents a group exhibition marking the United States’ 250th anniversary through photography, bringing together multiple artists to reflect on national identity and history. Image: Peter Brown, North Texas: Plowed field, Patricia, 2002, Courtesy of PDNB Gallery, Denton, TX. pdnbgallery.com
33 THE POWER STATION
The Power Station is a nonprofit initiative dedicated to providing a platform for contemporary art projects in Dallas. powerstationdallas.com
34
RO2 ART
Chaos X runs Aug. 8–Sep. 5, marking the tenth edition of Ro2 Art’s annual summer small works exhibition
with more than 150 artists from Texas and beyond. Ulterior Motifs runs Sep. 12–Oct. 17, bringing the 16th iteration of the Wheeler Brothers’ traveling exhibition of Texas contemporary art to Dallas with a focused group of Texas artists, new collaborations, and work by Ro2 artists including Erica Stephens, Terry Hays, Chuck & George, Carroll Swenson-Roberts, and Gillian Bradshaw-Smith. ro2art.com
35 SAMUEL LYNNE GALLERIES
On Sep. 12, the gallery will open an exhibition for gallery cofounder JD Miller, on view through Oct. 15. samuellynne.com
36 SMINK
A showcase of fine design and furniture, SMINK is a purveyor of quality living products. The showroom also hosts exhibitions featuring Robert Szot, Gary Faye, Richard Hogan, Dara Mark, and Paula Roland. sminkinc.com
37 SOUTHWEST GALLERY
For over 50 years, Southwest Gallery has provided Dallas’ largest collection of fine 19th- to 21st- century paintings and sculptures. The gallery exhibits hundreds of artists who work in a broad range of styles, all displayed in our 16,000 -square-foot showroom. swgallery.com
38 TALLEY DUNN GALLERY
Breaking Ground : A Transformative Project with Joel Shapiro, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Christopher Wool, Elmgreen & Dragset, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Joseph Havel, Ugo Rondinone, Giuseppe Penone, Leonardo Drew. and Roxy Paine remains on view through Aug. 29. Image: Leonardo Drew, Number 246T, 2023, mixed media, 72 x 72 x 25 in. talleydunn.com
39 TUREEN GALLERY
River Shell: The Dust is Here to Stay runs Sep. 5–Oct. 10. Shell is an interdisciplinary artists and filmmaker living and working in Dallas. Shell operates the artistrun space PRP, which received the Nasher Artist Grant in 2025, and is also the founder of DVD films. tureen.info
Look Again
Artemisia Gentileschi, Penitent Mary Magdalene (detail), 1625–26. Oil on canvas. Kimbell Art Museum
40 VALLEY HOUSE GALLERY
CLOUDS: An Invitational opens Aug. 1, bringing together more than 50 artists whose works span 150 years, from 1876 to 2026. The exhibition includes American, French, British, Early Texas, and contemporary artists working across painting, drawing, photography, and printmaking. The exhibition will remain on view through Sep. 25. Image: David Barbero (American, 1938-1999), ‘Solstice ’ Shortest Day, 1998, acrylic on linen, 16 x 20 in. valleyhouse.com
41 THE WAREHOUSE
Yukinori Yanagi opens Sep. 26 and remains on view through Jan. 30, 2027. Curated by Mika Yoshitake, the exhibition surveys work by the Japanese artist, whose practice considers migration, national identity, and the instability of borders through a long-standing position of “wandering” as an artistic and philosophical stance. In Our Image: The Fragile Body in Contemporary Art, curated by Simone Krug , gathers work by artists within The Rachofsky Collection and the Hartland & Mackie / Labora collection who examine psychological trauma and social anxiety through the human figure. Image: Yukinori Yanagi, Study for American Art–Three Flags, 2019, ants, colored sand, and plastic box, 32 x 48 in., unique in a series of 3. The Rachofsky Collection. thewarehousedallas.org
42 WEBB GALLERY
Waxahachie’s Webb Gallery champions contemporary, self-taught, and visionary artists whose work embodies the grit, humor, and heart of true Southern culture. Housed in a historic 1902 building, the gallery presents rotating exhibitions alongside an eclectic mix of folk art, books, and curiosities, all celebrating the persevering human spirit. Its sister space, Webb’s Fair & Square in Fort Davis, presents Ralph White Returns to the Porch on Aug. 16. webbartgallery.com
43 WILLIAM CAMPBELL GALLERY
Frequency remains on view through Aug. 22, bringing together a selection of gallery artists working across mediums. Paper Cuts: Selected Works on Paper opens Sep. 19, coinciding with FWADA Fall Gallery Night , and remains on view through Oct. 10. williamcampbellgallery.com
AUCTIONS AND EVENTS
01 ART FOR ADVOCACY: COLORS OF COURAGE
Celebrate the healing power of art while raising crucial funds and awareness to support children and families served by Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center. Hosted by Stephanie and John
Roberts, Colors of Courage is chaired by Laua McAllen, Steve Noviello, and Ashley Nowak, with curatorial chairs William Bardin of Bardin Gallery and artist Alec DeJesus. The evening includes a silent and live auction of art, cocktails, and a seated dinner. To reserve tables or tickets visit dcac.org/event/art-for-advocacy.
02 DALLAS CONTEMPORARY GALA
Join cochairs Ramiro Garcia, Peter Augustus Owen, and Catalina Gonzalez Jorba, and honorary cochairs Joyce Goss and Kenny Goss, at Candela on September 26, at Dallas Contemporary. The annual gala raises funds for the museum’s programming, education initiatives, and more The ticketed event includes a live and silent auction, dinner, dancing, entertainment, and an after party. To check table availability visit dallascontemporary.org/gala-2026.
03 HERITAGE AUCTIONS
August highlights include Classic American Illustration Art Celebrating the Art of Everett Raymond Kinstler Showcase Auction on Aug. 5; Urban Art Showcase Auction, Aug. 5; Concert Posters & Music Memorabilia Showcase Auction, Aug. 9; Pulp, Paperback, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Illustration Art Showcase Auction, Aug. 11; Depth of Field: Photographs Showcase Auction, Aug. 12; Fine & Decorative Arts Showcase Auction, Aug. 13; Zits Comic Art Showcase Auction, Aug. 13; Prints & Multiples Showcase Auction, Aug. 19; The Art of Disney Signature Auction, Aug. 21–24; Movie Posters Signature Auction, Aug. 27–28; and LeRoy Neiman: Iconic Prints Showcase Auction, Aug. 27. September continues with Contemporary Art Within Reach Showcase Auction, Sep. 4; In Focus: Salvador Dalí Editions Prints & Multiples Showcase Auction, Sep. 8; Urban Art Showcase Auction, Sep. 9; Fine & Decorative Arts Showcase Auction Sep. 10; RETNA: Inscriptions of the Street Urban Art Showcase Auction, Sep. 15; Asian Art Signature Auction, Sep. 16; Prints & Multiples Showcase Auction, Sep. 16; The Art of The Simpsons Animation Art Showcase Auction, Sep. 19; Disney Movie Posters Showcase Auction, Sep. 19; Comic Art Signature Auction, Sep. 25–27; and American Art Within Reach Showcase Auction, Sep. 25. ha.com.
04 LONE STAR ART AUCTION
Taking place on Oct. 31 in Dallas, the Lone Star Art Auction is the largest live art auction in the state of Texas, offering American, Western, wildlife, sporting, and Texas fine art. Presented by Phil Berkebile the Great American West, LSAA brings together collectors and sellers of historic and contemporary fine art for a unique and entertaining event. Consignments are now being accepted for original paintings and sculpture. lonestarartauction.com
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THE KUNSTHALLE ADVANTAGE
As Dallas Contemporary enters a new chapter, John McBride and Jeremy Strick reflect on the unique possibilities of a noncollecting museum.
BY BEN LIMA
In May, Dallas Contemporary entered a new chapter, announcing Jeremy Strick and John McBride as its new leadership team. With McBride named interim director and Strick as strategic advisor, their mission is to guide Dallas’ noncollecting museum during a multiyear planning period, before the institution searches for its next permanent director.
The pair is coming off a successful 15-year run at the Nasher Sculpture Center, where Strick was director and McBride was CFO and deputy director of operations and finance. The easy rapport between the two is evident when they sit down for a joint interview with Patron in McBride’s office, across from artworks by John Pomara and Jeff Zilm, to discuss the present and future of Dallas Contemporary and the city’s art scene.
About their working relationship, McBride says that Strick’s signature move is to approach him by saying, “I’ve got this crazy idea; I want you to hear me out,” followed by the team working out the idea until it becomes a reality. Strick, for his part, says of McBride: “It’s very simple: I do whatever he says.”
However the day-to-day work is managed, the team had no hesitation about stepping in at DC when asked. “This was never on my radar at all,” McBride admits, but that “really made it very exciting.”
Both emphasize the importance of DC’s unique position as a kunsthalle, or noncollecting museum, which can “be really in the moment for art and culture, in a way that other institutions really can’t,” Strick says. McBride agrees that being “light on its feet, and very responsive” is DC’s greatest strength. At a collecting museum, Strick points out, the temporary exhibition program is always framed in relation to the institution’s holdings.
“At the Nasher, we always thought about how a particular exhibition might illuminate part of the collection or be illuminated by the collection.” Not having those connections in mind, nor the financial and space obligations a collection entails, opens up for DC “a different—not necessarily a broader, but a different—set of possibilities,” he says.
McBride’s entry into the art world was sudden, and he’s never looked back. Almost 20 years ago, sitting in a boardroom at Daltile, where he worked during and after his Southern Methodist University MBA, he had an epiphany: “I didn’t care at all about tile!” he says with a laugh. Wanting to be more directly involved with the Dallas community, he joined the Nasher as CFO. The following year, Strick arrived from the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, to become the Nasher’s director.
Strick, meanwhile, grew up with artists in the family but realized
in high school that “I really didn’t know anything about art,” he jokes. “I thought I would take art history classes until I could figure out what I was really going to do. I never figured that out!” But one thing led to another, and he arrived in Dallas with broad experience as a curator and director in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, and beyond.
As DC approaches its 50th anniversary in 2028, its board has enlisted the pair to “take a kind of pause, to use the opportunity to reflect and build” before naming a new permanent director, says Strick. While the kunsthalle had only three directors from the 1990s to the 2010s, each taking a decade or so at the helm, the two most recent heads—Carolina Alvarez-Mathies and Lucia Simek—had relatively brief tenures before leaving.
Praising the legacy of their immediate predecessors, Strick singles out the Dallas Art Book Fair and the DC NTX Graduate Student Program exhibition as the kind of programming for which DC is uniquely well suited. Also, Strick insists, “There’s no better argument for the role of Dallas Contemporary than our current Francisco Moreno show,” giving a young, ambitious artist “not a small room, but a full survey. That’s something we can do that no one else is going to do.”
Looking back a few more years, Strick also points to 2016’s Black Sheep Feminism, a demanding, edgy show by Alison Gingeras, as a case of DC finding its niche. “[It was] a show that, I can promise you, no other institution in this region would have touched, but one
Dallas Contemporary's interim executive director John McBride. Photograph by Jersean Golatt.
well worth doing and very well realized,” he says.
Going beyond Dallas for a moment, when I ask for examples of the very best that a kunsthalle can achieve, Strick mentions a handful of respected leaders: Suzanne Ghez of Chicago’s Renaissance Society, Elsa Longhauser at the Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Massimiliano Gioni at the New Museum in New York, and Hamza Walker at The Brick in LA. All of them have found ways to integrate cutting-edge contemporary art with the work of the past, as in Walker’s Monuments and Gioni’s New Humans, to embrace both traditional and new media, and to see around corners, giving important artists their first major shows.
Most of DC’s next year is still under wraps, but a show of Colombia-born, Paris-based Iván Argote is coming in the fall, followed by shows of New York– and Europe-based artists after that. McBride points out that their Design District location is perfectly positioned among a cluster of neighborhoods stretching from Victory Park and Uptown to North Oak Cliff, and he envisions connecting with “that group of professionals and residents and integrating the Dallas Contemporary into their world in a really positive way.”
Engaging with the tasks ahead of them, they can count on a boost from the characteristic Dallas spirit. “The philanthropic culture in Dallas is incredible—especially, I think, compared to other cities,” McBride says. “Something can succeed in Dallas that might not succeed elsewhere.”
Strick concurs, recalling that Dallas’ “culturally very ambitious” attitude struck him from his first visits here. He reflects that, in this town, “If you have an idea, if people believe that it will make a difference for Dallas—even if it’s something that doesn’t necessarily interest them personally—–chances are they’ll get behind it. So it’s a city where it’s possible to make a difference.” P
“There’s
no better argument for the role of Dallas Contemporary than our current Francisco Moreno show,” giving a young, ambitious artist “not a small room, but a full survey. That’s something we can do that no one else is going to do.”
–Jeremy Strick
Dallas Contemporary's strategic advisor Jeremy Strick. Photograph by Allison V. Smith.
Francisco Moreno: Historia Sintética at Dallas Contemporary. Photograph by Kevin Todora.
GROUND WORK
JARROD BECK MAKES DRAWINGS IN, ON, AND AGAINST THE WORLD. HIS STUDIO IS WHEREVER THAT TAKES HIM.
BY EVE HILL-AGNUS PHOTOGRAPHS BY TREY BURNS
The definition of a studio is a vast notion in the artistic practice of Jarrod Beck. He works in a sort of expanding cosmos of spaces with, at its center, a cluster of structures on acres of land near Terlingua in West Texas. He acquired much of the land in exchange for one of his sculptures in 2010. Land, sky, wind, and his work, which is given a kind of freedom there.
“I call it the base, because everything comes here at some point in its life,” he says of his parcel of desert terrain. “And it’s also a place where the materials get to live together, which they don’t always get to do out in the world.”
Here he pursues Disruption Regime (begun in 2010), cast plaster lines that fit into and shape the landscape. As well as drawings with handmade oil bars he can only do in the cooler months, when the beeswax and pigment stay solid in his hand. As well as the cast plantfiber paper pulp forms which the wind dries swiftly—works that are either permanent in the landscape or only possible there, speaking inherently of place.
His practice expands outward from Terlingua by necessity and desire to temporary “satellite” studios, following commissions, the call of a place, or the logistics of an upcoming fabrication stint or exhibition. Rough, coarse paper scales, dried by the Texas wind, might shapeshift into something as monumental as The Moon (2017), a 65-foot-long installation that exerted its gravitational pull in a Brooklyn gallery in 2017.
A rhythm loosely following the seasons governs Beck’s cadence of work: July iron pours at foundries in Indiana and Alabama, the oil bar drawings in cooler months, and paper always. Glass, he says, feels like an old friend “that pops up that you haven’t talked to for a while.”
2026 spring cohort Jarrod Beck at Corsicana Artist & Writer Residency.
They unite in the desert as though on a site such as Socrates Sculpture Park, where Beck has in fact exhibited—all filling the space with their different time scales and yet beginning to influence one another: batik wax migrating to iron sculptures, recently. “So it’s a laboratory as much as it’s a sculpture park. It’s a place where things start talking to each other,” Beck says.
“I consider everything a drawing in some way,” he explains. In architecture school that impulse found its first vessel. “It’s where I started thinking about memory and grief.” The installations that followed were like drawings at another scale: containers that could hold joy or grief. “I want to make drawings in, on, and against the world,” he says.
That spatial thinking extends to his work as an exhibition designer—most recently Constellations, a jewelry exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art—where he approaches each exhibition the way an architecture student might: tracing how the body moves through a space and materials speak to one another. “I get to see the work in a way that gives me incredible access to a curator and their ideas,” he says. It is, he adds, a way of staying in the world when the desert pulls him inward.
His most ambitious project so far is one he has named Iron Cave It is a complex of cast-iron sculptures he suspects he will be working on for decades. For those who know Beck, the cave is where the shamanic practice he has nurtured for many years surfaces as artistic principle.
“I needed to bring in a shamanic practice, really, just to survive,” he says. Then it became entwined with his art. “We have a bit of a dance: this architect, this artist, and this shamanic practitioner.”
During a spring 2026 residency at Corsicana Artist & Writer Residency, Beck worked toward Iron Cave through paper—testing, in enclosing forms of pulp, what is necessary for a space to register as a cave. It’s the same loss of bearings he relishes in iron mold-making translated to paper, offering new ways. “I love this project because it scares me,” Beck says.
His hope is that the future, permanent installation will be “found” by people who can interact with it spontaneously. “Operating as a guide is probably the model I’m following more than any others— making a container for [people] to do that exploration themselves.”
“These objects,” he clarifies, “are not set pieces for an experience. They are meant to hold a shamanic power” that transcends mere guidance. “My dream is that people find them and figure out what they need to do around them.”
Beck locates himself within a lineage and understands his work as part of a tradition—drawing with and into the land, reaching toward the cosmos—that runs through Spiral Jetty and its kin. “That’s the connection to land art I want to have: I want to be another stop,” he says. The cave, the desert, the foundry, the gallery—all of it, finally, is drawing: “I make drawings because I think when people draw, that act is one of the most beautiful things that humans do, and we’ve been doing it for a long time.” P
Jarrod Beck pairs mural-size drawings with occupiable paper pulp caves that encourage disorientation and discovery.
The artist’s handmade oil bars.
Alice Cottrell’s Austin Edit
Known for blending vintage finds into modern interiors, the Dallas interior designer shares her favorite spots just three hours south.
BY ROB BRINKLEY
Alice Cottrell is a modernist with a twist. Even though the Dallas-based interior designer creates diverse interiors with collaborator Gary Hatch for homes all over the map—Texas, Colorado, Malibu, Miami—something ties them all together: depth. Cottrell has a way of infusing an airy room with layers and textures ever-so subtly, resulting in an infinitely comfy experience. One of her hallmarks? Stirring in unexpected vintage pieces among established contemporary classics. “I’m fuzzier than most strict modernists,” says Cottrell, who loves velvets, soft carpets, plush fabrics, even flocked wallpapers—though not the Victorian kind. And while she certainly has her favorite local shops, she also likes Austin, Texas, for having something Dallas doesn’t: 20th-century vintage furniture stores where almost everything comes from Europe. We asked the inimitable Alice for her Austin itinerary.
THE
RENNER
PROJECT Kimberly
Renner, owner, principal designer Inside this redesigned 1970s office building, Cottrell loves the mix of 20th-century modern, vintage, and antique pieces with an unusual 50-year range presented in what the shop’s website calls “a series of constantly changing roomscapes.” You won’t see the recognizable furniture icons here; the curation is more cerebral and offbeat, from Brutalist and Brazilian to Swedish and Swiss. The offerings include art, accessories, lighting, and case goods, too. “Kimberly creates these cozy, livable vignettes,” Cottrell says of the fully styled rooms—down to the books, rugs, and accessories—“and that is super-helpful for visualizing things.” Renner is certainly immersed in her work: She practices residential and commercial interior design and lives above the store and studio. 3018 North Lamar Boulevard (appointment only); therennerproject.com; Instagram therennerproject
Vintage glass lamps are a specialty at Jean-Marc Fray, where Cottrell loves the blend of styles and eras of furnishings, too. Photographs by Sherwin Rivera Tibayan.
An Alice Cottrell and Gary Hatch project in Dallas featuring a 1960s Italian credenza made of Murano glass and brass found at Jean-Marc Fray in Austin, an antique Louis XVI–style chair, and a Hella Jongerius vase from Russell Brightwell. On the wall, a Donald Sultan silkscreen of flocked black poppies. Photograph by Stephen Karlisch.
The Renner Project’s fully styled rooms inspire unconventional mixing.
JEAN-MARC FRAY
Jean-Marc Fray, founder
This is a longtime favorite source for Cottrell, who especially loves the store’s glamorous vintage Venetian glass pendant lamps and sconces and its room-making credenzas and consoles. Fray, a Frenchman, and his wife and brother import a unique mix of French, Italian, and other European antiques, with a focus on Louis XVI, Biedermeier, and French Empire styles. A chic surprise? The period midcentury pieces from France and Italy, too, by the likes of Parisi, Sottsass, and Borsani, and from stylish brands Cassina, de Sede, Minotti, and more. For one project, Cottrell combined a highly graphic 1960s credenza of ivory Murano glass and brass from Fray with a Louis XVI–style white-painted side chair and a punchy Donald Sultan work depicting solid black poppies on an aqua field. “That mixing is what I do,” she says. 1009 West 6th Street, No. 102; jeanmarcfray. com; Instagram jeanmarcfray
ALICE’S OTHER AUSTIN
STAY—Cottrell always books Hotel San José, the first design-driven getaway from Liz Lambert, the hotelier now synonymous with transforming overlooked buildings into magnetic, authentic destinations. Here Lambert transformed a 1930s motor court into an effortlessly cool retreat of just 40 cozy rooms with concrete floors, slick Eames chairs, and the smoothest sheets and plushest towels imaginable. It’s all tucked behind stucco walls that hide lush little courtyards and a serene little pool. The hotel’s clever and thoughtful touches in each room redefined hospitality in 2000, when it opened. “Not one thing has changed,” Cottrell says. “Thank goodness.” 1316 South Congress Avenue; bunkhousehotels.com
RATH Maggie Orth and Eli Rabb, cofounders
The immediate impression here is that you’ve entered a very modernist monastery. This moody shop offers monumental and rustic Alpine wardrobes, sideboards, and tables, all highly contrasted with precisely drawn and detailed architect chairs, lamps, and tables—think Denmark, Italy, France, and beyond. The timespan here is unique: the modernist furnishings are from as early as the 1930s and ’40s, while the primitive case goods hail from as far back as the 17th and 18th centuries. The shop offers modern-day abstract art, too. “Maggie and Eli are a young couple with such a sophisticated eye,” Cottrell says. “We don’t have a place in Dallas that mixes these eras like they do.” 900 North Lamar Boulevard; rathtx. com; Instagram rathtx
SHOP—Cottrell calls ByGeorge “a baby Barneys” for good reason: This independent fashion and lifestyle boutique, opened in 1979, has a fervent fan base of men and women who come for the clothes of established and emerging designers, plus shoes, watches, eyewear, candles, and tableware. The superstars are here— Alaïa, Dries, Margiela—sharing space with more recent phenoms such as Jacquemus, Khaite, and Diotima. Cottrell loves looking at both the men’s and women’s clothes and always stares deep into the women’s jewelry cases. “The pieces are minimalist and contemporary — really special,” she says. 524 North Lamar Boulevard, No. 103; bygeorgeaustin.com; Instagram bygeorge
SUP—Cottrell makes Juniper a must when she’s in town. Named for the fragrant evergreen tree that thrives in the Italian Alps and the Texas Hill Country, Juniper mashes up old-world Northern Italian technique with new-world Texas terroir. The dark, sexy space, inspired by blackbox theaters, is as delicious as the food, Cottrell says, with 20-foot timber ceilings, a massive hand-drawn juniper-tree mural, and, dangling overhead, large, bell-shaped pendant lamps made of papier-mache stretched over bronze cages. Cottrell says to ask for server Jack, an elegant and knowledgeable young man, and to order the torchio pasta with shrimp. For dessert, go for the zeppole, like donut holes, dusted with powdered sugar and served with whipped sweet mascarpone and a mixed berry compote. 2400 East Cesar Chavez Street; juniperaustin.com; Instagram juniperaustin. P
At Rath, Cottrell loves the highly unusual pairing of rustic Alpine wardrobes, sideboards and tables with early and midcentury modernist furnishings.
A Venetianglass Sputnik chandelier from Murano, Italy, at JeanMarc Fray.
Photograph by Sherwin Rivera Tibayan.
The Soulful Shift
Doniphan Moore shares a more considered approach to fall decorating.
Something happened to Doniphan Moore on his summer trips. “I found myself paying just as much attention to craftsmanship as I did to architecture.” The Dallas-based interior designer has made a name for himself with interiors that are somehow as soulful as they are chic. (That’s not easy.) Moore always mixes vintage pieces with new, and sublime things with humble. But it’s the latter that struck him this summer. “The places that stayed with me weren’t necessarily the grandest,” he says. “They were the ones where materials had aged beautifully and where every detail felt considered.” On that note, we asked Moore about injecting your own home with a little soul for the autumn season — and why he warns against going full-tilt for fall (or anytime).
In a moody Dallas sitting room, parchment tones and soft alpaca fabrics are grounded by blackened steel, sculptural forms, and a rug inspired by 1930s Paris.
A collected mix of smoky ceramics and deep violet orchids brings depth to a richly patterned etched brass table.
The new Tondo Table by Mous, entirely veneered in vellum: high-gloss forest green for the top and matte natural brown for the base.
Rob Brinkley (RB): So, how do you transform a home for fall?
Doniphan Moore (DM): I don’t believe in redecorating a home every season, but I do think subtle shifts can completely change the way a space feels. As the weather cools, introduce richer textures—cashmere, alpaca, mohair, velvet—through throws and pillows while rotating in accessories made from bronze, walnut, leather, parchment, and darker stones. Fresh flowers give way to sculptural branches, moss, and seasonal foliage. Fall is also when I love to go antiquing. Shows like the Round Top Antiques Fair in Texas are an endless source of inspiration, and bringing home even one unexpected piece—a ceramic sculpture, an antique object, a beautifully weathered accessory—can make a room feel refreshed without changing everything. The goal isn’t to decorate for a season; it’s to let a home evolve naturally.
RB: What are some new hues to think about?
DM: Warm parchment, chalk, and soft ivory instead of stark white. Terra-cotta in all its variations—from muted clay and burnt orange to soft salmon and melon. Those tones feel sophisticated, unexpected, and incredibly versatile. Pistachio and muted celadon greens that bring freshness without feeling overly sweet. Army green, which has long been one of my favorite “neutral” colors. It layers beautifully with wood, bronze, stone, and natural textiles. Quiet mineral blues add depth while remaining understated.
RB: What is a material of the moment?
DM: Parchment. It’s one of those materials that never feels trendy. It has incredible depth and softness, and it brings a quiet luxury to everything from case goods to accessories. One piece I’m particularly looking forward to is Mous’ new parchment coffee table, launching this fall. It celebrates a material I’ve always loved in a way that feels fresh while remaining timeless. I’m excited to see designers continuing to embrace materials with warmth and character.
RB: How about some fall entertaining essentials?
DM: For me, entertaining begins with atmosphere rather than decoration. Candlelight is essential, along with layered lighting that can be dimmed throughout the evening. I love natural linens, beautiful serving pieces that develop a patina over time, seasonal branches instead of overly formal florals, and music that’s present but never competing with conversation. If guests leave having felt comfortable enough to linger long after dinner, you’ve done it right. P
Cognac tones and dark metal accents bring quiet character to a thoughtfully layered writing desk covered in pale parchment.
Against a wallcovering inspired by bas-reliefs, a carved stone mantel and sculptural bronze fish create a curated moment with a slightly surreal edge.
At Moore’s showroom/office, a tailored oak cabinet brings order to client materials, balancing everyday function with thoughtful design.
In a quiet corner, a tobacco velvet lounge chair and airy sheer curtains are grounded by a vivid chartreuse carpet.
KNOX EDITED
Defined by the rhythm of its streets as much as its destinations, the Knox Street neighborhood is one of the most compelling urban districts in Dallas. Independent restaurants, boutiques, and cafés flourish alongside direct access to the Katy Trail. The interplay of walkability, landscape, and local culture creates a community that is both distinctly Dallas and continuously evolving.
Rooted in that urban fabric, The Knox Hotel, Auberge Collection is part of a mixed-use district master plan by Woods Bagot, whose design reinforces the walkable character of the area through contextually scaled architecture and public open space that embrace the Katy Trail. The coming hotel’s stepped form responds to its urban locale, balancing a contemporary architectural expression that complements the surrounding enclave. Inside, Martin Brudnizki Design Studio brings a layered approach to the interiors, pairing rich materiality with considered details to create spaces that feel both refined and connected to the hotel’s architectural setting.
BY TERRI PROVENCAL
Extending that design vision into everyday living, the residences at The Knox reflect the work of Dallas-based interior designer Chad Dorsey, whose understated approach balances warmth, craftsmanship, and modern livability. Generous floor plans, carefully selected materials, and tailored details create spaces that feel both elevated and intuitive. Dedicated entertaining areas, including bars and prep kitchens, sit alongside well-proportioned living spaces designed to accommodate art collections, furnishings, and everyday routines with equal ease. A restrained palette, custom millwork, and artisanal finishes reinforce an atmosphere of quiet sophistication, complemented by the personalized hospitality associated with Auberge.
Extending the district’s design narrative, Kurt Bielawski,
The Knox, Auberge Collection pool garden rendering. Courtesy of The Knox, Auberge Collection.
The Knox, Auberge Collection salon-style terrace rendering. Courtesy of The Knox, Auberge Collection.
Dorsey’s partner, will bring KD Biel, his highly curated retail showroom concept, to Knox Street. Drawing from years of experience at Neiman Marcus and his work as owner of MORE Design + Build, Bielawski’s approach reflects a refined understanding of materials, craftsmanship, and the relationship between objects and the spaces they inhabit. The showroom will feature furnishings by Bielawski alongside distinctive pieces from design-driven brands. For Bielawski, the showroom experience goes beyond displaying beautiful objects. “It begins with our strapline: Rooms with a Point of View,” he says. “Everything we select and also create is meant to not only enhance a space, but to really be used. I don’t want a shop of precious things… I want people to find something they may have never seen before and use it every day.”
Adding a new dimension to the design ecosystem, Bachendorf’s will bring its heritage of fine jewelry and timepieces to the neighborhood with a new boutique centered around discovery and exchange. Designed in collaboration with Droese Raney architecture, the 2,200-square-foot space reimagines the traditional jewelry store through a series of rotating residencies, showcasing rare collections and bespoke pieces from featured designers and brands. Arched forms, warm wood, natural stone, and bronze detailing will create an intimate setting where craftsmanship, storytelling, and hospitality come together. “This new Knox Street concept allows us to honor our legacy while offering unique collections in a more dynamic environment, one where guests can experience rare designs, meet remarkable brands, and return often to discover what’s new,” says Bachendorf’s president Lawrence Bock.
Dôen, Totem, and The Conservatory will join the tenant mix, and just beyond the energy of Knox Street, The Galatyn offers a more intimate expression of urban living. Developed by StreetLights Residential, the 20-story tower introduces 56 residences shaped by a sense of permanence, drawing from classical European influences through balanced proportions, warm materials, and a refined architectural language. Positioned along Monticello Avenue near the Katy Trail, The Galatyn creates a quieter residential retreat while remaining connected to the restaurants, boutiques, and cultural destinations that define the area. Because even a peaceful escape should be within reach of a legendary margarita, Javier’s is just a stroll away. P
The Galatyn on Monticello Avenue.
Courtesy of StreetLights Residential.
Concrete table in western hemlock by Barter Design. Courtesy of KD Biel.
Western Hemlock pendant light and stool in Char finish. Pendant light and stools in western hemlock in char finish by Barter Design. Courtesy of KD Biel.
Bachendorf’s will open it’s fith boutique on Knox Street this winter. Rendering courtesy of Bachendorf’s and Droese Raney architecture.
A New Idea of Home in North Texas
AIA Dallas honors 14 projects exploring a wide range of approaches to contemporary living.
BY TERRI PROVENCAL
Aregion long associated with oversized houses and relentless suburban expansion, North Texas is slowly redefining what residential architecture can be.
The inaugural AIA Dallas Residential Design Awards, announced May 14, 2026, at the AIA Dallas Center for Architecture, offered an unusually nuanced snapshot of that evolution. Rather than celebrating a single architectural aesthetic, the fourteen recognized projects reveal a residential landscape increasingly shaped by adaptation, density, environmental responsiveness, and careful attention to everyday life.
Presented by Home IQ Solutions and hosted by America ByDesign executive producer Mike Chapman, the evening paired the announcement of the winners with a conversation among the jurors, shifting the focus from competition to the ideas behind the work.
The awards, chaired by Laura Juarez Baggett, AIA, and Thad Reeves, AIA, were created to recognize exceptional residential design by AIA Dallas architects across a broad range of housing types—from custom homes and renovations to duplexes, multifamily housing, and accessory structures.
The winning projects suggest that some of the most compelling residential work happening in North Texas isn’t defined by square footage or spectacle, but by how thoughtfully architects respond to place, existing buildings, and changing patterns of living.
Several projects explore the possibilities of transformation rather than replacement. Bentley Tibbs Architect’s Langdale House and NIMMO Architecture’s Caladium House demonstrate how comprehensive renovations can preserve the character of existing homes while fundamentally rethinking how they function. JRAF Studio’s Mi Casa Es Su Casa, recognized with a Jury Citation, similarly reflects an approach that values reinvention over demolition.
Elsewhere, architects are expanding the conversation about housing itself.
Designed by buildingcommunityWORKSHOP’s + ONE: An Experiment in Housing Affordability, awarded a Merit Award in the Multifamily Small category, addresses one of the region’s most urgent questions: how thoughtful design can contribute to more attainable housing. FAR + DANG’s Butterfly Duplex offers another perspective, suggesting that higher-density living can also be architecturally ambitious and deeply contextual.
AIA Dallas 2026 Jury Citation recipient Mi Casa Es Su Casa, designed by JRAF Studio. Photograph by Sydney Bro.
Langdale House by architect Bentley Tibbs, recipient of an AIA Dallas 2026 Jury Citation. Photograph by Charles Davis Smith.
The awards also acknowledge the architectural value of smaller interventions. Ghost Architects’ Five House and Corey Reinaker Architect’s Resourceful Retreat , both recognized in the Ancillary Structure category, treat secondary buildings not as afterthoughts but as opportunities to rethink work, leisure, and domestic flexibility.
Among the evening’s most recognized firms was NIMMO Architecture, which received three Honor Awards for Outcrop, Yau Residence, and Caladium Residence. Together the projects exemplify an architecture that feels at once restrained and expressive, balancing strong formal ideas with a sensitivity to landscape, light, and material.
Ghost Architects earned Merit Awards for both Vertex House and Five House, while FAR + DANG was recognized for both Butterfly Duplex and Vanderbilt Avenue Residence Bentley Tibbs Architect received Jury Citations for Winstead Residence and Langdale House. Additional honors went to Buchanan Architecture’s Rio Vista, A. Michael Architecture’s Cross Pines Ranch, and other projects that collectively reflect the growing breadth of residential design in the region.
The jury—drawn from Custom Residential Architects Network chapters across the country—included architect Mark Asher; Professor Warren Lloyd; Robby Johnston, FAIA; and architect Thomas L. Shafer. Their outside perspective placed Dallas-area housing within a broader national conversation about residential design, evaluating projects not only for their craftsmanship but also for the ideas they bring to contemporary living.
Taken together, the inaugural awards suggest that North Texas is entering a new chapter architecturally. As population growth, affordability, climate, and evolving lifestyles reshape expectations of home, architects are responding with projects that prioritize flexibility, context, and long-term livability over convention.
The result is a portrait of a region whose most interesting houses aren’t necessarily the biggest or the boldest. They’re the ones asking better questions about how we live now—and how we might live next. P
Above, top: AIA Dallas 2026 Jury Citation recipient Butterfly Duplex, designed by FAR + DANG. Photograph by Robert Tsai. Above, middle: AIA Dallas 2026 Residential Honor Award recipient Yau Residence, designed by NIMMO. Courtesy of AIA Dallas. At left: AIA Dallas 2026 Residential Honor Award recipient Caladium House, designed by NIMMO. Courtesy of AIA Dallas.
HAUTE ROCKS
Natural stone for timeless interiors.
BY ELAINE RAFFEL PHOTOGRAPH BY MATT LEMOINE
Book-matched polished Eclipse Black granite from Texas Counter Fitters spans two levels, transforming the fireplace into a dramatic focal point.
Some rooms are defined by what’s on the walls. Others are defined by the walls themselves.
A slab of natural stone, used at scale, has a different kind of presence. It draws the eye immediately and keeps it there—less like a finish and more like something inherently expressive.
What gives a slab that quality isn’t appearance, but structure. Stone carries many of the same formal characteristics found in abstract artwork—movement, contrast, variation—without any imposed design. Veining moves across the surface with a sense of direction, sometimes restrained, sometimes more abrupt. Certain areas draw you in; others allow the eye to pause. The overall balance feels intentional, though it isn’t.
Unlike most elements in a room, stone doesn’t adjust to suit its surroundings. It arrives as it is. Placement and scale matter, but the visual interest is already there.
“Artists begin with a blank canvas. Nature doesn’t,” says Chris Blackburn, founder of Texas Counter Fitters. “Every slab is already an original. The challenge isn’t creating beauty—it’s recognizing it.”
The idea comes into focus most clearly when stone defines an entire wall. It doesn’t fade into the background; it becomes the focal point. In book-matched slabs, where two pieces are mirrored, symmetry introduces order while natural variation keeps the result from feeling overly controlled. Onyx, when backlit, reveals depth within the material, almost like layers suspended beneath the surface. Quartzite brings stronger contrast, with veining that moves more decisively across the stone. Travertine and limestone rely less on contrast and more on texture, holding attention in a more restrained way.
Similarly, a natural stone fireplace, treated as a single plane, becomes a central visual element rather than a backdrop. The eye follows the veining much like it would follow a painted line: across, upward, and back again.
A striking example is the polished Eclipse Black granite in the home of Lauren Rose Sands, where Texas Counter Fitters book-matched six slabs to create a continuous vertical composition. The dramatic veining draws the eye through the space, anchoring the room while commanding attention throughout the home. “I thought it would be the focus of the room, but it became the focus of the house,” says Sands. “The movement adds so much visual interest, and it really feels like a piece of art.”
In more sculptural applications—a freestanding stone tub, a shower clad entirely in stone, or a kitchen island cut from a single slab—function remains, but the form carries equal weight. Here the connection to art becomes more direct. Not because stone imitates painting or sculpture, but because it shapes how a space is experienced, establishing hierarchy and giving the space structure. It isn’t something applied at the end; it’s built into the bones of the room.
Light adds another layer. As it shifts, certain lines become more pronounced while others recede. The stone itself doesn’t change, but the way it’s seen continually shifts. That is what gives natural stone its lasting impact in a thoughtfully designed interior: it introduces something that can’t be edited or repeated.
At its best, stone does more than complete a space. It defines the room. “Anything natural is timeless,” says Sands. P
François Linke’s Masterpiece Comes to Market
Heritage Auctions presents an extraordinary work from the pinnacle of the Belle Époque.
Great design often begins by looking to the past through a new lens. At the turn of the 20th century, few makers embodied that philosophy more brilliantly than François Linke, whose furniture blended historic craftsmanship with the artistic innovation of the Belle Époque.
Created in Paris around 1900, his elegant “Coquille” table offered by Heritage Auctions embodies the extraordinary collaboration between master cabinetmaker François Linke (1855–1946) and sculptor-designer Léon Messagé during the height of the era. Executed in kingwood, satiné, and holly and hornbeam marquetry, the table is enriched with finely chased gilt-bronze mounts that transform a functional piece of furniture into a sculptural work of art.
The model, measuring just 30 inches high, reflects Linke’s celebrated reinterpretation of the Louis XV style. Rather than simply reproducing 18th-century forms, he infused them with the flowing, naturalistic lines of the Art Nouveau movement. Messagé’s exuberant bronze mounts— animated by scrolling foliage, shells, and asymmetrical rocaille ornament—give the table a sense of movement while remaining harmoniously integrated with the richly figured marquetry.
The table retains its original stamped lock, marked “Ct. Linke, Serrurerie, Paris, 554,” identifying it as Linke’s Index No. 554 model.
Pieces such as this helped establish Linke as one of the foremost ébénistes of the day, attracting an elite international clientele and earning widespread acclaim following the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle. Today his finest works remain highly sought after by collectors and museums alike, admired for their exceptional cabinetmaking, sophisticated marquetry, and masterful bronze casting.
Presented by Heritage Auctions, in the Decorative Arts and Furniture to 1900 auction on October 2, this Coquille table is a timeless reminder that exceptional design is defined by the enduring dialogue between tradition and innovation. –Terri Provencal
A French gilt bronze-mounted kingwood, satiné, holly and hornbeam marquetry Coquille table by François Linke with mounts designed by Lèon Messagé. Index Number 554, circa 1900. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions/HA.com
Photography by Tim Kolk
Azo-X
Console Table, Fancois
Bauchet
Olafur
ELIASSON, Danish
1967
Flare reflection assembly, 2018
The bronze butterflies of Kiki Smith’s Golden Moon, 2023, flutter alongside the staircase designed by Svend Fruit.
A LIFE FOR LOOKING
ARCHITECTURE, INTERIORS, AND ART COME TOGETHER IN A DALLAS HOME DESIGNED FOR CONTEMPLATION.
BY ROB BRINKLEY PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN SMITH
The phone call came from the art advisor. “Will you go to Los Angeles with me—just for four hours—tomorrow?”
The answer was an unqualified yes, and off they went from Dallas, the art-collecting couple and their prophetic guide, to see a work, meet an artist, or all of the above. Hunting and gathering has been a passion for this husband and wife for 30 years and counting, and they live very happily with the results of it all.
At first glance their collection seduces with sheer beauty. Color, texture, material. A molten ribbon of painted steel by Carol Bove. A deeply luminous and fiery abstraction by Sterling Ruby in the living room. A photograph by Thomas Demand so meticulously constructed that it questions photography itself. But linger longer and another story emerges. This is a collection less about objects than about perception. Again and again, its artists
ask what it means to look. Sarah Sze fragments ordinary imagery into imperfectly reassembled, suspended constellations. Vik Muniz reconstructs a Willem de Kooning woman as a collage of thousands of bits of paper cut and torn from magazines, then photographed as one new and monumental image. Rachel Rose slows time almost to stillness with her smears and blurs of paint, layer upon layer upon layer. The collection’s artists—from all over the world—seem to distrust first impressions. They remind us that beauty is often only the invitation; the deeper experience comes from looking again.
The couple gives Michael E. Thomas an enormous amount of credit for where the collection is today. Introduced to him by their home’s architect and interior designer, they have trusted him over the last few years to help deepen and focus their collecting. “They wanted a new vision,” says the wellknown Dallas advisor. In fact, just a handful of works from
Carol Bove’s Ambush, 2023, adorns the entry with a pop of color.
Sterling Ruby’s TURBINE. LITANY OF HAWKS., 2024, sets a bold visual tone near a Cassina Beam sofa, through Scott + Cooner. A pair of Christophe Delcourt tin side tables, through Sutherland, flank the seating, while Ricky Swallow’s Standing Half Vessel (Gold), 2010, rests atop a KGBL Blackburn coffee table, through Sutherland. Alvar Aalto Tank armchairs, through Scott + Cooner, join a Moving Mountains chaise lounge, through Colony, New York, with an Uhuru Hono stool, through Furniture Marketing Company, and a Liaigre Cabestan floor lamp, through Sutherland completing the arrangement atop a rug by Martin Patrick Evan, New York. On the accent table, Kiki Smith’s Catching Light, 2023, and Conscious, 2023, adds a finishing touch. Lynda Benglis’ Bloxworth Snout, 2023, wall sculpture punctuates the room while James Surls’ Untitled sculpture resides in the exterior courtyard with landscape design by Hocker.
their previous home are in their current home now, among them an Andy Warhol screenprint and a Nic Nicosia photograph. (Thomas credits the couple for letting go. “You have to balance sentiment, sometimes, with building a collection.”) The process has been as much intellectual as aesthetic. “They both read a great deal and study a great deal,” Thomas says of the couple, who have long loved exploring galleries and museums. They generally agree on what they choose to live with, though the husband collects “whatever appeals to my eye,” he says, while the wife likes a little more backstory—knowing more about an artist, especially whether they are compassionate and humanitarian. But she can fall for a piece on first sight, too. “If I can’t take my eyes off it; if I feel an emotional attachment to it,” she says, it comes home.
Home, in this case, is an artful composition all its own. The couple’s former nest had emptied—the kids were off on their own lives—and they were ready for a smaller footprint. They sought out two gentlemen known for residences of extreme aesthetic excellence: interior designer Mil Bodron and architect Svend Fruit. The challenge? A roomy home for art and entertaining but on a rather snug lot, tucked away on a hillside in the Turtle Creek area. “They didn’t want oversized rooms,” says Fruit, “but they didn’t want undersized rooms, either.” Another challenge? “They didn’t want to see the neighbors’ houses”—a tall order considering most of the homes in the craggy neighborhood
Charline von Heyl’s Hometown Autumn, 2024, hangs above an Alvar Aalto Tank armchair, through Scott + Cooner; Sarah Sze’s Run (Fractured Image Series), 2025, (left) and Sunrise (Fractured Image Series), 2025, (right) dangle in front of the window. All floral by Haile Wossen.
Jim Hodges’ Worlds Blow By, 2024, hangs in the entrance.
Sterling Ruby’s Flower (7687), 2021, (left) and Flower (8715), 2024, (right) frame the dining room, where a grouping of ceramic vessels by Jacques and Dani Ruelland (1960–1980) centers a Draenert Adler dining table from the homeowners’ collection. Caste Fleecer dining chairs, through Holly Hunt, Dallas, surround the table atop a rug by Martin Patrick Evan, New York. Above the Rimadesio Self Up wall-mounted buffet, through Cantoni, hangs Nic Nicosia’s Untitled 2002 #7, 2002. A Roll & Hill Halo rectangle pendant, through Scott + Cooner, completes the space.
sit close to each other. But the constraints actually intrigued Fruit, who devised three relatively compact levels of glass, steel, fossilized Texas shell stone, copper, and mahogany.
Inside, a large, glass-railed staircase cuts through all three floors, a visual and logistical luxury in such a condensed plan. (“I like for people to walk in and see and understand the circulation of a house,” Fruit says.) Another bold gesture is the monumental front door, a pivoting panel 10 feet tall and seven feet wide, made of mahogany, glass, and steel. But that’s it for the ta-da factor here. The home is a quiet composition overall, with quiet finishes inside and out. (“We don’t do the 90-material look,” Bodron says, one eyebrow cocked.) The landscaping, by Hocker, is lush and privatizing, guiding the views up and out, so the house feels more isolated than it is. The effect everywhere is calm, cool, and collected.
But if the architecture provides a measured cadence, the interior design supplies a little edge. Just as with the art collection,
Vik Muniz’s Woman I, after de Kooning (Pictures of Magazines 2), 2013.
Above:
In the breakfast room, an MDF Italia Lim 3.0 table and Neil Textile chairs, through Scott + Cooner, create a quiet setting beneath Linda Ridgway’s Orwell’s
On the table, Peter Marino’s Centerpiece, 2025, from the Argentum Collection made by Garrido Gallery, adds a sculptural focal point. On the terrace, Kiki
Blue Night, 2025, overlooks a Tribù Illum dining table and Nodi dining chairs, through Tribù America. Tribù Mood lounge chairs and ottomans create a relaxed seating area.
Roses, R.S., 2023.
Smith’s
Thomas Demand’s Napkin, 2025, hangs in the bar, while in the adjoining family room Brian Rochefort's Shadow, 2024, is displayed on a pedestal.
Brian Rochefort's Shadow, 2024.
Bodron says, the couple “wanted a new experience.” That meant precious few pieces came over from the previous house, and the new reality unfolds through furniture that behaves less like furnishings and more like sculpture. Bodron has assembled a cast of pieces that confidently holds its own with the art but never competes for attention. Alvar Aalto armchairs curl like bent ribbons of wood amidst the living room’s powerful works. A linear, geometric chaise nearby creates a little opposition to them, while occasional tables by Stéphane Parmentier and Christophe Delcourt add a little heft. In the husband’s office, Warren Platner’s iconic wire armchairs shimmer like drawings in space. In this house, Bodron’s choices don’t simply accommodate the art: they expand the conversation.
The empty nesters love it here, in their new home that is closer to beloved restaurants and museums than was their Preston Hollow place. They love the treetop deck out front and the covered terrace out back, a seamless extension of the breakfast room, even sharing the same brushed-limestone flooring. They had come to Bodron and Fruit with minimal direction, not a laundry list, perhaps because they know how artists work. “We went to them with more of a tone,” says the wife. The mood the couple envisioned? “Soothing, comfortable, organic.” They got it, plus light and privacy and room for art. “Svend listens to what you say, then delivers on it,” says the husband. “Mil, too.” P
In his office, an African totem sculpture stands on a pedestal. Teresita Fernández’s Nocturnal (Milk Sky) 11, 2025, hangs above a Bodil Kjær desk, through SUITE NY. A Vitra Grand Executive Lowback desk chair and Warren Platner armchairs, through Scott + Cooner, join a vintage Florence Knoll credenza from Sputnik
Dallas, beneath.
Analia Saban’s Woven Angle Gradient as Weft, Cadmium Red Medium (Three O’Clock) #1, 2024, is installed above the vintage Børge Mogensen oak dresser from Danish Modern, Los Angeles.
Modern with an Edward Fields rug through Tai Ping,
Above the Bodron/Fruit custom bed, upholstered in Christian Liaigre fabric through Sutherland, hang Rachel Rose’s The Rest, 5:50pm, 2026, (left) and The Rest, 7:00am, 2026, (right). Custom nightstands by Bodron/Fruit and Liaigre Valentin wall sconces, through Sutherland, complete the space.
Room To Breathe
Interior Designer Erin Sander fashions an expansive residence shaped by art, light, and the discipline of restraint.
BY ROB BRINKLEY PHOTOGRAPHS BY NATHAN SCHRODER
Space can really change some people.
Not overnight—but gradually. It can change how they gather, how they entertain, where they read, and how long they linger over meals. It can even affect how much one artist’s work can breathe before another artist’s work asks for attention.
This is the story of a family who left Manhattan for Texas— not necessarily in search of a bigger life, but a bigger house. Like many migrations born of the Covid pandemic, theirs began with a realization: Time spent away from crowded New York in an airy vacation home reminded them how pleasant it can be to spread out, to see beyond the next building, to live with more elbow room. Dallas would eventually become the destination, in a home of almost 10,000 square feet in Preston Hollow designed by Christy
Blumenfeld of Blume Architecture and still in framing when the family found it. Construction had progressed far enough to reveal its promise—a clean-lined take on a classical, hip-roofed house—but not so far that they couldn’t make it their own.
“You can’t live like this in Manhattan.”
Dallas interior designer Erin Sander has just strolled out of the very large living room and toward the very long swimming pool out back. Beyond that is a bright-blue tennis court and a deepgreen putting range. (This one-acre lot certainly allows for a lot of luxuriating.) But nowhere is Sander’s point proven more than back inside, where tall ceilings and broad rooms replace the vertical choreography of city life. And though the family arrived with museum-quality contemporary art and a clear sense of themselves, the big adjustment was all this space. That’s where Sander came in.
A Preston Hollow home designed by Blume Architecture, built by Tatum Brown Custom Homes, with interior design by Erin Sander.
Jason Martin, Maloja, 2010, oil on aluminum, anchors the entry above an Alexander Lamont console table complemented by a Lobmeyr chandelier and a Liaigre bench.
Great room featuring Smink side chairs, a Summitridge coffee table through Jean de Merry, a custom Smink sectional, a light fixture by Christopher Boots, and works by Idris Khan, Between the Curtain and the Glass, 2022, and Shirazeh Houshiary, Phase, 2016.
Introduced to the family by an associate at Tatum Brown Custom Homes, which built the house and with which Sander had worked before, Sander quickly discovered that the clan “was used to a high level of furnishings and art”—just not this much room. For about 18 months, while the house inched to completion, Sander worked on specifying rarefied finishes and unique furnishings, from custom pieces to showroom standouts. It would have been easy to fill this home with lots of furniture and spectacle, but Sander did something a little more cerebral: She resisted. Instead she designed an environment where copious amounts of air and light surround every piece—where the negative spaces are as important as any sofa, table, or chair.
Packing a degree in interior design from Baylor University and an innate love of architecture, Sander opened her firm in 2009. In her projects, which span from Dallas to Mexico to the Colorado mountains, there is a commonality: spaces that walk the line between
precision and relaxation, between comfort and craft. This project is her Exhibit A, where she has mixed varying shapes, hues, and textures into a tranquil whole. Monolithic tables are contrasted to chairs that are almost sculptures. Infusions of color appear as plum-lacquered walls or a powder room’s wallpaper that reads as modernist marquetry of the wood grain of a tree—if that tree came in teal. Materiality is key here, whether it’s the unconventional choice of purple-veined marble for a bar’s countertops or the doors of a built-in cabinet in an office that seem like satin-finish paint until you look closely and see they are smooth leather. A wall in the billiards room boasts an inset panel of woven strips of haired cowhide. The mohair on a sofa in a sitting room is so plush that your fingertips disappear into it. This is certain: Sander understands that true luxury doesn’t always announce itself. It can reveal itself.
Sander’s confident surroundings hold their own with the family’s art collection. Years in the making, the collection first intrigues
The entry leading to the billiards room displays Rachel Lee Hovnanian’s Motherboards above a Radnor black credenza with light fixtures by Lobmeyr, and two Liaigre benches.
"You can’t live like this in Manhattan."
–Erin Sander
The dining room shows off de Gournay wallcovering, a Robicara dining table, Smink chairs, a Troscan buffet in Holly Hunt fabric, and a Holly Hunt light fixture.
Billiards room with Kyle Bunting hide wallcovering inset, a castglass light fixture by Jiun Ho through Jean de Merry, and a ceramic work by the Haas Brothers from their Accretion series.
Above: The kitchen with Pavoni Vitellina Pelo barstools through Sutherland, Giopato & Coombes pendant lights from STUDIOTWENTYSEVEN, Yabu Pushelberg for Collection Particulière Yab dining table through Garde paired with Hellman Chang chairs beneath a pendant from Culp Associates. At left: Bar with custom glass shelving features a Calacatta Viola marble countertop set against Benjamin Moore's Fresco Urbain paint and custom barstools from 1stDibs.
The sitting room features a chaise by Verellen and a Roman Thomas sofa, Bright Group chairs, and a sculptural Ralph Pucci light fixture in a sophisticated composition.
Powder room with Omexco Sycamore wallcovering in teal through Romo.
In his office, a Spencer + Company desk with an Eames leather chair through DWR anchored by Rob Wynne’s For Ever from his poured glass text series.
Two panels of a wall-relief triptych by Nina Helms from the couple’s collection.
with texture, scale, and craftsmanship. Look longer and another story emerges. Flowers become circuitry. Music dissolves into abstraction. Words transform into mirrors. Paint behaves like sculpture while sculpture masquerades as design. The homeowners have assembled a conversation among artists who ask how we remember, perceive, and assign meaning.
Despite the diversity of media—glass, aluminum, pigment, photography, plaster, cast metal—a coherence binds the collection together. The artists inhabit a territory between abstraction and recognition, between technology and humanity, between physical material and intangible experience. New York–based Rachel Lee Hovnanian transforms thousands of cast narcissus flowers into enlarged computer circuitry. American artist Rob Wynne pours molten glass into language that reflects the viewer back at himself. The British artist Idris Khan layers musical scores until history, memory, and sound collapse into luminous abstraction. Iranian artist Shirazeh Houshiary veils language beneath ethereal fields of pigment. Even a spiky and exuberant ceramic sculpture by the Austin-born, Los Angeles–based Haas Brothers ultimately rewards slow looking rather than a fast glance.
One could say that the collection is a lot about systems—systems of memory, of language, of perception, of invisible structures made visible through painstaking craft. Though the artists come from all over the world, they have something key in common: rather than depicting places, they explore ideas—memory, language, technology, time, and perception. The collection feels global not because of where the artists were born or where they work, but because the questions they ask belong to everyone.
Sander gave every work its due with light and space, the same as she did with the furnishings. Her clients were involved in that goal. “We had lots of fun conversations about where to place things,” she says. Here the entire project hums together: architecture, interiors, and art. Yet all three seem to share the goal of slowing everything down. To look, to linger. That may be the house’s greatest luxury. In a culture all about speed, this house quietly asks that we notice things. It’s a house that whispers just as much as it states—a house where negative space becomes another material in the palette. Despite those lacquers, leathers, and mohairs, Sander gets that. She says, looking around one of the rooms, “I am a little bit of a minimalist.” P
The primary bath features Waterworks fittings.
A primary bedroom pairs a sculptural Studio Bel Vetro glass chandelier with a Jiun Ho bench, a custom Holland & Sherry upholstered bed, and richly textured Phillip Jeffries wallcovering.
BENDING THE RULES
An exhibition of Japanese bamboo art from the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation celebrates innovation in an ancient material.
BY BEN LIMA
Ubiquitous and environmentally friendly, the humble bamboo plant has been used by artists to create a marvelous variety of works, from traditional craft to contemporary performance art. Some sense of this range can be found in Twisted, Plaited, Sculpted, an upcoming exhibition at the Crow Museum of Asian Art Dallas Arts District, that showcases Japanese bamboo art from the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.
According to Crow curator Natalia Di Pietrantonio, the show originated in a visit to the foundation. “After seeing the breadth of their collection, we noticed that in the 1950s, Japanese artists created radical and modern sculptures from bamboo and other fibers sculpted into improbable and organic shapes. Some are towering in stature while others are smaller, like handbaskets and trays,” she said.
Sugiura Noriyoshi (1964- ), Ritsudo, 2017, madake, rattan, 23.5 x 21 x 11 in. Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.
Honma Hideaki (1959- ), Knot, 2006, menyadake, nemagaridake, 25.75 x 20.75 x 17 in. Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.
Further research eventually led to the new show, which represents the work of 17 artists, including Living National Treasures Fujinuma Noboru and Fujitsuka Shōsei from Japan, as well as Mumbai-based Shakuntala Kulkarni. “Dallas is very lucky to be the new home for the Thoma Foundation. The Crow Museum, through this exhibition, wants to celebrate our joint advocacy of Asian art,” says Di Pietrantonio.
Although the show includes a great diversity of artists and techniques, the works in Twisted, Plaited, Sculpted share an overall aesthetic formed by the paradoxical combination of great lightness with great strength. The sculptures are shaped into curving, wavelike forms that appear to be as thin and delicate as paper or silk, but in reality, are both hard and strong.
Of the many varieties of bamboo, artisans favor a few in particular. Fujinuma is represented by sumptuous, lacquered cylinder crafted from mosochiku, or tortoiseshell, from a giant bamboo native to China. While the cylinder suggests a vase for ikebana flower arranging, Fujinuma’s sculpture is nonfunctional, made purely for aesthetic pleasure.
For Galaxy , Fujitsuka worked hobichiku , or smoked bamboo, into a shape that echoes the Milky Way, reflecting his love of astronomy. Honoring “the celestial world, which I consider the foundation of my life,” Fujitsuka states that “I would like to convey to viewers how precious life is through observation of this alluring material and think about beautiful stars and sublime cosmic space.”
Shakuntala Kulkarni, Armour for the Bride, 2023, cane, cane threads, teak wood stand. Courtesy of the artist and Chemould Prescott Road.
Fujitsuka Shosei (1949- ), Galaxy, 2014, hobichiku, rattan, 24 x 31 x 7.75 in. Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.
Tanabe Kochikusai (1935- ), Flying Dragon, 2012, madake, susutake, rattan, 28.75 x 16.87 x 17.75 in. Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.
For his captivating Flying Dragon, Tanabe Kōchikusai used both madake, the timber bamboo commonly used in construction and furniture, and susutake, smoked or aged bamboo, which is traditionally used after having been seasoned for many years in the rafters above a hearth or fireplace. Earlier in his career, Tanabe served as an apprentice to another National Treasure, Shōno Shōunsai, who had been a pioneer of the shift from craft work to abstract sculpture.
The work of another artist, Honma Hideaki, reflects his deep roots in rugged Sado Island, two and a half hours from the mainland by ferry, where he has lived, worked, and taught for many years. Originally learning the craft in his father’s studio before embarking on his own career in 1990, Honma works in multiple stages, differently from the traditional craft approach. He begins by making sketches and maquettes before creating a full-sized wooden armature to which the bamboo is attached.
In the sculpture Knot , Honma uses both menyadake, a rare, delicate variety native to Sado, and nemagaridake, a dwarf bamboo whose shoots are edible as a delicacy. For Knot, he works these materials with gozame-ami, a style of weaving used in mats, into a curving, three-dimensional form. Further extending the related material of palm (also known as cane) from sculpture into performance is Shakuntala Kulkarni, whose work was featured on Dior’s fashion runway in fall 2024. Kulkarni “places under
Okada Tadashi (1955- ), Winding, 1987, admake, rattan, stainless steel wire, 10.87 x 31.31 x 9.5 in. Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.
Kizaki Kazutoshi (1976-), Bliss, 2015, madake, rattan, 13.25 x 15.5 x 15.5 in. Collection of Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.
Endo Gen (1976- ), Beppu Ocean, 2024, madake, 10.5 x 22 x 13.75 in. Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.
Tanabe Chikuunsai IV (1973- ), Falling Star, 2012, madake, rattan, 18.25 x 10.125 x 9.5 in. Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.
Honma Hideaki (1959- ), Snail, 2016, madake, menyadake, nemagari, rattan, 24.5 x 32 x 7.5 in. Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.
Fujinuma Noboru (1945- ), Bamboo Lacquered Cylinder 240, 2013, mosochiku, urushi lacquer, 31.87 x 6.12 x 4.37 in. Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.
scrutiny the constraints and the predicament of the female body in public spaces,” observes Di Pietrantonio, who has followed the artist’s career for some time.
Responding to the dangers faced by women in urban environments, Kulkarni fashions cane into a kind of armor that paradoxically both protects and imprisons its wearer. Her sculpture Armour for the Bride emerged from Kulkarni’s research into the risks encountered by women in marriage; it replaces the delicate silk of a traditional lehenga with tough cane and protects the wearer’s head with a warlike helmet.
In one performance, Kulkarni wore her work at Juhu Beach, a popular and glamorous location in Mumbai threatened by redevelopment. Standing as still as a statue and allowing herself to be objectified by passers-by, she enacted a form of self-defense against aggression. Another performance saw her occupy a corner in 28-acre Shivaji Park, the largest park in Mumbai. With her face largely hidden behind her cane armor, Kulkarni disrupted the park’s normal rhythms, to the surprise of onlookers.
While the 1,700 works within the Thoma Foundation are rooted in natural material, Di Pietrantonio argues that they are nonetheless relevant to today’s city dwellers. “Nature cannot be divorced from our contemporary and urban lives.,” she says. P
Shakuntala Kulkarni, Juhu Beach (photo performance), 2010–12, photography by Shivani Gupta; production support, Arundhati Chattopadhyaya; art direction, Samarth Art Service; processing and printing, Photokina. Courtesy of the artist and Chemould Prescott Road.
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Vase deux anses hautes, white earthenware ceramic vase, partially engraved, black and white engobe,
A LANDMARK TONTI FAMILY GIFT EXPANDS THE MEADOWS MUSEUM’S PICASSO COLLECTION—AND ENRICHES ITS HOLDINGS OF GOYA AND CHILLIDA.
BY NANCY COHEN ISRAEL
When a stone is thrown into a pond, the expanding ripples ultimately lap back to the land from which it was cast. Similarly, when alumni give back to their alma mater, their contributions enrich their schools while their effects undulate back into the community. Such is the case with Southern Methodist University alum Robert Tonti, who, with his wife, Tina, has spent decades building an outstanding collection of modern, postwar, and contemporary art. Their recent gifts are enhancing the campus collections of Bridwell Library as well as the Meadows Museum. “This donation was born from the desire to give back to the university,” says Patricia Manzano Rodríguez, Meadows Museum curator, about the almost two dozen works by Spanish artists Eduardo Chillida, Francisco de Goya, and, mostly, Pablo Picasso.
Picasso Beyond the Canvas, opening in late August, will introduce visitors to these new acquisitions. As Manzano notes, “Picasso is one of the big, recognizable names of Spanish art. When somebody visits the museum, even if they know nothing about Spanish art, they might know Picasso. He’s one of those artists that people are always looking for.”
Ceramics comprise the majority of this gift, significantly expanding the museum’s holdings from three of these sculptural works to eighteen. As a medium, clay offered the always-inventive artist another avenue to experiment with form and material. A happenstance visit to the Annual Pottery Exhibition in the seaside town of Vallauris, which Picasso initially traveled to in 1946 with his first wife, Françoise Gilot, lit a spark that inspired him to relocate to this French Riviera oasis two years later. For the rest of his life, ceramics were an important part of his oeuvre. Over the intervening 27 years, he produced a staggering output, topping 4,000 objects. At a time when his paintings were already commanding substantial prices, Picasso was drawn to the accessibility of ceramics. As with prints, they were easy to reproduce and, at that time, were modestly priced. They could also be made in series, several of which are represented here. “We have the owls, we have the faces, we have plates, we have vases, there’s a bit of everything,” Manzano enumerates. And while most works were meant to be part of a series of 500, she notes that the newly accessioned orange plate, Visage au nez pincé, was one of only 100 that he produced.
Several objects feature images of Picasso’s second wife, Jacqueline Roque. “Obviously, the relationship between Picasso and women is very problematic,” Manzano confides. “Jacqueline was so much
younger, but she was working at the ceramic studio that Picasso was working with, and so we have portraits of Jacqueline in the plates that he makes, which is really interesting.”
These colorful, whimsical objects will fill one of the museum’s downstairs galleries. The adjacent gallery will feature Picasso’s works on paper from the museum’s collection along with the Tonti gifts, including Grande Tête de Femme as well as Tête de femme, profile. Significantly, the latter is the first drawing by Picasso to enter the museum’s collection. “To have these strange media that he worked in—like the etchings, the ceramics, that might be lesser known but that he worked on for years—is such an interesting way to close the gap and to inform the visitor or give them a better, more holistic view of his work,” Manzano explains.
The Tonti gift also includes four etchings from Goya’s 1824 print series, Los Proverbios. This suite expands the museum’s already significant collection of works by Goya.
Notably, the Tonti’s two works on paper by Chillida fill a gap for this master. They include the complete set of woodcuts in his 1973 series Mas Allá (Beyond). His Bikaina XVI, dating from 1988, allows visitors to see the evolution of the Basque artist’s works on paper. As a point of reference, the following year, Chillida unveiled De música, Dallas XV, commissioned for the Meyerson Symphony Center.
The Tontis view their gift as a way of it paying it forward. That the Meadows is a university museum was particularly inspiring. Manzano emphasizes that the donors are keen to have these works used for educational purposes in the galleries as well as, potentially, with student visits to their collection. “The Tontis have been so willing to collaborate with us in any possible way,” she continues. “This is the beginning of a partnership between the Tontis and the Meadows Museum.”
So the ripples continue to expand, increasing an appreciation for art in their wake. P
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746 - 1828), Animal folly (Disparate de bestia), 1824, aquatint and etching on paper, 14.37 x 18.62 in. Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Gift of The Robert ('83) and Tina Tonti Family.
THE TRIO MAKING CANDELA ONE OF THE ART WORLD’S BRIGHTEST NIGHTS.
BY TERRI PROVENCAL
Candela cochairs Ramiro Garcia, Catalina Gonzalez Jorba, and Peter Augustus Owen. Photograph by Kaitlin Saragusa.
ick any city you want to be in—Havana, Cartagena, or Miami ” Catalina Gonzalez Jorba is transported by the thought. “You’ll feel that the moment you step into the museum.”
For one evening this September, Dallas Contemporary intends to become all three.
Candela, this year’s annual gala, has been conceived less as a traditional fundraiser than as an immersive celebration of contemporary art, culture, and the institution’s next chapter. On the evening of September 26, guests will arrive to the museum lined by vintage Cuban automobiles and splashed with Latin jazz, tropical color palettes, and the effortless glamour of the midcentury Latin American revival. Gonzalez Jorba dreamed up the theme while going for a run through the streets of Cartagena, inspired by the city’s intoxicating blend of color, music, and history.
The event name itself is symbolic. Candela—Spanish for flame—suggests warmth, energy, and renewal, an apt metaphor for a museum approaching its 50th anniversary while embracing a new generation of leadership. That transition is perhaps best embodied by the gala’s three co-chairs: Peter Augustus Owen, Ramiro Garcia, and Catalina Gonzalez Jorba. All three are members of Dallas Contemporary’s board, and together they represent a younger cohort of patrons helping shape the
Iván Argote and Floating Museum, DIGNIDAD, 2026, wood, cement, fiber mesh, pigment, flatbed truck. Courtesy of the Floating Museum, Chicago, Illinois.
Ileana García Magoda, Corrientes de emoción 06, 2025, acrylic on paper, 37 x 29 in. Courtesy of the artist and Anat Ebgi Gallery.
institution’s future.
“As board members, we understand both the opportunities and challenges facing Dallas Contemporary. We also believe deeply in where the museum is headed, and it was exciting to shape this year’s gala around that vision,” Garcia says.
The invitation came over dinner, when board copresident Ann McReynolds asked the three to lead the museum’s signature fundraiser. “Ann has been very encouraging to the younger members of the board—to get involved, to speak up, and to take on leadership positions,” Augustus Owen says. “It’s refreshing because a lot of boards are not like that.”
“We have been very intentional in focusing our outreach to the younger generation, and we give careful consideration to that audience in all that we do. Seeing these cochairs step forward with
“Seeing these cochairs step forward with such passion, creativity, and drive is the greatest validation our mission can have.”
–Ann McReynolds
such passion, creativity, and drive is the greatest validation our mission can have,” says McReynolds.
Shaped by a natural division of strengths, the collaboration unfolded with ease, the cochairs agree, often finishing one another’s sentences. Gonzalez Jorba brings her event chair experience and relationships across fashion and art; Garcia contributes connections in fashion, hospitality, and as the cofounder of Concepto Studio; and Augustus Owen leads gallery, artist, and auction relationships. Together their distinct networks have helped shape Candela’s shared vision.
“It’s been very organic,” Gonzalez Jorba affirms. “We all have our fortes, and we respect each other a lot. From the very beginning it was, ‘You talk about this, you talk about this, and I’ll talk about this.’ It’s been a very fluid dynamic.”
Ana Segovia, Me duelen los ojos de mirar sin verte: closeup IV, 2025, oil on canvas, 78.75 x 55.12 in. Courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto.
Those complementary strengths have shaped a gala designed to feel distinctly contemporary—one that brings together art, fashion, hospitality, diversity, and philanthropy in a way that reflects Dallas’ increasingly international cultural landscape.
Garcia says, “We have three people who are very passionate about the mission of Dallas Contemporary, but we also have three different circles. Bringing all of those circles together for one common cause is what has made this process successful.”
The atmosphere draws inspiration from Colombian artist Iván Argote’s upcoming exhibition, How to Move a Monument on a Tuesday Morning , as well as the elegance and optimism of the 1950s Latin American revival. The result is intended to feel cinematic—a gala of movement, vibrancy, and culture that mirrors the museum’s own global outlook.
Iván Argote at the Trinity River, April 9, 2025, Dallas, Texas. Photograph by John Smith for PATRON
Iván Argote, Reflexions, Feel My Heat, 2024, stainless steel mirror, polished and painted stainless steel, 35.43 x 26 9.56 x 1.56 in. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin.
Bold, expressive, colorful garments designed to accentuate movement are the order of the evening. Gonzalez Jorba, founder and designer of the women and children’s clothing label Dondolo, wants “Candela to be a space for creativity and self-expression,” she says. “An invitation to take risks, embrace color, texture, and craftsmanship, and discover the beauty of Latin American designers. It’s a chance to celebrate pieces that reflect the richness of our culture and heritage while making them entirely your own.”
The evening’s culinary program will carry the same spirit of cultural storytelling. The menu will draw on Latin traditions, including plantain; ceviche; New York strip steak served churrascostyle with chimichurri and yuca; lobster empanadas with caviar; a vegetarian jicama preparation; and fish paired with coconut rice, vegetables, plantain chips, and salsa. Dessert will feature Torta Negra, a rich, black cake studded with dried fruit and liquor, inspired by a traditional Latin American wedding and holiday dessert and said to deepen in flavor over time. In a subtle tribute to artist Iván Argote, the chef will incorporate elements of the artist’s visual language into the cake’s design, including a pigeon’s-nest motif.
The musical act remains under wraps, but Delilah and the h.wood Group will produce the after party with a live band, a cigar lounge, and specialty cocktails, so that some guests can relax while others dance.
Art, however, remains the evening’s center of gravity. Guests will partake in a private preview of Argote’s exhibition before it opens to the public the following week, while the artist’s mirrored work Reflexions Feel My Heat, 2024, donated for the occasion, will headline the live auction. Argote’s DIGNIDAD, developed with Floating Museum, will move through the city as both a sculptural presence and a powerful statement—bringing Argote’s exploration of public space, identity, and collective experience beyond the walls of the museum.
The auction reflects that same expansive philosophy. Alongside approximately 30 to 40 works—primarily by Latin American artists—the evening will include travel, fashion, and lifestyle experiences intended to appeal to seasoned collectors and newcomers alike.
“The auction embodies the spirit of Candela, bringing together extraordinary artists whose work is shaping the future of contemporary art,” says Augustus Owen. “We are honored to present exceptional works by Iván Argote and Ana Segovia in our live auction, complemented by a remarkable silent auction featuring an outstanding group of artists from across Latin America.”
Among the highlights, Augustus Owen points to a museumquality painting by Segovia, describing it as “an ambitious, large-scale work that exemplifies her distinctive exploration of identity, performance, and cinematic storytelling. It represents an extraordinary opportunity for collectors to acquire a major piece by one of the most exciting voices in contemporary Latin American art.”
“We've curated experiences that extend beyond art—from travel to fashion—so there will be something that resonates with every type of collector and enthusiast,” Garcia says.
Perhaps the evening’s most ambitious goal is to bring visitors closer to the artists themselves. “Our dream is for the artists to stand up and talk about their work,” says Gonzalez Jorba. “Nobody truly knows the artists at these events. We want to change that.”
Adrian Esparza, Unicorn Corral, 2023, acrylic and sarape on wood panel, 40 x 30 in. Courtesy of the artist and Cris Worley Fine Arts.
Jerónimo Rüedi, Chora #9, 2023, acrylic on canvas, 19.75 x 15.75 in. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Nordenhake.
That aspiration speaks directly to Dallas Contemporary’s identity as a kunsthalle—a noncollecting institution dedicated to giving artists freedom to experiment, take risks, and present ambitious work. “What makes Dallas Contemporary special is that we’ve been here for almost 50 years,” Garcia says. “We give opportunities to emerging artists to show their first museum exhibitions. We offer educational programs. We create opportunities that are inclusive and accessible.”
Rather than relying on lengthy speeches, the gala will feature a short film highlighting artists whose careers were shaped by the museum, including Paola Pivi, whose first US solo museum exhibition was presented by Dallas Contemporary. “Once people see that,” Augustus Owen says, “they will realize they are supporting something that changes lives. They are supporting something that’s important to Dallas and important to the artists.”
The evening arrives at a consequential moment for the institution. As interim executive director John McBride and strategic advisor Jeremy Strick help guide Dallas Contemporary toward its next era, Candela serves as both fundraiser and statement of intent—a reaffirmation of the museum’s role as one of the city’s most adventurous cultural spaces.
Looking toward its fifth decade, the museum’s vision feels as much about the future as the present: a younger generation stepping into leadership, a broader community discovering contemporary art, and an institution reminding Dallas that its greatest strength has always been its willingness to evolve.
For Gonzalez Jorba, the formula is ultimately simple. “It’s all about community,” she says. “The more we get involved and the more we get our friends involved, that’s how we keep it growing. That’s how you build the future.” P
Sebastián Silva, Untitled, 2025, oil on canvas, 64 × 47 in. Courtesy of the artist and OMR.
FRAMING A BRIGHTER FUTURE
Inside Art For Advocacy, transforming creativity into critical support for children recovering from abuse.
BY TERRI PROVENCAL
Art has long been celebrated for its ability to inspire, challenge, and heal. At Dallas Children’s Advocacy signature fundraising event, Art for Advocacy, it becomes something even more powerful: a lifeline.
Each year, artists, collectors, philanthropists, and civic leaders gather to invest in hope for children whose lives have been forever changed by abuse. Through an exhibition and auction of works donated by the local arts community, Art for Advocacy transforms art into action, raising critical funds that provide forensic interviews, trauma-focused therapy, family advocacy, medical services, and other essential resources for thousands of children across Dallas County.
“I’ve been inspired by how naturally the Dallas arts community understands that creativity has the power to change lives,” says Jen LeBlanc, who joined Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center last April as chief advancement officer. “This isn’t simply an auction or a fundraising event,” she adds. “It’s a community of artists, collectors, galleries, and supporters choosing to use their talents and influence on behalf of children who have experienced unimaginable trauma.”
At DCAC, art is woven into the healing process itself. “Trauma often lives in places where words cannot easily reach, especially for children,” LeBlanc explains. “Healing happens in many ways, and creative expression is one of the most powerful.”
Whether a child is drawing, painting, sculpting, or creating something else that reflects their emotions, art provides a safe outlet for processing experiences that may otherwise remain unspoken. “It gives our therapists another pathway to build trust, understand a child’s experiences, and help them begin to regain a sense of safety, confidence, and hope,” LeBlanc says.
For many survivors, creative expression becomes the first language of healing. “Art speaks a language that doesn’t require words. It allows children to communicate feelings, fears, and experiences in ways that feel safe and natural,” she continues. “We’ve seen time and again that creativity can unlock conversations, build trust, and become an important part of helping children move from surviving to healing. That’s why events like Art for Advocacy are such a natural extension of our mission—they reflect the very work happening inside our walls every day.”
Gaurii S. Kumaar, Vibrating Ink 360, 2025, gouache, stone pigment, and 24k gold on Sunn Hemp paper, 19.50 x 19.50 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Jessica Vollrath, After the Madonna Litta, 2024, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 x 2 in. Courtesy of the artist and Erin Cluley Gallery.
NorthPark Center presented the auction preview exhibition for Art For Advocacy in 2025.
Art For Advocacy preview at NorthPark Center. Courtesy of NorthPark Center.
Tom Pribyl, Edward's Room, 2024, oil on canvas, 20 x 30 in. Courtesy of the artist and Bardin Gallery.
Nosheen, Dimensional Safeena, 2025, cotton fiber and wood, 40 x 40 x 2 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Sophia Anthony, A Veil Drawn Beside, 2025, oil on linen over panel, 20 x 16 x 1.5 in. Courtesy of the artist and Make Room.
Each artwork donated to the auction carries a purpose that extends far beyond its frame. “Every piece donated becomes an investment in a child’s future,” LeBlanc says, adding that the dollars raised translate directly into services that ensure no child is turned away or forced to wait for care. “A successful Art for Advocacy means that when a child bravely tells someone they’re being abused, Dallas County is ready to respond,” she says. “It means families receive expert advocacy during one of the most difficult moments of their lives. It means children have access to specialized trauma therapy, medical care, and coordinated services—all at no cost [to the family].”
Among this year’s generous sponsors, NorthPark Center returns as Art for Advocacy’s preview sponsor. The exhibition will be on view August 12 through September 8, 2026, near Bookmarks, a Dallas Public Library, on Level One between Nordstrom and Macy’s.
The partnership reflects NorthPark’s longstanding commitment to making art accessible while supporting meaningful community initiatives. Isabelle Haemisegger, NorthPark’s director of art programming, explains: “Art has always been central to the NorthPark experience, and our collection was built on the belief that great art should be accessible to everyone. Art for Advocacy feels like a natural extension of that philosophy. We’re honored to provide a platform where art is not only viewed and appreciated but also serves
a larger purpose in supporting children across Dallas County.”
Stephanie and John Roberts will host this year’s Art For Advocacy soiree, Colors of Courage, on Saturday, September 12. The event features cocktails, a silent auction of more than 80 works of art, a seated dinner, and an exciting live auction. The event is chaired by Laura McCallen, Steve Noviello, and Ashley Nowak, with curatorial leadership from William Bardin of Bardin Gallery and artist Alec DeJesus.
For many participating artists, Art for Advocacy, presented by Labora, fosters connections that extend well beyond a single evening. Returning artist Ken Womack has seen firsthand how the event brings the community together through a shared appreciation for art and its ability to create meaningful impact. That spirit of connection continued for him after the 2025 auction, when Labora—founded by art collector and businessman Thomas Hartland-Mackie—acquired Womack’s Shine On plates and later commissioned his Nexus sculpture to commemorate City Electric Supply’s 75th anniversary.
Enduring relationships like these strengthen the impact of Art for Advocacy. Ultimately, LeBlanc says, Art for Advocacy is about “ensuring that every child who walks through our doors has the opportunity to heal, to grow, and to look toward a future filled with hope.” P
Faith Scott Jessup, Flora, 2024, 54 x 48 in., oil on canvas. Courtesy of the artist and Bardin Gallery.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
2026 PATRON ART INFLUENCERS AT CONDUIT GALLERY
PHOTOGRAPHS BY PEYTON MIXON
Leili Arai Tavallaei, Christina Hahn, Victoria Gomez
Cheryl Adkins Green, Colton Green Nancy Whitenack
Rob Grass, Amin Sijelmassi, Madison Ford, Halston Yerxa
Brent Brimhall, Courtney Brown
Destiny Ayala, Lily Cabutu Weiss, Nancy Cohen Israel
Jed Morse, Darryl Ratcliff
Kamica King
Vivian Li, Will Evans
Xxavier Carter, Brittani Hite
Ra Kazadi, Haley Leavitt
A LUNCHEON CELEBRATING THE NEW MINOTTI FLAGSHIP AT 1003 DRAGON STREET
PHOTOGRAPHS
BY ALLISON V. SMITH
Interior designers and architects gather at the Minotti Flagship showroom
Whitney Pastore, Tony Militello, Mariana Loya
Mariana Loya, Rene Garcia
Chad Dorsey
Cliff Welch, Alessandro Minotti, Rene Garcia, Chris Angelle, Dawn Smink-Gibson, Mil Bodron Minotti luncheon
Autumn Smink, Alessandro Minotti
THE DALLAS OPERA CRESCENDO MEMBERS AT TEXAS COUNTER FITTERS SPONSORED BY AVONDALE
PHOTOGRAPHS
Kimberly Calton, Morgan Minshew
Texas Counter Fitters
Michael Briggs, Anna Meliksetian
Diana Einstein, Chris Blackburn
Alina Nanda, Jennifer Miller, Ranbir Sidhu
Simon Waranch, Collette Flowers
David Baeza, Natalie Sheikh, Diana Einstein
Stef Dsoyp, Angelika Gualberto
Emily Sitton and Alex Lenczycki
BY PEYTON MIXON
BY BRANDON KENNEDY
Nothing holds up a mirror like the clear voice of a keen-eyed critic. However, in a city built on the allure of reflective surfaces and the razed promise of the future, this can often create consternation in city officials or those simply looking to make a buck. But rather than plowing hastily through to the next civic development, it’s often helpful to pause and reflect on what we have and how we got there. With the August release of Mark Lamster’s Welcome to Paradox City: A Critical History of Dallas as Told Through Its Architecture , we find the clarion call of such an endeavor.
Here in North Texas we have been fortunate enough to have had architecture critic Mark Lamster at the Dallas Morning News for just over a decade. A few months back, the lauded writer was awarded the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism “for his rigorous and passionate architecture criticism, using wit and expertise to amplify his opinions and advocate for city residents.” Prior accolades have included the Rabkin Prize for Arts Journalism (2021), being named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography (2018), and a Loeb Fellowship (2017), and he at one time taught at the College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Published by La Reunion, an imprint of the dexterous Dallas publisher Deep Vellum, this volume brilliantly elucidates the complicated histories of the buildings and spaces that make our city what it is. Within a dozen chapters—each outlining a historically significant, singular work of architecture—Lamster weaves through the domestic, commercial, and cultural spaces, whether commonplace and familiar or everyday yet elusive. Rather than a comprehensive list of such treasures within the city, he chooses to find a historical yet personal through-line that functions as a spatial
and cultural biography of each significant architectural addition, from antebellum to the present day.
We’re led into the body of the book by the mythical Woofus, the animal amalgam debuted at the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition that possibly best encapsulates the spirit of Dallas and its multifarious parts that comprise a confused whole. After running through a range of illuminating essays that parse a mall, a museum, and a park (among others), we’re greeted with a dystopian coda of a future Dallas from 2099. Fueled by a serving of cringeworthy acronyms and punning references, this imagined glimpse allows Lamster to throw some muchneeded comic relief and pointed barbs around within the framework of a satirical, smoldering civic tour.
Born of a conversation between Lamster and publisher Will Evans of Deep Vellum several years ago, the book had originally been foreseen as a compilation of the critic’s columns from the Dallas Morning News, which nine of the twelve are. After the twelve essays and aforementioned coda, we’re met with five appendices that handily list buildings that are “residential, tall, religious, cultural & miscellaneous, and demolished” respectively.
Lastly is the epilogue confronting our city’s current architectural conservation query: the future of City Hall, designed by I.M. Pei (1978). Buoyed by Lamster’s published DMN articles (and his uproarious direct commentary online), we’re met with a public conversation of smoke and mirrors put forth by dubious claims of civic leaders and aided by monetary projections fueled by developers and speculators. Rather than balk at the enormity of the potential wrongdoing and historical destruction on the horizon, Lamster pauses, gives historical context, thoughtful arguments, and ample insights, as always, calling out the powers that be, closing with “[City Hall] deserves better from our civic leaders.” I would add, the residents of Dallas deserve better too, and I am thankful that Lamster has consistently had the courage to remind us of that as well. P
Mark Lamster at Dallas City Hall. Courtesy of Mark Lamster. Inset: Welcome to Paradox City by Mark Lamster. Courtesy of Deep Vellum Publishing.
L ’H E UR E D U DIAMAN T Handcra f te d i n E thica l Go l d
