Curator

Dallas Art Fair | From Figuration to Abstraction

Academic

collector

gallerist

Gabriel Rico

Audio commentary

In this series of paintings, Gabriel Rico appropriates an ancient Mexican technique in which thread is pushed in to a wax background.  His work resonates with humor and Pop sensibility, while making a nod to the craft traditions of his country of origin: Mexico.

Perrotin

The second cause is meant to be an explanation of the first (Biznaga)

Cynthia Daignault

The black and white tonality of this painting seems to match well with its subject—a graveyard—and its title: Elegy.  I was moved by the overall sense of melancholy and absence, and by its beautiful brushwork.

Night Gallery

Elegy (Greenmount)

William McKeown

William McKeown was a Northern Irish painter who made a body of work rooted in an exploration of painting as a language.  I love this rich and ambiguous golden form, produced with minimal paint, but full of expectation and longing.

Kerlin

Untitled

Salma Tuqan

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March 31st

In this painting we see a typical suburban house, remarkable only for its unremarkability.  The deadpan  monochrome treatment of Diagnault's technique paradoxically makes this dull scene totally engaging and fascinating.

Elegy (Rambler)

Stefanie Popp

I was drawn to the strange and disquieting atmosphere of this painting.  Two ambiguous figures are in a highly-patterned room, carrying out some kind of (sexual?) ritual whose meaning is unclear to us as viewers/voyeurs.

Keijsers Koning

Double Dickling (Interieur)

Nathaniel Robinson

I was very taken with the lively and vigorous brushwork in this seeingly simple view of treetops.  The impression is communicated immediately but then we see that there is little if any realism in the work: seen close-up it almost recalls a work of abstract expressionism.

Magenta Plains

Here is another work by Gabriel Rico, but in quite a different vein. Here he takes the form of a cloud in neon, but adds two small sections from a tree branch, creating a interesting dialogue between industry and nature, or the ephemeral and the real.

Metawoman N2

Markus Weggenmann

Many contemporary artists are engaging with the tradition of abstraction, but in quite free and personal ways.  Markus Weggenmann's work can be related to several historical artists like Robert Motherwell, but his color and sense of form are quite unique.

Taubert Contemporary

LW 117

I was very attracted to the vibrant effect of the orange and blue together on this work, and by the lively and energetic form that literaly seems to want to burst out of the frame.

LW 221

This selection looks at a diverse body of work from Four X Five (Dallas Art Fair), looking at the many ways in which the traditional distinctions between figuration and abstraction are challenged in contemporary art.  A cross-generational group of artists present a lively rethinking of traditional artistic languages, from the kinky to the sublime.

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Dallas Art Fair | From Figuration to Abstraction

Gabriel Rico

Cynthia Daignault

William McKeown

Salma Tuqan

Cynthia Daignault

Stefanie Popp

Nathaniel Robinson

Gabriel Rico

Markus Weggenmann

Markus Weggenmann