Installing a new display in our Japan galleries with Nishiki Sugawara-Beda and the DMA team! Nishiki Sugawara-Beda is a Japanese-American artist based locally in Dallas, Texas. Her works draw upon her Japanese heritage, and often employ traditional Japanese mediums, including custom-made sumi ink. Her KuroKuroShiro (black-black-white) series explores the medium of sumi ink, reflecting on the mark-making of classical Japanese ink painting and calligraphy, while also incorporating modern approaches to figure and ground as well as the gestural brushstroke.  “Materially and conceptually, thes ..read more

As we approach the final weeks of Concentrations 64: Ja’Tovia Gary, I KNOW IT WAS THE BLOOD, I thought I would look back on the process of bringing this exhibition together. Specifically, I’ll walk you through the discussions, installation, and maintenance of In my mother’s house there are many many…, the DMA’s commissioned work from Gary. In March 2022, Dr. Katherine Brodbeck, Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, proposed that the DMA commission and acquire an artwork from Ja’Tovia Gary. Brodbeck and the Contemporary Curatorial Team had been working with Gary on a solo exhibitio ..read more

Objects of Pleasure is the type of artwork that immediately commands the viewer’s attention. Each large-scale panel reflects an almost mirror image of the other, represented in completely different textures and materials, and invites the viewer to observe the work from up close and pay closer attention to the objects displayed on the painted shelves.  Objects of Pleasure emerged from an informal conversation between two artist friends—or “sisters” as they call each other—Gala Porras-Kim and Young Joon Kwak, when they asked themselves, “what would pleasure look like for my sister?” Intrins ..read more

Talk of the Town is a collaborative exhibition between NorthPark, the Dallas Art Fair, and the Dallas Museum of Art to showcase works that the DMA was able to acquire through funds made available by the Dallas Art Fair Foundation to purchase works for the Museum at the fair. This program will celebrate its seventh year in April, and the DMA has brought 46 amazing works into the collection to date. I have been lucky to participate in six of the seven years, so curating this exhibition was a very personal exercise for me. It gave me the opportunity to reflect on the unique opportunities of this ..read more

The early 20th century was a time of accelerated transformation across fields, not unlike the present, and many viewed it as a time of new beginnings, not just politically but in technology, science, and the arts. Tumultuous change occurred with the rapid industrialization and mechanization of labor affecting, in turn, economics, science, and culture. This change also caused a growing philosophical division between nature and the machine to materialize; however, many artists, including Russian avant-garde artist El Lissitzky, saw an intrinsic connection between the two. Image 1. El Lissitzky ..read more

Artists Casey Koyczan and Eric Wagliardo each learned about rock art as many of us do—as a child or young adult in school, or out of an abundance of curiosity about the past, archaeology, or ancient art. But Koyczan, a Dene interdisciplinary artist from Yellowknife, Canada, says, “[I]t wasn’t until adulthood that I was able to experience them in person and fully realize their importance and spiritual meaning.” Also called petroglyphs (etched or pecked images) or pictographs (painted images), rock art has been created for thousands of years by people around the globe, from Australia to South Af ..read more

Pictured Left to Right: Artist Rashid Johnson; Dr. Anna Katherine Brodbeck, Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art; Dr. Agustín Arteaga, The Eugene McDermott Director Rashid Johnson, this year’s TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art 2022 honoree and renowned multidisciplinary artist, gifted the DMA with his multimedia work, The New Black Yoga Installation. Featuring five men performing an enigmatic dance of ballet, yoga, tai chi and martial arts across a sun-soaked beach, the work explores the complexity of personal and cultural identity. Johnson’s ongoing meditations on black masculinity and ..read more

Pablo Picasso’s first financial success came in spring 1906, when he sold the entire inventory of his studio to art dealer Ambroise Vollard for the then large sum of 2,000 francs. This allowed him and his partner, Fernande Olivier, to travel to Barcelona and from there to the Pyrenean village of Gósol. In Spain, Picasso was a different person, Olivier remembered: “[A]s soon as he returned to his native Spain, and especially to its countryside, he was perfused with its calm and serenity. This made his works lighter, airier, less agonized.”1 It is not surprising then that in the almost three mon ..read more

The Guna people live in an autonomous region of coastal Panama. The mola—a blouse with appliqué panels on the front and back—is one of the most recognizable Guna art forms.  Guna women devote hours daily to making molas together while they converse about their craft. This social context of production reinforces a shared set of aesthetic principles, including symmetry, contrast, and evenly distributed detail.[1] Well-made molas are admired and copied by others. This brightly colored mola features birdlike figures rowing boats. Velvety sleeves and rick-rack trim elevate the sumptuous detail ..read more

We honored the opening of Spirit Lodge: Mississippian Art from Spiro with a night of artist demonstrations, performances, art making, and more. See how we celebrated at Late Night in this slideshow, and visit Spirit Lodge for free now through August 7! Archery demonstration with Laughter Smith Archery demonstration with Laughter Smith The Caddo Culture Club Clothing twining and netting with Tonia Hogner-Weavel Loom weaving with Margaret Wheeler Loom weaving with Margaret Wheeler Special dance exhibition by Caddo Culture Club Special dance exhibition by Caddo Culture Club “Spirit Lodge” visit ..read more