Your Show of Shows

The 4 Dallas art gallery shows you must see in May

A Brit import’s digital revolution, 20 years of photography worth celebrating and candy-colored images from two young talents are all on the roster for the merry month of May.

“My Shoes, My Stove, My Life,” Luke Dowd, at Zhulong Gallery
Reception: May 15, 6-9 pm 
Exhibition dates: May 15-June 20

Moving from collage to silkscreen to digital prints, London-based artist Luke Dowd’s work has remained incredibly personal, even as it backs away from a more organic process.

“I was interested in his formal sensibility and his approach to art making, which has a strong modernist tack, given his thoughts on making, medium and composition,” says Zhulong owner Aja Martin, who brought the artist to Dallas after shows in London, Frankfurt, New York and Paris.

“But Luke doesn’t allow this approach to bog down his practice, and he’s happy to step away from tradition — which is apparent in his use of various processes that incorporate printing technologies and even a light use of software.”

Dowd’s 16 half-tone digital canvases of stoves, shoes and abstract shapes were crafted with Photoshop across the pond, but they were not printed until the artist arrived in town, providing for a bit of pre-opening nerves.

Dowd says the results drawn a through line from his former work, with a trajectory that removes emotional content as his technique is refined. “You can cool it down as much as you want, but you can’t really escape yourself. There’s a certain continuity happening.”

20th Anniversary Exhibition at PDNB Gallery
Reception: May 16, 5-8 pm 
Exhibition dates: May 16-June 20

Twenty years in the art world is no small achievement, and Photographs Do Not Bend is celebrating in a manner befitting its status as one of longest running spaces in the Design District. Originally opening its doors on Routh Street in 1995 with a Joel-Peter Witkin show paired with a show of Latin American artists, PDNB has culled some of its most iconic imagery from both their stable and their devoted collectors to celebrate their two decades in the industry.

“A lot of the inventory is from our artists, but there are pieces I cannot get that I really wanted to include, so I asked some of my collectors to loan them for the show,” says co-owner Missy Finger. “There’s Joel-Peter Witkin, a Vic Muniz, and there’s a great Diane Arbus.”

Things have changed from the days photography was considered the “bastard child of the art world,” but it’s still one of the most collectible mediums in contemporary art. One can score a print by the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson or Man Ray for far, far less than equivalent pieces from blue chip painters, a fact that bodes well for PDNB’s continued success.

“Truly, Madly,” Kasumi Chow and Desiree Espada, at the Public Trust
Reception: May 23, 6-9 pm 
Exhibition dates: May 23-June 20

The collaborative work of local photographers Kasumi Chow and Desiree Espada (a CultureMap contributor) captures imagery of champagne, cake and balloons in a way that is poignant and girlie without being too saccharin sweet. It’s their party, and they’ll cry if they want to.

Discovered by the Public Trust’s Brian Gibb as he was looking for submissions to this year’s Slideluck event, the duo’s photography ended up being a pleasant surprise that led to a perfectly timed show at the gallery’s new space at 2271 Monitor St.

“They were first in the slideshow and the DJ dropped in a Stereolab track and I thought, ‘I love this work!’”

Having recently moved with neighbor Liliana Bloch from their former spot in Deep Ellum to a larger space next door to Galleri Urbane, Gibb had a vacancy in his schedule for a solo show that the two young talents easily filled.

“[The work] says a lot about them,” he explains. “It’s contemporary still life reflections of young womanhood. They’re asking the same existential questions we all are, but they’re working through it through visuals that are really striking and fun.”

Not to mention affordable. With prints measuring at a lofty 3-by-3-foot size and retailing for just $1,250, it’s an opportunity for collectors to nab something high impact at a very reasonable price.

Shapes Zines Pop Up, various artists, at the Reading Room
Reception: May 23, noon-7 pm 

Enthusiastic collectors of zines know it’s a passion that can’t quite be explained. Artist Randy Guthmiller turned his own fondness for shapes into an ongoing series of publications, and the local impact of his creations led other artists to ask how they can spread their own unique visions around town. Guthmiller responded by starting his own publishing house, and Shapes Zines will the first selection of these DIY collectibles May 23 at the Reading Room.

“We’ve got almost a dozen artists, and all of them are making at least one zine,” he says. “They’re all totally different and based off their own interests; there’s one by Brooke Granowski called America’s Hottest Potatoes that combines imagery of all types of potatoes with Maine potato harvest beauty queens.”

Other options include Vice Palace artists Larry Carey’s illuminati grids and Evan Henry’s impressions of a visit to SXSW. Each retails for just $5, so you can collect them all. Guthmiller plans on following up this pop-up with a more traditional zine fair at the Wild Detectives on September 6.

A publication from Shape Zines at the Reading Room.

Photo courtesy of Reading Room

A publication from Shape Zines at the Reading Room.

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RIP Albert

Colorful and iconoclastic Dallas artist Albert Scherbarth dies at 70

Courtesy

Dallas artist Albert Scherbarth

Dallas artist Albert Scherbarth, known for his jubilant creativity which he displayed in a wide range of media, died on February 18; he was 70 years old. According to friends, he suffered a heart attack.

Scherbarth's myriad "canvases" ranged from printmaking to furniture to steel and metal working. He was a colorful presence in the Dallas art scene with a shock of thick hair that stood tall, definitive horn-rimmed glasses, and an unfiltered, no-nonsense personal style.

He was also a key figure in The Cedars district: an urban pioneer who settled in the area directly south of downtown Dallas in the early '80s when the neighborhood was a mostly-deserted collection of abandoned warehouses, before it became a major art nexus.

A post by Lee Harvey's, the Cedars District bar, said that "Some people don’t just live in a neighborhood — they leave their mark on it. Albert did exactly that. Through his art, his presence, and his time at our bar, he became part of the story here. We’ll miss him more than we can say. Rest easy Bert."

He was a real character, as well — a stocky physical presence (he played football in high school) who'd fix his stare upon you as if you were a critter to be studied.

One friend said, "I always feel that Albert is going to spring some meta shit on me every time i see him and he rarely disappoints. What a cool cat."

A native of Nebraska, Scherbarth moved to Dallas in 1979 to earn a master's in fine arts at the University of Dallas, Irving. After graduating in 1981, he began teaching in the community college district, including Brookhaven College, Northlake College, University of Texas at Dallas, and the Creative Art Center, as well as at Dallas' Arts Magnet.

Sculpture by Albert Scherbarth which appeared at the State Fair of Texas in 2018.Laura Walters/Facebook

After graduating from art school, he felt the need to do "real" work like his father, and took jobs in construction and woodwork, which helped shape the very physical nature of his art.

He was one of the early and many artists who resided in the Continental Gin Building, where he worked on his designs and commissions, fabricated other artists’ ideas, and helped galleries with installations, crating, and shipping.

Through the years he made furniture, got into fused and cast glass, poured concrete countertops, and painted, including a successful era of doing giant flower paintings. In his latter years, he acquired a welding machine and worked with builders, designers, and architects constructing screens, fences, furniture, and sculptures.

His works around town include a giant wine tree for Fleming Steakhouse in Frisco, and a sculpture named, "Cecil, age 12" up on Henderson Avenue at Capital Street which was was a finalists for the Henderson Art Prize. He also worked on the famed Bowler Hat sculpture in the Cedars.

In an interview with Voyage Dallas, he said, "I’m constantly looking for more meaning and more permanence in the work that I’m doing," and acknowledged that "I’ve been very, very fortunate to get a lot of really great commissions over the years. I’ve sold a lot of work and fallen into great studio situations – large spaces, cheap rent and wonderful landlords. Today, I think my ignorance of all the pitfalls ahead allowed me to storm through life and I have a certain stubbornness, a dogged determination to succeed."

"My grandfathers died before I came of age, my father died, my favorite uncle died so there was not much in the way of male guidance or perspective on how to be a man, so I’ve just kind of made it up on my own, stumbling through, winging it and I’m still alive, amazingly enough."

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