Your Show of Shows

Dallas-Fort Worth galleries have the goods to gift your artsy friends

Intimate, personal, and completely unique, art is the ideal gift for the person who has everything. Luckily, Dallas gallerists make it easy to find present-able solutions for every taste and budget.

The Public Trust owner Brian Gibb is offering the penultimate art and design aficionado gift in the form of the “Mystery Box,” a collection of an artist T-shirt; an editioned screenprint; one small original work; plus an assortment of zines, books, and other treasures — like collectible issues of his magazine Art Prostitute. Each box is completely unique and curated from Gibb’s gallery’s inventory, along with some personal favorites.

Although Erin Cluley is taking a break from her annual Mercado pop-up (it’ll return in 2017 bigger and better than ever), she is offering a curated collection from her gallery stable, including screenprints by Zeke Williams, Rob Wilson, and Faile, and original works by Rachel Livedalen.

And, finally, Frank Campagna’s Kettle Art Gallery is showing its annual “Holiday Presence" exhibition of small canvases and artisan-crafted gifts, all priced under $200. Open through December 24, it’s an ideal stop for last-minute shoppers.

If your artistically inclined friends prefer experiences to possessions, these must-see gallery exhibitions also make the season bright — from a talented Dallas-Fort Worth partnership, thought-provoking sculpture, and naturally inspired works from a seasoned talent.

“Outside/In,” Carol Benson at William Campbell Contemporary Art, Fort Worth
Opening reception: December 8, 6-8 pm
Exhibition dates: December 8-January 8

Fort Worth has an intimate but healthy gallery scene, one anchored by the city’s oldest existing contemporary gallery, William Campbell. Founded in 1974, the space’s owners spearhead the Fort Worth Art Dealer Association’s biannual gallery night each fall and spring, but their holiday show also merits a trip west.

Exploring the natural world in both two dimensions and three, local artist Carol Benson’s layered paintings and wire sculpture became “less defined and more of an idea,” as she melds shapes and colors. Eschewing realism for a more emotionally resonant approach, her pieces nonetheless have the same soothing effect one would receive when gazing at their real-life inspirations.

“There is such surprising beauty in nature; the colors, shapes, textures, and compositions never ceases to amaze me,” muses the artist. “ The rejuvenation, energy, movement, and adaptability of the natural world are reassuring.

“Perhaps the viewer will connect with my ideas, or they may see the work in a completely different way.”

Sydney Williams at Cydonia Gallery
Opening reception: December 10, 6-8 pm
Exhibition dates: December 10-30

Cydonia Gallery is closing out a year of all female artists with the first solo exhibition from ceramicist and sculptor Sydney Williams, who also hails from Fort Worth. Her concrete sculptures may have their foundation in the vocabulary of pottery (the “neck,” the “belly,” the “feet,” etc.) but instead of becoming specific, their meanings remain oblique, with a subtle reference to children’s toys.

“Sydney is not interested in the 'crafts' designation that ceramics has historically held,” says gallery director Hanh Ho. “She was drawn to ceramics because she learns most naturally through her sense of touch. Instead of understanding the world primarily though virtual or technological advances, she values what is most innate to her: working and learning with her hands.”

The 12 substantial works spill from the inside to the outside of the gallery, referencing Donald Judd and Claes Oldenburg with a specific Texan, female perspective.

“Ro2ooth Gift Grab,” various artists at Ro2 Art
Opening reception: December 23, 7-10 pm
Exhibition dates: December 17-31

When Dallas and Fort Worth get together, the result could never be anything less than eye-popping. Drawing on the talent of the latter city’s curatorial collective Art Tooth, Ro2 Art is presenting Ro2ooth Gift Grab, a gift-driven show that pairs the best of the gallery’s stable with pieces from the six-month-old group of art entrepreneurs. The exhibit’s roster includes sculpture, photography, painting, and prints from 57 participating artists.

Says gallery co-owner Jordan Roth, “It’s Dallas-Fort Worth’s most talked about talent combined with emerging artists. It’s going to be rock solid. We’re thrilled for the opportunity to bring the two cities together to celebrate North Texas art for the holidays.”

Holiday Mystery Box from Public Trust makes a great gift.

Photo courtesy of the Public Trust

Holiday Mystery Box from Public Trust makes a great gift.

event-planner galleries holidays

A good listen

Dallas Symphony and Fabio Luisi release landmark Wagner 'Ring Cycle' set

Fabio Luisi conducting the Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Photo courtesy of Dallas Symphony Orchestra

undefined

Fabio Luisi wanted his Ring Cycle to be heard and not seen.

Wagner’s four-opera epic Der Ring des Nibelungen, approaching the 150th anniversary of its premiere in 1876, has been reinterpreted and deconstructed by directors finding various meanings in the conflicts among gods, humans, giants and dwarfs.

While most new recordings are on video, Luisi led his Dallas Symphony Orchestra in concert performances that were released on 13 compact discs by Delos on May 22 and are available on streaming services.

“Wagner conceived this as a total immersion in visual and acoustic, but I could focus really only on the music, and this was the point actually — not to be distracted by staging and not to have to cope with maybe strange ideas of staging,” Luisi said. “I think the music tells everything.”

Luisi became DSO music director in 2020 and broached the idea while dining two years later with (the now late) Morton H. Meyerson, a longtime board member.

“Fabio came back from lunch sort of giddy but sort of sheepishly saying: `Do you think that this would ever be possible?” recalled Kim Noltemy, the Dallas CEO at the time. “So, I said, well, let’s give it a try. So, we called around to see if there were people who wanted to support it and did a budget.”

After securing a waiver from the orchestra allowing for the needed rehearsals and performance length, recordings were made during four concerts from May 1-5 and six more from Oct. 5-20. Each opera was performed two or three times.

Americans in cast fill big roles
American singers featured prominently, with Mark Delavan as Wotan, Lise Lindstrom as Brünnhilde and Sara Jakubiak as Sieglinde, part of a cast that included Christopher Ventris (Siegmund), Daniel Johansson (Siegfried), Deniz Uzun (Fricka), Tómas Tómasson (Alberich), Michael Laurenz (Mime) and Stephen Milling (Hagen).

Delavan sang Wotan at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 2013 after Luisi took over from an ailing James Levine in Robert Lepage’s much-maligned production staged on a 45-ton set of 24 rotating planks.

“We’re accessible and they know that we’re hungry and we have a chip on our shoulders,” Delavan said. “What conductors like about American singers is their technique is sound. Even a European conductor would say: Well, I’m going to give up some of the communication skills, only one degree of separation with the language, but I’m going to get a solid technique, and I’m going to get pretty good acting chops.”

Lindstrom has been in Atlanta to sing in its production of “Götterdämmerung,” the concluding night of the tetralogy, leading to what is being billed as the first complete Ring Cycles in the America South in 2029.

“The wonderful thing about it is the intimacy between the orchestra and us, because we’re not separated by a chunk of stage or a chunk a scenery or a chunk of concept,” she said of the Dallas performances. “And for people like me, who have had the opportunity to perform the role before, I have all those iterations to rely on for my portrayal that I can sort of filter myself through.”

A younger Luisi listened to famous renditions
Luisi, 67, first heard a Ring recording in Georg Solti’s famous studio set with the Vienna Philharmonic from 1958-65. He also admires Karl Böhm’s live recording from the 1967 Bayreuth Festival and Marek Janowski’s 1980-83 studio version with the Staatskapelle Dresden.

He first conducted Ring when he was music director of Dresden’s Semperoper from 2007-10. Luisi’s Dallas performances include more legato and softer sound than his rendition a decade earlier at the Met. He tries to keep an arc from the first notes of “Das Rheingold” to the final strains of “Götterdämmerung.”

“I have a deeper understanding about the meaning of this piece,” he said. “I consider the ring to be a big Bruckner symphony. So we have the introduction, then we have the first movement, this is “Walküre,” which happens to be a slow movement, and then we have the scherzo, which is “Siegfried,” of course, and then the long, long, last movement. There is a unity.”

dso luisi ring wagner recording concerts music symphony