Art to Covet

Hello!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the Dallas Art Fair.  It is the second year that galleries from all over the country have come to the Big D to exhibit artwork from hundreds of artists.  Now I must confess that I am not an art connoisseur – far from it.  I am one of those people who looks at popsicle sticks and splotches of paint on cardboard and says – my sons could do that!  Meanwhile, said piece is selling for $52,000!  So I obviously have no eye for value or for deeper meaning or whatever it is that I am supposed to be seeing in those popsicle sticks.  However,  there is much about art that is being made now for me to love and admire and, well, covet!

This artist is Hung Liu and she is a well established artist, with many works on display at the show.  All of them were incredibly lovely in person.  A photograph cannot possibly do the work justice,  as many are mixed media pieces and combine wood, canvas, oils and photographic effects.  The work is very compelling and accessible.

This is Dornith Doherty and this work is part of her Archiving Eden II exhibit at the Holly Johnson Gallery, right here in Dallas.    And the artist also lives in Dallas.  You can easily see that her background was in photography, can’t you?  This piece drew me right into the exhibition space and held me there for a while.  It was hanging atop this piece:

Both are lovely.  These are pigment on paper and there is something both calming and engaging about these pieces.  As a designer, I would love to build a room around this work.

This is also from the Holly Johnson gallery and is an oil painting by Janaki Lennie.  It is one of a series of canvases aptly entitled Breathing Space.  I will be honest this and its partner below I coveted for myself, for my living room.  The serenity and yes, breathing space, of these pieces appealed to me on many levels. 

This was my favorite of the two, but the artist has produced many more.  I love the colors, the foliage and evocative star and structures.  I could disappear into this for a while…

This piece by Marilla Palmer was featured at the Kathryn Markel gallery.  It is simply ethereal.  The photo does not pick up on the mirrored surfaces that embellish this painting.  This and the other piece displayed by this artist are near the top of my list of work that I would love to own. 

This is also gorgeous, isn’t it?  This artist’s work is available in the low 4 figures, so it’s not completely out of reach for some of my clients.  One of my friends said that her most favored purchases were pieces of art that she took a deep breath and wrote the check.  She said that she ended up waiting to buy other things as a result, but that she never regretted her buying her art.

The Carrie Secrist Gallery had an arresting exhibit counterpointing the work of this artist, Megan Greene, with the sculptures from Carolyne Ottmers.   It looks as though Megan Greene painted her images atop antique botanical prints.  I love the effect of this.  As a matter of fact, one of the prints that I purchased at Roundtop was a Hooker fern print printed atop a vintage botanical text.  Anyway, this is far more lovely than the pieces that I purchased.  Here is another of her works, with the sculptures that I mentioned in the photo too.

This is really stunning in person.  Carolyne Ottmers sculptures are incredibly lifelike and hang from hand forged hooks from the ceiling.  An installation of several of them would be amazing.  Here are a few, juxtaposed against another painting.

I am sure that some designer somewhere would try to turn these into light fixtures!  Yikes – no, no, no, no!  These are so lifelike and sinuous.  I can’t imagine a place in my home for them, but I would love to build a project around them.

There is definitely a theme to the work that I am attracted to.  All of it happens to be made by women.  As such, there is very much a feminine feeling to most, if not all, of it.  The forms are delicate and often found in nature.  The funny thing is that I pulled these images together based upon the pieces that most captured my attention at the show.  I had no idea that these pieces were all produced by women until I began to look at the biographies of the artists.  There is also a meditative and serene quality to much of the work, something that I am attracted to in interiors in general. 

Anyway, do take a moment to visit the websites of these galleries.  There are so many beautiful pieces of art on display.  Here are the links:  Carrie Secrist Gallery;  Holly Johnson Gallery; and Kathryn Markel.  And yes, these galleries are all owned by women – not intentional I do assure you!

Tagged as: Carolyne Ottmer, Carrie Secrist, Dornith Dohert, Holly Johnson Gallery, Hung Liu, Janaki Lennie, Kathryn Markel, Marilla Palmer, Megan Greene