6 Must-See Art Exhibits to Catch in Dallas This Winter
An Academy Award-Winning VR Experience, Katy Trail Sculptures, and Mid-Century Gems
BY Megan Ziots // 01.06.22Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Academy Award-winning virtual reality experience CARNE y ARENA (Virtually present, Physically invisible) explores the human condition of immigrants and refugees. (Courtesy)
From an Academy Award-winning virtual reality experience to new sculpture projects around town, these are the must-see art exhibits in Dallas this winter.
CARNE y ARENA
Opening at Fair Park’s Food & Fiber Pavilion on January 21, Academy Award-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s CARNE y ARENA is an immersive virtual reality experience. In partnership with Nasher Sculpture Center and the George W. Bush Presidential Center, as well as Emerson Collective, PHI Studio, and Legendary Entertainment, this VR experience follows the journey of Central American and Mexican refugees. This will be the first time the exhibit, which also won an Academy Award, has been presented in Texas. Tickets will be available to visit the exhibition through April 18.
Octavio Medellín: Spirit and Form
A new focus installation debuts at the Dallas Museum of Art on February 6 featuring Mexican American artist Octavio Medellín. The first-ever museum retrospective of the sculptor, the Spirit and Form exhibition includes about 80 of the Mexican-American sculptor’s works. Medellín lived and worked in Dallas for over 40 years and served as an instructor at the school of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. Dating from 1926 to 1995, the exhibit will feature 30 sculptures created using locally-sourced wood and stone, as well as his public art commissions.
Harry Bertoia: Sculpting Mid-Century Modern Life
Head to the Nasher Sculpture Center starting January 29 for Italian-born American artist Harry Bertoia’s Sculpting Mid-Century Modern Life. As the first U.S. museum retrospective of the sculptor’s career, the exhibit will include almost 100 works by the artist. Expect paper works, modern furniture, jewelry, large-scale commissions, and sounding sculptures from Bertoia’s home.
Nasher Public: Christian Cruz
Also exhibited at the Nasher through January 30, Christian Cruz’s installation, Pink Collar // Children’s Linen, has taken over the front gallery space. The installation includes a suspended cloth sculpture and a column of plastic laundry baskets. Created during quarantine, Cruz’s latest installation focuses on the labor performed by domestic workers, often undervalued. You’ll also see sculptures, Laundry High Heels (Relic) 1 & 2 (2021), made of old clothes formerly worn by Cruz.
A couple of other noteworthy Nasher Public commissions popped up around town in the last few months. If you walk on the Katy Trail, you’ll see Sara Cardona’s Seeding the Path, which are five sculptures suspended from the trees between Cambrick Street and Fitzhugh Avenue. And if you go over to 2001 Ross Avenue downtown, you can catch Alicia Eggert’s The Time for Becoming — a steel structure with red neon lettering reading “NOW IS ONLY FOR THE TIME BEING,” which changes to “NOW IS ALWAYS THE TIME FOR BECOMING.”