The Coolest Woman in Dallas?

Erin Cluley is one of the most eclectic-cool women in Dallas. When she isn’t running her namesake gallery, she’s traveling (most recently to Cuba for the Havana Biennial) or popping around town in NeoBantu, the Dallas–based African designer known for avant-garde wares. With her creative eye searching for a new spin on holiday shopping, Cluley has popped up El Mercado (this is her second year to do so), now open — a market exhibition at her gallery stocked with handcrafted gifts and art.

We covet Dallasites Kelly and Jack Cornell’s Desert Hide rustic leather satchels; a collection of 10 Risograph prints from my favorite illustrator, Rob Wilson, in a witty series called “Pets Behaving Badly”; Stetson hats artfully modified by Baltimore artist René Treviño, which Cluley says are going to be both beautiful and wild; and a pair of painted surfboards from art star Richard Phillips — something the Californian in me simply can’t resist. El Mercado at Erin Cluley Gallery, through December 24. 414 Fabrication St., 214.538.1148.