Inside the Green Family’s Bold Entry Into the Dallas Art Scene
Their Non-Profit Foundation Shines a Light on Emerging — and Sometimes Controversial — Talent
BY Catherine D. Anspon // 10.20.23Adam Green, Bailey Summers at Green Family Art Foundation on Flora Street in the Dallas Arts District.
In just two years, the Green Family Art Foundation, showcasing under-represented artists, has emerged upon the Texas scene. Its bold entry — first at River Bend, now in the Dallas Arts District — has added a museum-level discourse to the city’s vibrant visual culture.
Dallas is vying with Miami for its share of spaces for contemporary viewing (The Warehouse, The Power Station, The Karpidas Collection), but unlike those destinations, the Green Family Art Foundation is open five days a week. Its pristine exhibition space, both accessible and highly visible, is located on the ground floor of a residential high-rise on Flora Street, one block from Nasher Sculpture Center. Inside is some of the most ambitious programming in Texas.
I first heard about the foundation during an interview with artist Jammie Holmes in the summer of 2021. When he mentioned his inclusion in an upcoming group show organized by the Greens, which opened in October 2021 (“Black Bodies, White Spaces: Invisibility & Hypervisibility” at Dallas Art Fair Projects gallery in River Bend Center in the Dallas Design District), even the astute Holmes couldn’t share many details about his patrons’ curatorial endeavor. Intrigued, I vowed to investigate.
Flash forward to this summer. A trek to Dallas providentially coincided with an email from Adam Green, who invited me to visit his family’s foundation in their new location. I strolled into the handsome space anchoring a sleek high-rise building (which, I learned, the foundation occasionally programs), where a front-desk vestibule led to polished, light-filled galleries and a topical exhibition that’s been a year in the making: “Full and Pure: Body, Materiality, Gender.” The convivial, laser-focused Adam Green gave the tour.
“The show has about 40 artists of varying generations and touches on gender fluidity, which is somewhat of a sensitive topic here in Texas,” said Green, a trustee of the foundation established by his parents, collectors and philanthropists Debbie and Eric Green. “But we thought it was important to do this show. There are a lot of artists in this field that are making great work … I think it’s sometimes too controversial for a museum to do a show like this. Fortunately, having a foundation and not having any kind of board or having to really answer to anyone, we can make this happen.”
Experiencing the exhibition was impactful — especially Ren Light Pan’s Sleeping Paintings (2015, 2021), which reflect the artist’s gender transition, positioned alongside a bed where viewers were encouraged to rest beside a bouquet of decaying funeral flowers. Other visceral works included late artists Breyer P-Orridge’s collaborative Alchymical Wedding (Study) (1997-2012) with its hand-blown glass container filled with hair, skin, and nails, and Ana Mendieta’s unflinching nude self-portraits, Untitled (Glass on Body Imprints) (1972/1997), which date from a half-century earlier. Finally, the chance to see buzzed-about Dallas artist Leslie Martinez’s color-drenched 96 x 144-inch canvas Latent and Supine (2022) was thrilling. (Martinez, Green shared, is scheduled for a fall show at MoMA PS1.)
Father's Day Gifts
The Faces Behind the Foundation
Green is the face of GFAF, along with director Bailey Summers, and the foundation is a client of the Adam Green Art Advisory, which he founded in 2016. Green holds an art history degree from Brandeis (where he currently sits on the board of the Rose Art Museum), an MBA from Wharton, and a master’s in art business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. This expertise has culminated in his most visible role to date, at the GFAF, which required a move back to his hometown last December with his wife, Estée Lauder executive Rachel Green, and their two children.
Director Summers also plays a leading part in the foundation. The recent TCU grad in art history and arts administration joined the Greens in early 2020 after a stint at TACA – The Arts Community Alliance. “We are passionate about making art more accessible, inviting, and informative to the public … not only within Texas but also beyond,” she notes.
“Togetherness: For Better or Worse” and “Nicolas Party: Landscape,” both October 7 – January 21, 2024; at Green Family Art Foundation, 2111 Flora St., greenfamilyartfoundation.org.
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