Highlights from Dallas Art Fair 2018

by Paul Laster

Japanese painter MIWA KOMATSU, represented by Whitestone Gallery (Tokyo, Karuizawa, Hong Kong and Taipei), conducting her first “live-painting performance” in the United States during the Dallas Art Fair Preview Benefit. All photos by Paul Laster for ArtAsiaPacific.

Returning to the Fashion Industry Gallery in Dallas for its prodigious 10th edition, the Dallas Art Fair offers an impressive selection of contemporary art in a variety of media from nearly 100 exhibitors representing close to 30 different cities.

Taking place during Dallas Arts Month, the fair is accompanied by major exhibitions presented by local institutions, including Laura Owens’ traveling retrospective at the Dallas Museum of Art; Eric Fischl’s art scene paintings, a survey of Sara Rahbar’s figurative sculptures and Harry Nuriev’s contemporary design objects at the Dallas Contemporary; Adam Gordon’s immersive installation art at the Power Station; and the annual Eye Ball event at The Joule Hotel.

Galleries hailing from Asia and the Middle East—including Carbon 12 and Green Art Gallery from Dubai; Perrotin, from Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo; and Whitestone Gallery, which has spaces in Tokyo, Karuizawa, Hong Kong and Taipei—as well as established and emerging artists such as Etel Adnan, Rosemary Laing, Takashi Murakami, Kamrooz Aram, Naama Tsabar, Margaret Lee and Yui Kugimiya, have work on view at this wonderfully diverse art fair.

“The fair provides an opportunity for the cultural community to gather and have conversations about contemporary art,” Dallas Museum of Art director Agustín Arteaga told ArtAsiaPacific at the preview. “The new mission of the museum as a place of wonder and discovery, where art comes to life, relates to the goal of the fair, where visitors can encounter both old and new artists who are adding to the history of art.”

Here are some of the highlights from the 2018 Dallas Art Fair, which runs from April 13 to 15.

A group of Japanese painter MIWA KOMATSU’s canvases that portray mythological animals in an expressive, painterly style at Whitestone Gallery (Tokyo, Karuizawa, Hong Kong and Taipei).

Chinese artist BOVEY LEE’s cut-paper piece Chandelier – The Universe Is Luxurious (2018) and Lebanese artist ANNABEL DAOU’s sculpture Touch Me (2018), a psychological accumulation of words in wire and paint at Conduit Gallery (Dallas).

American Feeling and Birds of a Feather (both 2017) by Iranian-American artist AMIR H. FALLAH, poetically deal with issues of immigration and identity. On view at Shulamit Nazarian (Los Angeles).

A selection of canvases from Korean-American artist BYRON KIM’s ongoing series “Sunday Painting,” which depict minimally painted views of the sky along with diaristic texts, handwritten in pencil, at James Cohan (New York).

Lebanese painter ETEL ADNAN’s Untitled (2016) canvas depicting an imaginary, abstracted landscape with a minimal range of colors at Galerie Lelong & Co. (New York).

Spanish sculptor JAUME PLENSA’s bronze Who Are You? – V (2016) and Australian photographer ROSEMARY LAING’s color print Weather #6 (2006), which comments on climate change through the portrayal of a model suspended in a wind tunnel and surrounded by flying debris, at Galerie Lelong & Co. (New York).

Japanese artist TAKASHI MURAKAMI’s Untitled (2016), a monochromatic tondo painting, which has a field of hundreds of tiny, layered skulls covering the ground of the canvas mounted on a wood panel, on view at Perrotin (Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo).

Azerbaijani artist FAIG AHMED’s 2018 unique, handmade wool carpet and Japanese artist SHINJI TURNER-YAMAMOTO’s Contellaria #3 (2014) and Constellaria #13 (2017), which incorporate such organic materials as fossil dust, crystals, meteorite fragments and volcanic ash, at Sapar Contemporary (New York).

Japanese painter YUI KUGIMIYA’s 2017 gridded, multi-colored abstractions Spine Natural and Spine Doubts at Galerie Enrique Guerrero (Mexico City).

Iranian artist MARYAM HOSEINI’s paintings Women With Long Tails I and Women With Long Tails II (both 2018), which combine wood panels with abstracted, female nudes and architectural elements painted on the wall, and Iranian painter KAMROOZ ARAM’s canvas Ornamental Composition for Social Spaces 13 (2017), which mixes elements of traditional non-Western art with aspects of European Modernism, at Green Art Gallery (Dubai).

Japanese ceramicist KATSUYO AOKI’s handcrafted porcelain skull Predictive Dream LIV (2016), inspired by Rococo interior design, at Jason Jacques Gallery (New York).

A stainless steel sculpture of an automobile tailpipe mounted on a pedestal (titled I mean when I say xxx, 2017) by Korean-American artist MARGARET LEE and Chinese-American painter ANDREW KUO’s abstract canvas Sunset (2018) at Marlborough Contemporary (New York and London).

Israeli artist NAAMA TSABAR’s interactive sculpture Work On Felt (Variation 16) Dark Blue (2017) consists of a split piece of blue felt, which is partially pulled from the wall with a piano string that’s connected to a microphone and amplifier so that it can be played like a guitar. On view at Paul Kasmin Gallery (New York).

Reliefs and steel panels with magnets from the 1960s by Chinese artist LI YUAN-CHIA (1929–94) at Richard Saltoun (London). Li was part of the European avant-garde when he lived and worked in Italy and England, from 1965 until his death.

Iranian artist SARA RAHBAR’s Flag #57 Justice For All (2017), a vintage American flag altered by the artist through the addition of traditional Iranian relics and textiles, at Carbon 12 (Dubai).

Japanese artist SHINPEI KUSANAGI’s paintings A Man of the Lake (2017) and Another Sky (2018)—two abstract landscapes painted with washes of color, at Altman Siegel (San Francisco).

A pair of multicolored, folding paintings on plywood from 2012 by Japanese artist KATSUMI NAKAI (1927–2013) at Ronchini Gallery (London).

Paul Laster is a New York desk editor of ArtAsiaPacific.

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