ART INFLUENCERS

Diverse and dedicated, nine passionate trailblazers working in the arts chart their course.

BY STEVE CARTER, NANCY COHEN ISRAEL, AND TERRI PROVENCAL

One’s work should be a salute to life. –Pablo Casals, Spanish Catalan cellist, composer, and conductor

MarkRoglÁn

Linda P. and William A. Custard Director of the Meadows Museum

“Algur Meadows was clear and adamant that he wanted a small Prado in Texas,” says Dr. Mark Roglán, the Linda P. and William A. Custard Director of the Meadows Museum. More than a Texas conceit, it is Mr. Meadows’ vision of excellence that continues to inspire Roglán.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the opening of the current building on the Southern Methodist University campus as well as Roglán’s arrival there. Coming from the Museo del Prado to be the Meadows’ curator, he became its director in 2006. It was a perfect opportunity. “The purpose of the Meadows is extraordinary. It is the combination of having an institution that is so focused and being part of a fine and prestigious university. There’s nothing like it anywhere else in the world,” he says. Access to the academic community and its resources, he adds, further enhances the museum’s capabilities.

During Roglán’s tenure, the collection has doubled, with acquisitions ranging from the Middle Ages to the present. The exhibition calendar regularly includes loans from prestigious public and private collections in the United States and abroad. The museum frequently hosts scholars and dignitaries from around the world. Reaching beyond Dallas, Roglán established an exchange program with the Prado. He was a guiding force in the MAS: Meadows Museum/ARCO Artist Spotlight focusing on Spanish contemporary artists. In 2022, the work of Ignasi Aballí will be the first exhibition. And the Meadows Museum fellowship program, created a decade ago, has welcomed an international group of pre- and postdoctoral graduates. Dr. Amanda Dotseth, the museum’s curator, is one of its alumni.

While he has charted the course, Roglán shares the credit for the museum’s successes with many constituencies. In addition to museum staff, this includes the advisory council that he created, the university administration, and the Meadows Foundation. “It definitely takes a village,” he says.

If Mr. Meadows’ dream has been fulfilled, it is in large part due to Mark Roglán’s leadership and quest for excellence. –Nancy Cohen Israel

TerryLoftis

TACA Donna Wilhelm Family President and Executive Director

Terry Loftis was still new in the job when performance venues shuttered last year. As the Donna Wilhelm Family President and Executive Director of TACA (The Arts Community Alliance), he quickly had to guide the organization as it worked to sustain a beleaguered arts community.

“We decided we needed to create an emergency fund for immediate distribution,” he says, adding, “It was designed to help these organizations literally keep the lights on.” Through generous community support, donations poured into the Emergency Arts Relief Fund, which soon evolved into the TACA Resiliency Initiative. Under this umbrella, and expanding their usual grant-making processes, TACA is currently awarding monthly Pop-Up Grants for short-term projects. TACA’s support has helped dozens of organizations navigate the pandemic.

Aside from finding funding, which is critical, Loftis thinks holistically about the creative community. “The long-term goal is to keep artists in Dallas so they don’t feel that they have to leave Dallas to make a living,” he notes. He also points to access as a key factor towards achieving greater representation in the arts. In order for children to be exposed to the arts he says, “It has to happen in the communities where our kids are.” Citing his own experiences as a student at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Loftis recounts, “It opened up a world that I didn’t know existed.”

Collaboration, Loftis emphasizes, is also vital to weaving the arts throughout the fabric of the city. Working in partnership with the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, he hopes that by bringing the arts into libraries and community centers, they will become increasingly accessible and inclusive. “We have to go beyond writing checks and use our voice to help organizations produce and cultivate art,” he says. Doing so will fulfill TACA’s mandate to support our local artists while nurturing and enriching the communities they represent.

The TACA Silver Cup Award luncheon in May was an apt homecoming for both patrons and arts organizations. –Nancy Cohen Israel

AnnaKern

NorthPark Center’s Manager of Art Programming

Anna Kern, NorthPark Center’s Manager of Art Programming in CenterPark Garden in front of Leo Villareal’s Buckyball, 2015. Photograph by Dana McCurdy.

The venerable NorthPark Center turns 56 this July, and its tagline, The Art of Shopping, continues to define its unique character. Anna Kern, the center’s manager of art programming, has been part of the art team for three years and has solely been helming the art department for the last two of those. The shopping center’s renowned art collection continues to expand and evolve, and Kern’s innovative stewardship ensures that it’s as vital and vibrant as ever.

One of Kern’s first initiatives was spearheading the ongoing Pop Up Project, a corollary to NorthPark’s rotating international art collection. Pop Up Project artworks are large-scale vinylrealized creations that enliven facades of empty storefronts, a welcome departure from the typical unpainted plywood. A number of DFW-based artists are on view, including John Pomara, Leah Flook, Zeke Williams, and others. “I wanted a platform to really support the local and regional artists in our community,” Kern explains. “We want to be a community hub for Dallas…I felt like we needed to extend that in the artwork as well.”

The COVID era has brought challenges to NorthPark’s art programming, but Kern has adjusted to meet the new frontier. The popular ArtROCKS! children’s program adapted handily to virtual sessions, and Kern-guided public tours of the collection have also gone online. “The virtual tour allows for even more exposure” she says. “I can probably host a hundred different people, versus a physical tour of maybe 15 or 20…a strange silver lining.” Additionally, NorthPark is participating in the RESIST COVID/TAKE 6! campaign, an initiative to raise public awareness through seven storefront activations by Carrie Mae Weems, the acclaimed multidisciplinary artist and activist. And Kern is super excited about the current #IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit, which opened last month. Comprising 122 3D printed statues of contemporary STEM professional women, the exhibition is populating NorthPark’s CenterPark through October 24.

With so much art to mind, does Kern ever get overwhelmed? “I do, but it’s okay,” she admits. “Keeps me on my toes.” –Steve Carter

KellyCornell

Director, Dallas Art Fair

Kelly Cornell, Director, Dallas Art Fair at Dallas Art Fair Projects with Maja Djordjevic’s I will play!

Kelly Cornell, Dallas Art Fair’s director, describes herself as a visual thinker. Joining the fair shortly after graduating with a BFA from Southern Methodist University in 2012, she confesses, “I was never a great painter in school, always a bit too rigid, but I love the process of things.” Trading her paintbrushes in while still maintaining the art of process, she was promoted to fair director in 2016. “The art fair is all about layers and relationships. We want it to have depth in its programming and offerings, be relevant, and most importantly provide opportunities for relationships among galleries, collectors, and artists to grow.”

And grow the Dallas Art Fair did, until the cruel pandemic disrupted the momentum exhibitors and collectors anticipate each spring. Postponing the fair “just weeks before our opening date last year forced us to think fast, and we were one of the first to launch an online art fair,” she says, which enjoyed some admirable sales. Hollis Taggert and Canada galleries topped the “sold” chart with Franz Kline’s, Untitled for $100,000 at Hollis Tagger and Joan Snyder’s The Summer Becomes a Room, offered by Canada, for $75,000. Ultimately, the fair made the tough decision to cancel last year’s edition, which had been rescheduled for fall.

Despite receiving cancellation backlash, Cornell remains “proud of the impact that the fair has had on the city of Dallas over the past decade.” Through her leadership, Dallas Art Fair is internationally recognized on the annual fair circuit. “It is so rewarding to know that Dallas is ‘on the map’ as a major arts city, and that the appetite for arts will continue to grow and develop.”

Dallas Art Fair returns this fall, November 11–14. She describes this year’s installment as, “Our comeback edition! It will have been two and half years since the last physical fair [April 2019], and we can’t wait. We will have an exciting lineup of galleries, plenty of opportunities for in-person art viewing, and lots of sanitizing stations. Our galleries are really excited about their return to Dallas and to showcase their programs.”

Calm and confident, you would never know she balances her leadership role with two tots, three and under, during fair week. “It's like juggling flaming balls, especially during the busy season. Luckily, we have an amazing village that helps us out, and the girls like art, so that's a win.” –Terri Provencal

SARAHBLAGDEN

Director of VIP Relations, Dallas Art Fair

“I grew up in a family of photographers and painters, so an appreciation of art was instilled in me from an early age without me really realizing it,” says Sarah Blagden, director of VIP Relations for Dallas Art Fair. Prior to the fair, she was an artistand-client liaison and fair coordinator at Pace Gallery, New York, where she worked closely with artists Kiki Smith and Richard Tuttle and the estates of Alfred Jensen, Robert Ryman, and Isamu Noguchi, learning the ins and outs of operating a mega-gallery. Juggling “what felt like 20 different projects at once” she says, “whether I was working on a gallery exhibition, organizing loans to the Met, visiting Kiki Smith’s studio, or in Paris for FIAC, I was constantly learning.”

Armed with an MA from Christie’s Education in New York, and a BA in art history from Trinity College in Hartford, she is particularly prepared for her fair role and knows all too well how to react to unanticipated demands like the onset of COVID-19. Dallas Art Fair and her tenure at Pace uniquely prepared her for the unwelcome challenge. “We were constantly working to innovate.”

Her programming role shifted away from planning an elevated fair experience, presenting Dallas Art Fair exhibitors and collectors cultural keys to the city—like VIP visits to private collections, the Cowboys Stadium art tour, and museum exhibition access. When the fair was not in session pre-COVID, she arranged equally cultural patron trips to London, Paris, Guadalajara, and Mexico City. But last year her schedule shifted to launching an online sales platform in July 2020 and programming Dallas Art Fair Projects, adjacent to the fair offices, beginning in October 2020. “Despite the pandemic, we have been able to present artworks from Night Gallery, Perrotin, Magenta Plains, Keijsers Koning, The Hole, and Sapar Contemporary in person at our gallery space.” Looking ahead to the conscientious return of the Dallas Art Fair she’s “thrilled to bring back that energy” with more intimate programming and outdoor events. “I went to college intent on being a psychology major. This all changed when I took one art history course. Art, for me, opened a whole new way of looking at the world, past and present.” –Terri Provencal

VanessaPeters

Singer/Songwriter

From her first major release in 2006 through to right this very minute, Dallas singer/songwriter Vanessa Peters has been crafting her critically acclaimed career by degrees, turning casual listeners into all-out advocates. Known for her smart, literary lyrics; captivating hooks; and the clarion clarity of her voice, she’s an indie folk-rocker who continues to expand her horizons. Peters’ latest, Modern Age (Idol Records), was released on April 23, and it’s a masterful, trailblazing departure that couldn’t have come at a better moment.

Compared to her previous Idol release, last year’s Foxhole Prayers, Peters assesses Modern Age as more energetic, more poprock, less melancholy, with an unmistakable nod to ’90s indie rock. “I didn’t really feel like making a cheerful record,” she admits. “Obviously things are going weird in the world with the pandemic. But I felt like it was the right time to make a more fun record because we’d all had enough of sadness, you know? It felt like the right time to do something that you’d want to listen to with your windows down and having a good time…like that liberation feeling after the war.”

Modern Age is a musical antidote to the difficult zeitgeist and circumstances that birthed it: Peters and her musician husband/ producer Rip Rowan were COVID captives in Italy for 14 months, locked down mid European tour. The album was recorded with her Italian bandmates in Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy; some songs employed earlier demos from Dallas sessions as their endoskeletons. The album’s first three singles, Crazymaker, Modern Age, and Valley of Ashes are all radio-ready earworms that are sure to catch new converts. A bonus is the inviting eye candy of Rowan’s cover artwork: a cartoonish, computerized portrait of Peters with ironic ’60s echoes of Roy Lichtenstein pop.

“I’ve never really made this kind of record before,” Peters marvels, “and it’s funny that we’re calling it Modern Age, ’cause it’s clearly not whatever the latest, hottest thing is—but I never have been.” –Steve Carter

KyleHobratschk

Founder 100 W - Corsicana Artist & Writer Residency

Kyle Hobratschk in 100 W - Corsicana Artist & Writer Residency, Photograph by Sean Fitzgerald.

Kyle Hobratschk first heard of Corsicana in 2012. Living and working in Oak Cliff at the time, the painter and printmaker was looking for a larger space to accommodate a wood shop. Nancy Rebal, a fellow artist, introduced him to a friend in Corsicana who owned a historic building.

Hobratschk was taken with the late-19th-century structure. “It was full of light, with large rooms, and was architecturally beautiful. I was struck by how untouched it was,” Hobratschk recalls. It was also affordable. With 11,000 square feet, it offered ample space for his shop as well as potential studio space. Hobratschk also bought it, got to work on restoring it, and has even crafted much of its furniture. “It’s been an education in maintenance,” he admits. Rebal and her husband, writer David Searcy, leased space in the building, as did a handful of other Dallas artists, including Travis LaMothe. Rebal’s introduction has since blossomed into 100 W - Corsicana Artist & Writer Residency, an internationally respected program now spread across several facilities in this town just an hour outside of Dallas.

The residency attained nonprofit status in 2018, with Hobratschk becoming the executive director. LaMothe served as the board’s first president. “The nonprofit is here to advance ideas for artists and writers who find a unique utility in Corsicana,” Hobratschk explains. So far, the program has attracted over 100 residents. Earlier this year, Alysia Nicole Harris became the first director of public programs. A newly opened storefront aims to increase the residency’s accessibility to the local community.

Hobratschk and Rebal continue to acquire property in the town that they, with Searcy, now call home. “The community has been terrific. The whole thing is so relational,” Hobratschk says. He also sees this as a model for the future. “It is an example of the potential in small-town America and how we can work with it to make things happen.” –Nancy Cohen Israel

DarrylRatcliff

Social-practice artist, poet, arts writer and cofounder of Ash Studios, Micheleda Think Tank, and Gossypian Investments

Even the shortlist of all the hats Darryl Ratcliff wears makes for a longlist: Award-winning social-practice artist, poet, arts writer; cofounder of Gossypion Investments, Ash Studios, and Michelada Think Tank; organizer of the Our Future fundraiser for pandemic-impacted artists; curator; cultural organizer; public speaker; and on and on, Ratcliff’s business card might well be poster-sized. Suffice to say he is one dedicated man of the arts.

Ratcliff got his feet wet in the Dallas arts world back in 2012, when he and artist Fred Villanueva cofounded Ash Studios collaborative. Their ongoing “DIY arts center” has been engaging communities of color ever since in a multidisciplinary bilingual setting. In April 2020, Ratcliff and Maya Crawford cofounded Gossypion Investments, and he’s passionate about its possibilities. Gossypion’s multi-focus includes real estate development, cultural investments, consulting, advising, artist management, and more. “Our mission is to evolve the role of culture and society,” Ratcliff says. “Artists and creatives are often used in very narrow ways…there’s a lot more need for artists outside of a gallery, a concert hall, a venue. They can be useful at a hospital, in a boardroom, inside government. Artists are creative problem solvers.”

One recent Gossypion venture was Cheer!, four pop-up installations at The Joule; it was their fourth project with Headington Companies. On view last November and December, the holiday-themed outing featured immersive works by female artists and artists of color. Ratcliff assesses the year as rewarding for Gossypion:

“We’ve been really thankful. We’ve been able to work with some really amazing clients—it’s been fantastic.” How does he keep all the balls in the air? “It can be a lot, but the beautiful thing is that I’m working with the smartest, most brilliant people I’ve ever worked with in my career right now. So in some ways it makes it—I’m not going to say easy—but it does make it doable,” he says with a laugh. –Steve Carter

LESLIEMARTINEZ

Multidisciplinary Artist

Leslie Martinez with their work Lodestar 2021 at And Now. Photograph by Dana McCurdy.

To say 2020 was a pivotal year for Dallas-based artist Leslie Martinez during a polarizing pandemic minimizes the rapid trajectory of this MFA 2018 Yale School of Art graduate. “In December 2019 I made the sink or swim decision to devote myself fully to painting without any form of stable income,“ says Martinez. Introduced to the artist through their Nasher Windows presentation of Monarchs on the Hoop in the Nasher’s vestibule last June, And Now followed with Thrashing on the Mooring Mast, a sold-out show in the late summer. They were immediately signed by the art dealer. “When the pandemic hit, I was terrified about this decision to go rogue because so many things fell apart immediately, including a couple of shows I had been working toward. James (Cope) swooped in and offered me a solo show and from there everything changed, and I’ve been efficient and sustainable ever since.” This spring, Cope presented a solo show for Martinez in the Frieze Viewing Room, and they were included in Fifteen Painters at Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York. Born in the Rio Grande Valley of the South Texas-Mexican border, Martinez was raised in Dallas but returns to the area, which offers insight into their work. Operating out of a zerowaste studio, they obscure the original intent of unconventional materials. Studio discards are repurposed and conjoined into “dense phenomenological surfaces” investigating connections to waste and the environment. Used shop rags, acrylic wastewater, or previous work may be reclaimed later and given anonymity through meticulous handwork. “I think about the whole world— beauty, horror, conflict in terms of how material can be molded and how paint can be manipulated in regard to language. For example, I may think of wildfires, oil spills, the pandemic, and queerness in regard to the terms that bind them.”

Material processing is paramount to the artist’s intricate constructions. “Materiality may function as body or reality, where paint and color may function as image, spirit, or the fluidity of imagination and shifting perception.” Martinez mixes their own paints and saved discards to allow natural processes like oxidation and calcification to occur until a later use is revealed.

In a grappling world turned upside down, Martinez’s queries into identity and self-knowledge make this work especially relevant today. –Terri Provencal