SMU Pollock Gallery Extends Reach
Sweet Pass Sculpture Park and SMU’s Pollock Gallery, in collaboration with Austin art collective Partial Shade, are presenting May Show: Looms, an exhibition of works by 11 artists at Sweet Pass Sculpture Park.
Located at 402 Fabrication St. in West Dallas, the exhibit will run from May 25 to July 14. An opening reception will take place from 4 to 8:30 p.m. May 25.
Sofia Bastidas, the curator of the Pollock Gallery, said she had been exploring the idea of finding alternative spaces and do-it-yourself venues in Dallas to extend the Pollock’s reach beyond its walls and provide additional opportunities for SMU art students to engage in the community.
“This summer, the Pollock Gallery is moving to a new location on the east side of the SMU campus, in Expressway Tower. This collaboration was a great way to maintain programming during our ‘offseason’ while supporting public outdoor sculptures and alternative spaces.”
Partial Shade has organized works by nine of the artists in the one-acre outdoor park that “weave and connect in and around Sweet Pass’s natural landscape,” said Tamara Johnson, visiting lecturer in sculpture at SMU and co-founder of Sweet Pass.
“Disparate clay parts melt into a sloppy slurry; bees cling precariously to avocado nets; viewers consider identity through a game of Connect Four; an orchestral score is revealed in parts; bodies, cloth and printed images mimic the landscape. Each work holds its own intention while developing an interwoven relationship greater than the sum of its parts.”
The featured artists are Cameron Cameron, Leticia Contreras, Zack Ingram, Ariel René Jackson, Eric McMaster, Joiri Minaya, SMU art faculty member Jonathan Molina-Garcia, and Partial Shade curators Jesse Cline and Michael Muelhaupt.
In addition, Sweet Pass will show a recent short film by Virginia Lee Montgomery, “Pony Cocoon,” about “a business witch and the cryptic birth of a luna moth from a disembodied ponytail.” The film combines themes of psychology, entomology, and awakening.
And, Dallas artist Timothy Harding has created a site-responsive painting that introduces Sweet Pass’s new media initiative. In addition to its focus on outdoor works, Sweet Pass is expanding its programming to feature video, performance, experimental and hybrid media.
The exhibition will also be open May 26 from 1 to 4 p.m. and on succeeding Saturdays from 1 to 3 p.m., weather permitting, or by appointment.
