Heyd Fontenot : Artist :: Portfolios

Gallery dishes a variety of artists, styles
BY TITUS O'BRIEN

Once a year, Mulcahy Modern gallery trots out its whole stable of artists in one group show. This year, its 13th, we got a preview when the Belmont Hotel wisely selected Cynthia Mulcahy to adorn its lobby, bar, and lounge areas with an eclectic mix of art. This was a local manifestation of the trend of hotels getting hip galleries to decorate their walls. In this case, it works.

So does her new gallery exhibition, with just an exception or two. I prefer to get the bad out of the way first: The works are all hung too low (I kept having to stoop from bad glare), and the whole room is dominated by the weakest piece. Conceptually hilarious, Michael Warren's Longo-esque portrait of collector John Reoch is a great in-joke for the arts community. It's just too bad the drawing is technically so weak.

Onward and upward. Victoria Montelongo's photographs display a great formal and emotional sensitivity; like Sharon Lockhart but with soul. She dances on the border of sentimentality but mostly stays in more satisfyingly ambiguous territory. Rosalyn Bodycomb marries fine craftsmanship with compelling imagery in her tight oil paintings of cities at night.

Heyd Fontenot is a perpetual favorite. He paints/draws meticulous little portraits of self and friends, naked and not a little erotic; but he seems to take as many clues from amusement-park caricaturists as Egon Schiele, so the result is funny, sweet, and sexy all at once, capturing the child as well as the lover in his subjects.

Mindy Kober rocks. I love her Hokusai/Chinatown-chintz-meets-German miniature/airline safety instruction sheet conflations. You can see one at the hotel. At the gallery, there's a new one from a series about Texas: two oil derricks pumping a sinuous/ominous tattoolike web of crude across the page.

I unfortunately missed Derrick Saunders' recent show, but his photograph here is a fabulous digital seascape at night, like some weird Ocean Pacific-brand black-light dream poster. He's one to watch.

Former Dallas Morning News theater critic Tom Sime is also an artist. His Section 24 is a translucent rubbery pink wall slab, the sort of sharp post-minimal art that North Texans seem to be so adept at. Monica Pierce, Robert Hamilton, Nate Cassie, and Christine Bisetto also hold down the formalist fort.

Mulcahy Modern: 2006
Through June 11
Mulcahy Modern
408 W. Eighth St., Suite 101, Dallas
Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; Tuesday by appointment
214-948-9595

Titus O'Brien is an artist and writer living in Dallas. He teaches visual art at the University of Texas, Dallas.







	<< Back to Press Gallery dishes a variety of artists, styles BY TITUS O'BRIEN Once a year, Mulcahy Modern gallery trots out its whole stable of artists in one group show. This year, its 13th, we got a preview when the Belmont Hotel wisely selected Cynthia Mulcahy to adorn its lobby, bar, and lounge areas with an eclectic mix of art. This was a local manifestation of the trend of hotels getting hip galleries to decorate their walls. In this case, it works. So does her new gallery exhibition, with just an exception or two. I prefer to get the bad out of the way first: The works are all hung too low (I kept having to stoop from bad glare), and the whole room is dominated by the weakest piece. Conceptually hilarious, Michael Warren's Longo-esque portrait of collector John Reoch is a great in-joke for the arts community. It's just too bad the drawing is technically so weak. Onward and upward. Victoria Montelongo's photographs display a great formal and emotional sensitivity; like Sharon Lockhart but with soul. She dances on the border of sentimentality but mostly stays in more satisfyingly ambiguous territory. Rosalyn Bodycomb marries fine craftsmanship with compelling imagery in her tight oil paintings of cities at night. Heyd Fontenot is a perpetual favorite. He paints/draws meticulous little portraits of self and friends, naked and not a little erotic; but he seems to take as many clues from amusement-park caricaturists as Egon Schiele, so the result is funny, sweet, and sexy all at once, capturing the child as well as the lover in his subjects. Mindy Kober rocks. I love her Hokusai/Chinatown-chintz-meets-German miniature/airline safety instruction sheet conflations. You can see one at the hotel. At the gallery, there's a new one from a series about Texas: two oil derricks pumping a sinuous/ominous tattoolike web of crude across the page. I unfortunately missed Derrick Saunders' recent show, but his photograph here is a fabulous digital seascape at night, like some weird Ocean Pacific-brand black-light dream poster. He's one to watch. Former Dallas Morning News theater critic Tom Sime is also an artist. His Section 24 is a translucent rubbery pink wall slab, the sort of sharp post-minimal art that North Texans seem to be so adept at. Monica Pierce, Robert Hamilton, Nate Cassie, and Christine Bisetto also hold down the formalist fort. Mulcahy Modern: 2006 Through June 11 Mulcahy Modern 408 W. Eighth St., Suite 101, Dallas Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; Tuesday by appointment 214-948-9595 Titus O'Brien is an artist and writer living in Dallas. He teaches visual art at the University of Texas, Dallas.