Dallas Contemporary Gets A Fresh Coat With New Exhibition

by Erica Guajardo

Friday, April 12th, will mark the date where bright colors of fashion, graffiti, and fine art will merge into one space. Dallas Contemporary Museum will be hosting their opening exhibition which features Walter Van Beirendonck, John Pomara, Soner, and Josephine Durkin; a true treat for those who love energetic hues of color.

Walter Van Beirendonck is a fashion icon who creates avant-garde men’s trends that stimulates the viewer’s imagination on what his inspiration of the collection could be; pushing boundaries with his nontraditional materials, typography, and textures. This exhibition celebrates his creations of the couture collection which is inspired from pop music, comics, science fiction, and cultural trends. As well as reminding individuals of why he is branded the nickname of “Cultural Ambassador of Flanders.”

With the technology that is given to us in this modern world, we sometimes forget to look at the beauty of imperfections. John Pomara reminds us what can be hidden within a picture by creating a collection called “Wipe Out” and highlighting the glitches with in the photos. Creatively re-working images from popular site Tumbler, this artist creates pieces which are produced by copy machines, printers, and the internet. As a collection which hangs unframed on transparency film in the gallery, it resembles the photographic studies of motion by Eadweard Muybridge.

When you create in multi mediums, you may start to notice that repetition of materials are used in all projects which are created. Artist Josephine Durkin, creates by drawing, producing video installations, sculptures, and builds large scaled kinetic installations. One thing that you will notice in her drawings, presented in this exhibition is the thought process and merging behind other creations using techniques of collage to create her works, applying digital prints, paints, and pastels to present these bright appetizing works which scream to be indulged.

Last, but not least, Dallas Contemporary has brought in graffiti veteran of Dallas, Soner to educate the public on how graffiti differs from street art or muralists art, holding true that graffiti art still embraces the beautiful qualities of technique, style, and color. Briefly having a chance to discuss with Soner what inspired him to start this style of art while living in California, he stated that graffiti artists Sken, Crim, and Escape influenced the way he created artwork, as they were one of the original graffiti producers on the scene. He learned how typography and hand styles of gang tagging’s can bring those of non-gang affiliations to admire the style. Encouraging young artists, like himself at the time, to want to start creating pieces of their own. Now that he has the skills, technique, and experience, one of the most important questions that has emerged with in the art world is, How has spray paint evolved?. He explained that when he started, the spray paint world was dominated by Krylon Spray Paint, setting precedence for “who’s who”, but today’s spray paint companies are focused more on euro-paint, his personal favorite being Fresh Spray Paint Company because they make spray paint geared towards graffiti writers. For the exhibition Soner has created a number of installed graffiti taggings with in the contemporary space, but one thing that will engage the viewers is the interacting graffiti wall that he has framed out for visitors to interact with.

Encouraging future and present graffiti artist to show their faces on opening night to tag, write, and express what they choose on the contemporary wall. Closing our interview with some encouraging words for emerging writers he states “[don’t] worry of what other artists are doing, do what you want to do, do what you need to do to get discovered, and don’t fall into the world of graffiti politics.” Always remembering that respecting property of others is encouraged, while making art statements. This wall can be your shot to be discovered by the right individuals, plus you get to spread the word of art!