Sunday, July 31, 2022 at 6 pm CST
516 Fabrication St, Dallas, TX 75212
500X Gallery is proud to present our inaugural Gallery Dinner with Chef Chelsea Day. The idea of the Gallery Dinner is to introduce guests to up-and-coming culinary and visual creatives within Dallas-Fort Worth. Set in an industrial warehouse-like setting, 500X serves an incubator for artists to experiment without expectations from the outside world. Chef Chelsea Day will prepare an array of dishes that are driven by the abundance of exciting produce that is available at the height of summer time. While the Sun finds itself at the highest point in the sky the Earth provides fruits, vegetables, and more that refresh, nourish, and excite the senses. From watermelon to corn to peach to eggplant, Chef Chelsea Day will create plates that serve to highlight and showcase the complexity of flavors that Texas produce can provide.
Chelsea Day Biography:
Chelsea Day is a chef that has cut her teeth in the Dallas restaurant scene since 2016 and has worked in some of the best restaurants in the area. She brings her multi-disciplinarian background into every kitchen she works in and is led by her curiosity to bring forth creative and delicious dishes. She is currently the Head Chef at Nonna, maintaining, innovating and elevating the standards that have allowed Nonna to remain one of the best Italian restaurants in Dallas since it hit the scene in 2006. Being one of a few Black chefs in the area Chef Chelsea intimately understands the hardships that go into building a career in the culinary industry and prides herself in maintaining her integrity in the face of adversity.
Exhibitions on view during the Gallery Dinner are exhibitions by Grace Nicole, Michelle Cortez Gonzales, and Ilea Osborne.
ON THE MEND
Michelle Cortez Gonzales
@mcgonzalesart
On the Mend
This body of work focuses on complex sentiments of nurture, familial ties, and silences portrayed through painting and installation. Fragmented imagery, sourced from photographs, nature, and personal memories are layered over hand-made and found domestic materials.
Michelle uses vivid colors, patterns, and practices associated with tradition to speak to a deeper and emotional inheritance that is passed down and sewn into the lives, homes, and personal stories of her Mexican American family. Practices often lost through generations - sewing, braiding, stuffing, embroidering, and painting become important meditative rituals in her work.
She is deeply informed by the people in her life who shared cultural experiences through labor, hand building, and objects. Simultaneously, she acknowledges the destructive patterns of the familial silence, generational trauma, and shame that have cultivated and consumed her. Conjuring memories and connecting to the past through the work has allowed her to link to her ancestors and aid in her healing journey. This exhibition is meant to evoke memories of one’s own familial past and the ever present truths we hold within our history and identity.
TO KNOW ME IS TO KNOW YOU
*To Know Me is To Know You” is a solo exhibition by Dallas based artist Grace Nicole. This body of work was birthed out of the exploration to be connected to self and the matriarchs in Nicole's family. Through collective conversations with matriarchs in her family, she was able to translate pieces of their life stories through her lens. This exhibition aims to not only display the common threads between Grace and her family, but also make the viewer become more curious about the stories of the women in their own family. To take the people that they love out of the roles and titles they play and see them as just their own full entity.
“Zooms, phone calls and in person interviews were the catalyst to document the experience and stories. We would use the weekends to travel to Beaumont, Texas to capture their stories through film photography and video. While talking with the women in my family, I began to see them differently. Some journeys became clearer, some were surprising and some looked parallel to mine. Listening and translating all that I learned into a body of work was humbling. “
Ilea is a wife, mother, & U.S. Army Veteran. After time spent in the army, she began her journey of what she wanted to do as a career. She went to school and worked as a civil engineer drafting technician at a engineering firm. To make extra cash, she would take odd jobs that required her to use her talent (drawing). Then she questioned…” what if I created full time?”
My art is a tribute to what I’m blessed to dream. My dreams are sometimes visions to confirm what I already innerstand. They’re cloudy, yet so clear. I see no faces, but the emotions and actions are entirely clear.
Working with mixed media allows me to flow with the fluidity my dreams contain. In my paintings I’ve tried to capture the clarity of my dreams, while it still keeps its mystery. The abstract in my work is the interpretation of that cloudy mysterious feeling. The pieces of the puzzle that’s missing, based off of what we know in reality.
Always pay attention to the clarity. Feel the abstract cloudiness with your soul.
Fade into You is a solo exhibition by Dallas-based artist Steven Hector Gonzalez. This collection of works is inspired by experiences of loss, love, and self-discovery.
Fade Into You borrows its name from the 90’s Alt-Indie Rock band, Mazzy Star, and their hit song, “Fade into You.” “Fade into You”, amongst other melancholy tunes, has found its way onto many curated online playlists, particularly those geared towards facilitating the process of emotional and mental healing for the artist. Following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Gonzalez has worked through a variety of personal struggles many of which directly relate to his intimate relationships whether they be defined as platonic, romantic, or sexual. Music like Mazzy Star’s “Fade into You” gave space for Gonzalez to access particular emotions which would in turn be reflected in their creative practice. Fade into You as an exhibition comes about as a cathartic release, allowing Gonzalez to process trauma and work towards establishing a new perspective on intimacy and all that it entails. The result of this act of introspection is a range of works consisting of video, photography, and performance.
The song “Fade into You” resonates with the artist due to the meaning the listener could interpret from its lyrics. “Fade into You” is potentially a soft longing for something lost, a connection that cannot be established. Much like the quiet and gentle melodies of the song, Gonzalez offers a similar gesture in his works calling out to those who yearn for a sense of wholeness just as he does.
Fade into You is on view at 500X Gallery from June 11 to July 3, 2022. There will be an opening reception on June 11th from 7 PM-10 PM with a collaborative performance with Eli Hernández aka The 3rd coast barber beginning at 8 PM. The gallery is open 12 PM -5 PM without appointment on Saturday and Sundays only. The gallery is located at 516 Fabrication ST. Dallas, TX 75212.
There will be an artist panel talk on the exhibition at the gallery, Steven Hector Gonzalez in Conversation with Gibson Regester & Christopher Najera on June 19th, 3-5 pm
Y(GAMMA)
γ (gamma), a word that bolts onto unsuspecting terms in science, color, economics, and medicine. In early 2022, we began fearing the gamma radiation of nuclear bombs, again. Gamma radiation, tiny particles that lacerate the body, can kill or mutate you. As can Covid-19, inflation, bullets, and semen. They can all mutate or kill you.
We don't fight any of this, we normalize it.
During 2020, I would awake from deep dreams in a startle. My mind in a state that I would describe as shock. Separate from other people, I wondered if the dreams were my gamma waves meeting another's gamma waves.
The most noteworthy was a dream of two people, filled with lightning, holding one another. When I woke, I didn't feel joy. It felt like a concussion. I couldn't think, just stare and try to remember the whole dream.
γ (gamma) is an art installation of holographic works by Emmar Grant. Underwater photography, video effects, and projection mapping create an environment of acidic light. A.I sound is used to provide an auditory patina of cheap perfume. Projection art that haunts.
Featured Collaboration with Rachael Henson(@romo_goth), Nicholas Garces (@garcesgraphics), Phillip Malone (@thatlongsaltyswindler) Music by May Leitz (@nyxfears)
MOMENTOS
500X is proud to present Momentos by Dallas based artist, Enrique Nevárez, t.
The exhibition will be held June 11 - July _, 2022 with an opening reception on Saturday, June 11, 7-10 pm.
Exhibition Statement:
Momentos is a solo exhibition by artist Enrique Nevárez that explores the male figure based on their personal queer perspective. Each figure, sourced from self portraits or photos exchanged on social media, is presented within a domestic interior backdrop. The interior setting and rich color palette of pinks and reds alludes to intimate spaces of queer nightlife, evoking an unapologetic yet playful body of work.
Bio:
Enrique Nevárez is a latinx painter who works in Fort Worth, Texas. Raised in a matriarch environment, their works pay homage to their family and queer latino perspective. His usage of craft materials challenges the stereotypes of traditional fine art and academia. Their use of glitter and collages invites the viewer to see through a fantastical lens of celebration within his compositions. Gestures and poses are carefully considered coming from a male gaze, opening up a pathway for advocating more intellectual conversation in portrayal of women as an art subject. Also furthermore exploring where queerness fits itself within traditional themes in latin culture.
Nevárez received their Bachelors of Fine Arts at the University of Texas At Arlington, and is currently a graduate student at Texas Christian University. In the past they have displayed their works at Arts Fort Worth, Oakcliff Cultural Center, Craighead Green Gallery, Latino Cultural Center, and many non-profit spaces such as “El Refugio” and Browder Street. Currently a Grant Award receiver for the Kimbrough Grant at the Dallas Museum of Art for Awards to Artist, Nevárez will be researching overseas for the 2022 Venice Biennale this summer going towards his candidacy show in the Fall semester at Texas Christian University.
FLOWERS OF EVIL
FLOWERS OF EVIL is a solo exhibition by Dallas based artist Ashley Whitt. This work is inspired by my experiences during the pandemic. I had a nervous breakdown in the spring of 2021 that required hospitalization and two months of intense therapy. Like many people, my mental health issues were exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The isolation of the pandemic combined with moving back to where I grew up triggered traumatic memories and PTSD flashbacks, specifically about sexual and physical abuse that I experienced in high school and early college.
The title of the series, FLOWERS OF EVIL, comes from a collection of poetry by Charles Baudelaire. In Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal, he attempts to extract beauty from the malignant. This collection of poetry combined with my personal experiences provided the inspiration for the works in this show.
The images explore interior thoughts and fragmented memory through digitally manipulated photographs of flowers, wallpaper patterns, and body parts. Using photography, video, collage, and sculptural bookmaking I delve deep into my own subconscious to create works that visually portray the unrest I felt during and after the breakdown.
FLOWERS OF EVIL is on view at 500X Gallery from May 14 to June 5, 2022. There will be an opening reception on May 14th from 7-10 pm. The gallery is open from 12-5 pm on Saturdays and Sundays. The address for the gallery is 516 Fabrication Street, Dallas, 75212. There will be an artist talk at the gallery, Ashley Whitt in Conversation with Ciara Elle Bryant, on Sunday, May 22nd from 2-3 pm.
SCRAPPLER: PAROXYSMAL SHELTER
Kasey Short
500X Gallery
May 14-June 05, 2022
Scrappler: Paroxysmal Shelter is a solo- exhibition inspired from models and systems of suburban home design in rural areas. The work is conditioned from ideas about shelter. I started with a miniature model that was driven to be in a constant state of performance evolving from small to large scale. The parameters are bound by reactions that are taken apart and put back together, unlike humpty dumpty. This work investigates polarities within familiar and unfamiliar environments.
I am interested in how technology influences the way we deconstruct nature and convention. I explored ways to develop glitches with new media technologies in sites that are developing due to the lack of housing. The construction site is a great place to study because its constantly in flux, both ephemeral and permanent; ordered yet chaotic. I am also interested in the breakage of land that we use for materials and how the distinctions and combinations of both of these worlds interact.
The construction site became a conditional site where the performer or “Scrappler” collects objects and mines data for material as an art smuggler. The works are collected data through photography, photogrammetry and video and developed into objects and installation.
Kasey is an Interdisciplinary artist whose work explores changes in society, ecology and urbanism through utilization of multi-medium platforms such as installation, performance, sculpture and new media. Kasey is a native-born Texas, received his MFA from the University of Pennsylvania and currently teaches in the New Media Department at the University of North Texas.
THE END OF FRACTAL
Artist Bio:
Under the alias of Cocoatlicue(co-kwat-lee-kwei), Amy Zapien explores the relationships of time travel, catharsis, magic, and personal narrative to healing. She experiments with visual and performing arts, rituals, soundscapes, installations, lighting, and illustration to excavate the ways in which stories are shared. Coco’s artistic process is inspired by her B.A in Anthropology from UNT, rooting her poetry and performance in autobiographical documentation.
She recently collaborated with a small team of Black Indigenous People Of Color filmmakers on a short film based on her poetry titled: LA CONJUNTA. In the past she has displayed work at The Houston Lawndale Art Center, The Oak Cliff Cultural Center, and the Dallas Public Libraries. As Sunset Arts Studios 2019 summer artist in residence, Coco experimented with the idea of poetry as protest and the interconnectedness of our stories in times of such political unrest. Her debut poetry comic, Pobrecita and follow up Pobrecita Y La Curandera, were published with illustrator and artist Mylan Nguyen under Dallas independent print house Strange Powers Press. You can find her on Instagram, in both the spirit and physical world, or in Pleasant Grove with her dog June.
Statement:
AT THE END OF A FRACTAL is an altar of collected items and an ode of prayer to the spirits that guide us. A portal of sorts made with relics once familiar in its nostalgia takes on a devoted role in this mixed media installation. Images of La Virgen from thrown away crumpled yet cherished flower wrappings embrace a serpent suspended on a rainbow arch of seed glass beads that split light into fractals in mid-air. A pile of sand and prayer candles christens the tail ends of several multicolored strings. I'm a huge nerd for writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Pablo Neruda, Natalie Diaz, and the concept of magic realism, I'd like to continue exploring the idea of time travel through memories and divination. This piece relates to the guidance we can sometimes receive through everyday objects- and asks what is it that we hold onto and cannot seem to forget.
Here is a link to Poetry Workshop Amy is hosting to coincide with the exhibition ton Sunday, May 29th. - https://forms.gle/Fa4KYV6vMNi4Mo9z7
See attached QR code for WIP image list from Amy
500X Gallery is proud to announce “High Plains Drifter: Dystopian Dreamscape II”, a solo exhibition by Justin Strickland. The exhibition will run from April 16 - May 8, 2022 with the reception being held on Saturday, April 16 from 7-10pm. Outside of reception hours, the gallery is open Saturdays and Sundays 12-5 with no appointments required.
500X Gallery is proud to announce ““FLATLAND”, a solo exhibition by Ross Faircloth. The exhibition will run from April 16 - May 7, 2022 with the reception being held on Saturday, April 16 from 7-10pm. Outside of reception hours, the gallery is open Saturdays and Sundays 12-5 with no appointments required.
The title ‘Flatland’ is a nod to the 1884 book by Edwin A. Abbott. It also references the nature of the photographic process which takes a three-dimensional reality and produces a two- dimensional representation, a ‘flatland’ so to speak. The geometric shapes used throughout the series can be seen as a reference to the inhabitants in ‘Flatland’ and their many forms while the incorporation of points and more representational (camera made) images reference the multiple dimensions visited throughout the book. The interplay of dimensions visited by A. Square in Abbotts ‘Flatland’ and the compressing of dimensions inherent in the photographic process felt like one maybe could have inspired the other, as the invention of photography had taken place only some 40 years before ‘Flatland’ was written.
The text piece that serves as the starting point of the series is constructed of five quotes from ‘Helgoland’ by Carlo Rovelli, and sets the contemplative tone the viewer should have with the works moving forward, as the artist was ruminating on the same quotes while producing the pieces. The first two quotes are in reference to a Buddhist text by Nāgārjuna which touch on the connectedness of all things, the third and fourth quote discuss the way in which human vision works and its similarities to file compression on a computer. The final quote comes directly from Hippolyte Taine a 19th century French philosopher and is a more poetic take on the process of human vision and how our brain tells our eyes what to see and not the other way around.
To create these works the artist utilized 8×10 film, laser-cutter, hand cutting, bleaching agent, sandpaper, glass and a scribe. The compositions were created in the enlarger when printing in a darkroom and are made up of an arrangement of negatives. The prints are distressed on the surface using sandpaper and were printed only once in the size and dimension you see. They are 1 of 1 and are not editioned.
The BluePrint [an honor for black beauty]
Artist Statement - Alexandria Brown was born and raised in the heart of Dallas, TX. Though having a creative eye nearly her entire life, she has been a photographer for 3 years. She started capturing everyday life and culture around her all while teaching herself to work a camera. Her portfolio tells a story of regality, the beauty in simplicity and balancing the old with the new. Alexandria has been published in several magazines such as POPOUT Magazine based in Paris, France. She has partnered with several brands for marketing campaigns such as Urban Outfitters and Unsun Cosmetics. She was a 2021 Creative Resident at TX Studios based in Dallas, TX and her work was showcased in their yearly gallery towards the end of 2021. More than a gift, Alexandria views her career as a duty to the under-appreciated and misrepresented.
Exhibit Statement - The black woman has always been the essence — from the start of creation, we have set the tone in beauty and culture. My work seeks to capture that beauty — not just the natural beauty of the black woman but with soft opulent taste. Whether light or dark shades, as a black woman, we deserve to see ourselves authentically, boldly, and without fear. That is what my art aims to depict.
COLLR EXPO 2022
500X is proud to announce the selected artists for College Expo 2022, an annual exhibition showcasing work from visual artists enrolled in a higher learning institution across the state of Texas. This year’s edition is juried by Jer’Lisa Devezin, artist and Visiting Lecturer of Interdisciplinary Art at Southern Methodist University.
The exhibition will be held February 19 to March 12, 2022 with an opening reception on Saturday, February 19th 7-10 pm.
Juror’s Choice Awards will be announced during the opening reception. Three awards are cash prizes given to three artists selected by the juror. One of the Juror's Choice award winners will receive a solo exhibition in our Project Space for the 2022-2023 Season.
The gallery is open 12-5 pm on Saturdays and Sundays with no appointments required.
The exhibiting artists for College Expo 2022 are:
Adrian Breceda
Analise Minjarez
Audrey Williams
Cher Musico
Elaine McMurray
Hallow Geffert
Hannah Kratsman Robles
Heidi Shaffer
Henry Evan Thomas
Joshua Steven Bryant
Journey Harris
Kaitlin West
Kathleen Kelly
Lauren Allan
Lauren Walker
Matthew Napoli
Michelle Torres
Niva Parajuli
Reyna Ramirez
Sam Record
Shayna Sutton
TWEE
About the Juror:
Jer’Lisa J. Devezin explores the intersectional relationships of form and the figure through interdisciplinary practice. Her work is influenced by African and Haitian Art, Black Culture, personal experience, and the effects of socioeconomics on marginalized communities. Devezin received her Bachelor of Arts at Dillard University in 2011, and a Master of Fine Arts from Southern Methodist University in 2019. She was an artist in residence at the Joan Mitchell Center, New Orleans from 2013-14, and her work has been shown in several galleries and Museums, Antenna Gallery, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, The Pollock Gallery, The Carillon Gallery, 500X Gallery, The MAC, Nasher Sculpture Center, and Talley Dunn Gallery where she was a recipient of the inaugural Equity in the Arts Fellowship in 2020-21. Jer’Lisa currently works as a Visiting Lecturer of Interdisciplinary Art at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.
Must our mouths be cold
Maria Haag
February 19 - March 17, 2022
Reception: Saturday, February 19th at 7-10 pm
500X is proud to present Must our mouths be cold, a solo exhibition by Maria Haag
in our Project Space. Haag is the Juror’s Choice Award winner for the College Expo 2021 juried exhibition during our 2020-2021 Season. The juror for College Expo 2021 is Dr. Valerie Gillespie of Pencil on Paper Gallery.
The gallery is open Saturdays and Sundays 12-5 with no appointments required. An opening reception will be held Saturday, February 19th at 7-10 pm.
Exhibition Statement:
Must our mouths be cold grapples with the violent experience of existence. The title comes from the first scene of Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, an exclamation by a sailor trapped on a sinking ship in a conjured storm. Life, an eternally energetic storm, sweeps up bodies, dwellings, even societies. Experience both wounds and teaches, and touches us to a sentient, hungry nothingness. The imagery of a storm is echoed throughout the show – sweeping marks, ripped edges, uneasy diagonals like breaking timbers. Collage elements have been ripped from old drawings and repurposed. Remnants of ghost towns exist in small, broken-shaped paintings which memorialize once populated spaces that are literally sinking into the earth. I am fascinated with the appearance of objects in the midst of transformation: as they are buffeted by events, they slowly shed their identities and take on unexpected forms. Like Caliban, the beastly inhabitant of the island in The Tempest, they learn to speak, and the speaking gives tongue to their dreams.
Artist Statement:
Maria Haag makes mixed media paintings and drawings which meditate on the interaction between existence and nothingness. This interaction is punctuated by suffering, seen as a sort of storm: a wrenching out of the common through a series of events, active or passive, which create a puncture in what is in order to open space for what could be. The fragility of things and persons is what inspires her imagery, sweeping lines of charcoal, paint and collage. She draws on her memories of growing up in the American Midwest, watching smoke curl up from burning fields, the green and brown swirling skies giving birth to tornadoes, and the ever-present wind transforming the waving grasses and carving away at the land and its inhabitants.
NTARUPT THE ART OF CONSENT
“Art of Consent” Competition & Art Show
Ntarupt is partnering with Dallas’ Gallery 500x to host its first-ever “Art of CONSENT” competition and artists exhibition. The goal is to showcase local, North Texas artists, while furthering conversations about CONSENT in relationships and how it empowers decision making on reproductive health, specifically regarding the prevention of teen pregnancies and STIs.
Yes, no, stop, unsure. When it comes to “consent” in healthy relationships, it’s important young adults know not only how to express themselves, but why.
Consent is still a confusing topic for teens. Most don’t fully understand what it means and when it needs to be given. And, unfortunately it is not always been taught at home, nor included in the newly adopted Sex Education Curriculum standards in Texas. Schools will focus more on abstinence and birth control than consent.
Ntarupt is dedicated to providing information and resources to youth and their families to help them make the most informed choices about consent and what the consequences of unprotected sex could look like.
Tiara Unique Francois: The Pro Compositions
The Pro Compositions
Tiara Unique Francois
January 22 - February 13, 2022
Reception: Saturday, January 29th at 7-10 pm
500X is proud to present The Pro Compositions, a solo exhibition by Tiara Unique Francois in our Project Space. Francois is the Juror’s Choice Award winner for the Black Voices juried exhibition during our 2020-2021 Season.
The gallery is open Saturdays and Sundays 12-5 with no appointments required. An opening reception will be held Saturday, January 29th at 7-10 pm.
Exhibition Statement:
“I am interested in layers. Layers of transparent paint to build brown skin, layers of paper and laser cut wood and shadows and black women and girls and hair products stacking on top of each other, layers of black culture and familial history and the unspoken language of personal style.
Layers of people.
I am interested in what materials communicate, the weight they hold historically and narratively.
Watercolor is the totality of softness and natural beauty.
Watercolor is pretty and romantic.
We paint flowers and fruit and landscapes; things that can exist without reason.
With watercolor I’m exploring the rendering of black women, girls, the persons who must continually explain their presence. Black women and girls are often seen and othered before there is even a thought of attempt to understand. Loud and bold and strong and independent and sassy and ghetto and angry, but never soft and fragile or quiet and sad.
Watercolor holds a delicate weight that is the direct opposite of the perception that is commonly held about black women.
With India ink and black paint, I’m exploring lines and shapes and silhouettes. Black ink applied with calligraphy pens and paint brushes to imitate natural hair texture, to create box braids and hairstyles that take the shape of sculptures.
Images of black women, young girls and hair products are placed on top of each other in a collage with no framed border. A composition meant to shift; individual images placed together to form a new whole.
The Pro Compositions, I’m thinking about this idea of creation. How we, as black women, learned how to do our hair and the hair of our children and create these iconic styles with water, gel, grease and holding spray. Kitchen and living room beauticians creating such vibrant expression, through hair. Becoming pros at the craft, with no formal learning. Some women went to beauty school, but not all. There is something so sincere and golden, innovative and simply artistic about black hair being crafted in such a specific way.
There is love and skill and pride in black women’s hair.
These are The Pro Compositions.”
500X is proud to announce the annual LGBTQIA+ juried exhibition. This year’s edition is juried by Odyssey Studios, an artist-run event space and collective studio.
The exhibition will be held December 18th to January 16th, 2022 with an opening reception on Saturday, December 18th 7-10 pm. Juror’s Choice Awards will be announced during the opening reception. The awards are cash prizes given to three artists selected by the juror in addition to a solo exhibition in our project space for the 2022-2023 season.
The gallery is open 12-5 pm on Saturdays and Sundays with no appointments required. In observance of the holidays, the gallery will be closed on December 25th - January 2nd. The gallery hours will resume January 8, 2022.
The exhibiting artists are:
Addie Rule
Angela Faz
Christopher Sonny Martinez
Christopher Nájera
Darren Dobson
Derrick Hamm
Dre Burciaga
Enrique Nevarez
Gibson Regester
Henry Thomas
Jesus Lopez
Joey Brock
Krista Chalkley
Matthew Weimer
Morgan Grasham
Sean McGuire
Teresa Foster
About the Juror:
Odyssey Studios is an artist-run event space and collective studio. We focus on performance art and movement-based practice with a particular interest in the experimental. As a non commercial venue, we seek out artists who are creating in order to provoke and subvert our late stage capitalist society. We validate artists whose practice makes use of their body, and we celebrate the honesty and vulnerability that it takes to present art this way. Community and expression free of shame or censorship is essential to Odyssey, and we offer our space to any who wish to engage that community in Dallas and the surrounding areas.
500X is proud to present What is there to See? by An Lusk, the project space solo exhibition winner of the inaugural LGBTQIA+ juried show during our 2020-2021 Season.
The exhibition will be held December 18th to January 16th, 2022 with an opening reception on Saturday, December 18th 7-10 pm.
Exhibition Statement:
What is there to See? holds at least one narrative. This narrative is that the gods, through the muses, offer empty space, not inspiration, for imagination. Imagination, an active element of art, leads to the building of ideas for art for man's sake.
In the center of the show empty space is incorporated so the viewer can also act as an artist. The goal of this act allows the viewers to be reminded that they are ever coequal creators in the relationship between artist, art object, and viewer.
The last artwork reminds viewers of the ongoing collaborative history, or the cyclical nature of the art-making process in time. This history builds artworks that eventually fall when facing the gods again.
gods, space, ideation, artist, art, viewer, relationship, process, time. Repeat.
“All Things Considered” is an exhibition featuring paintings and drawings by South Dallas native multi-hyphenate artist Jeremy Biggers and includes works from his “Unspoken Burdens” series from earlier this year, as well as brand new never before shown works. “Unspoken Burdens” is a body of work that broaches the conversation around Black male identity and social constructs. This collection of works was birthed by a lack of spaces for Black men to be 100% vulnerable. It speaks to the human experience of dealing with self-esteem issues and other insecurities and general stresses life can throw at us, while also navigating through a world that routinely perpetuates “anti-Blackness” is something that is exclusive to the Black male experience.
Coupled with these works “All Things Considered” features a new untitled body of work that features Black people simply “existing”. Black artists are often pressured to make work that deals with Black trauma, or work dealing with social issues. Rarely is there work that features Black people just “existing”.
500X is proud to present our Members Show, a group exhibition of the gallery’s artist members. Now in our 43rd season, our artists come from a broad range of disciplines, perspectives, and backgrounds. What connects us all is our shared mission in furthering the legacy of the gallery and to continue providing opportunities for the community. This dynamic exhibition highlights the members and their current practices.
The exhibiting 500X members are:
Scott Bell
Ross Faircloth
Michelle Cortez Gonzales
Steven Hector Gonzalez
Jamila Mendez
Emmar Grant
Grace Nicole
Kasey Short
Justin Strickland
Narong Tintamusik
Ashley Whitt
The exhibit will be held on October 23 - November 14, 2021 with an opening reception on Saturday, October 23rd at 5-7 pm.
500X is also participating in this year’s Art Walk West (AWW) on October 23rd at 11 am - 5 pm with special gallery hours and events. A selection of 500X’s current member artworks will be raffled during AWW with proceeds to support the gallery. Raffle tickets are available to purchase in person and online (www.500x.org) on this one day event only. Custom tote bag printing is available 3-5 pm.
Dual Artist Names PR:
500X is proud to announce the selected artists for EXPO 2021, an annual exhibition showcasing work from visual artists all across the state of Texas returns in its 43rd year. This year’s edition is juried by Jennifer Monet Cowley, artist and former curator at the African American Museum.
The exhibition will be held September 25th to October 17th, 2021 with an opening reception on Saturday, September 25th 7-10 pm. Juror’s Choice Awards will be announced during the opening reception. The awards are cash prizes given to three artists selected by the juror.
The exhibiting artists for EXPO 2021 are:
Afi Ese Huey Dynamite
Aliyah Cydonia Janie Stidham
Amani Sodiq-Odunaiya Jasmine Bryant
Amy Daniels Jeff DiBartolo
Anastacia Sadeh Jenna Grace
Bernardo Diaz Jerrel Sustaita
Charles Cox Kiara Daniels
Cindy Nguyen Kristin Lockhart
Daniel Gunn Lulu Xue Rodgers
Destiny King Marianne Howard
Destiny Ortiz Maureen Womack
Deyjah Stewart Robert Mayes
Emily McDaniel Sudeep Kumar
Fabiha Yousuf. Tiffany Williams
Henry Cox U. Crosby
About the Juror:
Jennifer Monet Cowley has been painting and drawing since the age of 5. Her talent was recognized at an early age through her artwork collected by her parents and grandparents. In high school, she studied fashion design and commercial art. Upon entering college, she focused on architectural design, but her love for art prevailed. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Art in Art and Performance from the University of Texas at Dallas. Jennifer works in various mediums: colored pencils, pastels, gouache, acrylic and watercolors. Jennifer also designs and paints wearable art. Jennifer’s work has been described as a “sophisticated, eclectic Afrocentric style of artwork” by Stephanie Ward.
Jennifer’s artwork is full of color and symbolism. She feels that color and composition play a very important role in expressing the meaning of a particular piece. She also feels that craftsmanship is key in the presentation of her artwork. Jennifer works to ensure that lively color and craftsmanship show in each of her pieces so that each piece of art has special appeal to prospective buyers.
Recently, Jennifer has been given multiple opportunities to curate groundbreaking art shows. Now, in addition to being an artist, she is a curator as well. She has been told that her curating concepts are groundbreaking and can rival some of the best in the world. Jennifer is an artist whose artistic versatility and skills allow her to create distinctive works and concepts that give her a new style and voice that is all her own.
500X holds this uncurated open show every summer, and anything is fair game. Hot and Sweaty is a salon-style, non-juried exhibition of works of any medium made by Texas Artists. If we have the space for it, we will hang it! Proceeds from Hot and Sweaty goes to continuation exhibition opportunities and events that support local and emerging artists in the state of Texas.
This is a first come, first serve basis. Arrive early!
ELIGIBILITY:
Hot and Sweaty 2021 is open to all artists over the age of 18 living in Texas working in any media. Artists of all levels are encouraged to apply. All media with a visual or experiential component are eligible, including drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, video, and beyond. Hot and Sweaty 2021 will be installed at 500X Gallery, 516 Fabrication St. Dallas, TX 75212.
ENTRY FEE & PROCEDURE:
$10 entry fee per artwork for up to 3 submissions. Payment of artwork is onsite at the gallery via cash or online transaction through our website/Venmo. Please bring exact cash. Please bring completed contract and artwork labels.
The gallery takes 40% in an event of an artwork sale.
There is no jurying process - show up to 500X Gallery on Sunday, August 22nd 12-7 pm to drop off your work. 500X Members will take care of installation.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
the500Xgallery@gmail.com
www.500x.org