Playwright Tony Kushner is perhaps best known for his epic Angels in America, which illuminated the AIDS crisis. Now, that vision is applied to the civil rights movement in Caroline, or Change, an award-winning musical that chronicles the life of Caroline, a black maid in 1960s Louisiana. The “change” refers…
One-name wonders are so yesterday. The cool kids now boil it down to a simple initial. Take M, for example. Like many great Dallas artists, he sharpened his skill in Denton’s Good/Bad Art Collective and has gone on to create critically acclaimed works like those in Pretend You Hear Voices…
Like the city itself, Dallas’ gallery scene is diverse and spread out. One of those things is great for an art aficionado. The other…well, let’s just say that it would be pretty ambitious to try and hit 11 of the major players in one day. It could happen, but you…
In May, attention tends to wander south of the border to Mexico. Especially around May 5, or Cinco de Mayo. The Ice House Cultural Center keeps the spotlight on a little longer, illuminating the Mexican Revolution though Viva La Celebración, a collection of large oil paintings on canvas by Fort…
Gumbo, that New Orleans treat, is kind of funky and kind of spicy. The same can be said for the Gumbo Kings, an authentic New Orleans Dixieland jazz band. The swinging sextet will spice up the usually sedate lawn of downtown’s Ross Plaza at the Dallas Museum of Art when…
“Look what I found!” That exclamation can indicate the discovery of trash or treasure, or in some cases, both. That’s the case for Central Texas artist and folk-art dealer Steve Wiman, who creates installation art from found objects that could be considered plain. His work features objects in various colors…
Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven is known in America for his flicks about crazy ladies. After all, he helped bring us Showgirls and Basic Instinct. But in Black Book, featured this weekend by the critically acclaimed film series Magnolia at the Modern, we see another side of Verhoeven. Sure, there’s a…
Once upon a time, photographers shot with something called film, and telephones were for talking on, not taking pictures with. Before digital photography flashed onto the scene, capturing images meant trekking to the store to buy film or flash cubes and even hand-printing photographs in a darkroom. From oatmeal-box pinhole…
At first sight, there’s nothing artistic about Flubber, the wobbly star of comedies since the ’60s. But Flubber is also considered a source of energy and is referred to as the stuff dreams are made of. We think the same can be said about art. Skidmore College professor Victoria Palermo’s…
Sky and shade is an apt description of recent works by Chicago-based collage artist Andrew Young. With meticulously executed images of science and nature constructed with supplies like hand-stained rice papers and mineral pigments, he captures the ideas of both shelter and warmth in the essence of the world around…
Life magazine is a cultural institution, and its journalists have the power to lift their subjects to fame with a stroke of the pen or click of a lens. The play The Cover of Life follows a female reporter who travels to a small town to chronicle the lives of…
Violins often imply a sad turn of events. But some violins at the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra signify a very happy turn of events. The FWSO has enlisted 32 artists to jazz up the stringed instruments with paint and TLC (Tender Loving Creativity, that is). The finished products will be…
Even children need a place to call their own. In the best cases, it’s an escape from the daily grind of homework and popularity alliances. In the worst cases, as evidenced in the children’s classic A Secret Garden, it’s a respite from the loss of parents and isolation in a…
You may have heard people say that no good deed goes unpunished. This was artist Dan Eldon’s reality. The African photographer dedicated much of his life to service in Africa, raising funds and mentoring students, and it was there where he was stoned to death at age 23. But the…
Once Oprah gets a hold on something, it’s not a secret. But that doesn’t seem to be a problem for the folks behind the Center for Spiritual Living, who host The Secret Workshop, about changing your life through gratitude, positive thoughts and the concept of unlimited power for good. They…
There’s an old saying that one can never be too rich or too thin. It’s an old saying for a reason; these days we know all too well the dangers of being too thin. But according to some tabloids, Hollywood has yet to get the memo. Filmmaker Lauren Greenfield is…
Where there’s a great story, there’s a journalist close by. And, sometimes, the journalist is the great story. The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL) presents a double bill with two great stories when it brings to life journalist and publisher Marcus Garvey and civil rights activist Rosa Parks…
The pleasure quarters of ancient Tokyo were legendary for their hedonism, and their activities are immortalized through paintings called ukiyo-e by some of the artists, bohemians and courtesans that frequented these “floating worlds.” The world’s largest collection of these rare customized paintings includes those by artists such as Hokusai, Utamaro…
We all know Shakespeare. The “thees and thous,” the Romeos, the Juliets. But the one-man show Shakespeare’s Keeper shows us a new side of the Bard. The award-winning play centers on life in the era of Shakespeare’s famous Globe Theatre. Told from the perspective of a sometimes caustic stage hand,…
You know when you’re on a train and find yourself pondering humanity and the social condition? No? Well, lucky for us, artist Max Kazemzadeh did just that, so we don’t have to. He’s turned his findings into Express & Local, an interactive art installation that sheds light (and sound and…
The work of painter, photographer and printmaker Chuck Close is constructed on a grid, so it can be “interrupted repeatedly without…damaging the final product.” An artist who accommodates interruptions? Sounds like a realist to us. But the grids, which remain visible in the finished product, comprise Close’s trademark style, which…
In the middle of bustling and sometimes gritty downtown Dallas is the world-class Crow Collection of Asian Art. And in the middle of a busy Tuesday, the Crow offers noon gallery talks—the perfect foil to a day that’s usually too far from Friday to even think about fun things such…
