Lauren Smart traipses through Trey Burns’ uncanny views of the Texas Blackland Prairie:
This tinfoil wall might be the key to cohesively bringing the exhibit together, serving as a rudimentary medium for nature, a nod to a conspiratorial tinfoil hat and a conductor of the unseen.
Trey Burns takes Miguel Perez of KERA on a hike at Goat Island Preserve
Burns says his show is about “ways of looking.” When we slow down and pause in places we typically pass over, novel ecologies appear. “It’s a way to make sense of where you are, and this is probably like a coping thing for me,” he said. “I’m always just trying to figure out what’s going on. Why is something like this? Why does it look like this? Why did they put this here?”
William Sarradet on Trey Burns’ ecological entanglements:
In Fountain (Wheeler Creek), a mixed media sculpture covered in analog photo prints by Burns, two different antennas receive a publicly broadcast video signal. Burns pointed out to reception attendees the custom made elements of his work: a handmade video mixer converts the antennas’ digital signals to analog, and one of the antennas is carved out of wood and laminated in foil using instructions the artist found on Reddit. A replica of Mark Fisher’s K-Punk, which is a posthumously published volume of critical writings on media from 2004-2016, sits on the bottom shelf of the installation. Fisher is known for his thoughts on hauntology and capitalist realism, two theories which are usually applied to media and then transliterated through contemporary political developments. Fisher was often interested in the cultural symbols from the past that outstay their welcome, which is reflected in Burns’ exploration of landscapes of competing ecologies.
Danielle Avram on Tamara Johnson’s How to fold a fitted sheet:
“It’s an honest assessment of the various absurdities of life, commenting on the sticky trails we leave in our wake, whether as physical remnants or as memories caught in time.”
Artist, writer, and historian Michael Corris, makes a convincing case for Tino Ward’s investigation of Minimal Art:
“Ward has looked intently — deeply — into the realm of what Donald Judd called “specific objects.” Above all, Tino’s process of fabrication has enabled him to translate the works of the exhibition 10 into objects that are multivocal. The practical issues encountered in the remaking of any one of the works of 10 in paper were formidable, but it was only through this tortuous process of reconstruction using the most inopportune materials that Ward was eventually able to glimpse beyond the popular, received idea of Minimalism. To reiterate, there is no intention to simulate the experience or appearance of 10; what you see is a sample that doesn’t exemplify the model.”
Jonathan Molina-Garcia weighs in on the petition to display Black Lives Matter on the Omni Dallas, with Natalie Gempel in D Magazine
“While the petition hopes to “change the morale and the mood of the city,” Molina-Garcia hopes that the statement would be done out of bereavement and become an opportunity for the city to properly grieve. While the words are powerful, they need to be accompanied by actions to have a real effect.”
ex ovo speaks with Patron Magazine about Michael Uttaro’s En Route
So, I think this tension that Mike is getting at, between Dionysian (permissive) order and Appolonian (disciplined, rigid) order in the photographs, we see in the paintings too; the free-flowing line cut, rearranged in very structured patterns, and trying to impose them onto a grid. Some of the paintings, ones that don’t involve that rigid rearrangement of the image onto a rigid grid are maybe more natural, are less dependent on the human imposition of order, but of course they’re still constrained within a rectangle. All of the work is held within the rectangle, and I think a lot of painting is about this, the tension between these two types of order.
ex ovo included in Darryl Ratcliff’s comprehensive round-up of reasons to be excited for Dallas art in 2020
Finally, ex ovo gallery, directed by Allison Klion, has had a slew of successful shows. From their smartly curated and executed “The Big Summer T-Shirt Show” that featured over 90 artists designing and deconstructing t-shirts to their current exhibition “Next Exit,” which invited artists to explore how they interact with Dallas. They created ramps inside the gallery. Another built a miniature replication of the Omni Hotel with the phrase Black Lives Matter looping in neon on it. As a result, ex.ovo has felt unlike any other exhibitions happening in Dallas. These creatives, all 30 and younger, will help define what culture looks like in Dallas in 2020.
Lillian Michel offers a lovely take on NEXT EXIT for Glasstire.
…Not that the artists are advocating for erecting more monuments. They’ve deconstructing existing structures with a perceptive, humorous, and appropriately critical touch. Next Exit is an intelligent show that will likely linger in your mind when you drive away down Fabrication Street, pass the hideous new developments on the way to both I-35E and I-30, and face the skyline. “
Glasstire editors choose NEXT EXIT as their #2 pick in Texas, and film the Nov. 7 “Top 5” in the gallery
NEXT EXIT invites the “the best kind of critical conversation,” one that “Dallas deserves.”
D Magazine’s Natalie Gempel reviews NEXT EXIT
Gempel offers some insight into how Trey Burns, Harris Chowdhary, Finn Jubak, and Jonathan Molina-Garcia developed NEXT EXIT
Natalie Gempel includes NEXT EXIT in her list of “Gallery Shows You Need To Visit In Dallas This Fall,” in D Magazine
NEXT EXIT featured alongside exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Art, the Goss-Michael Foundation, The Modern Art Museum of Ft. Worth, and others.
Darryl Ratcliff reviews The Big Summer T-Shirt Show for The Dallas Morning News
Ratcliff, Special Contributor to the Dallas Morning News, writes that, “the shirts themselves are some of the most intriguing pieces of art you will see this year.”
The Big Summer T-Shirt Show #1 pick on Glasstire
Glasstire Editor-in-Chief, Christina Rees, and Publisher, Brandon Zech, chose The Big Summer T-Shirt Show as their #1 pick for the week of June 27, 2019, describing the show as “the true heart of summer group shows.”
See The Big Summer T-Shirt Show at ex ovo
Natalie Gempel urges D Magazine readers to see The Big Summer T-Shirt Show.
ex ovo identified in Dallas Morning News as one of three new galleries making a mark on the Dallas scene
Dallas Morning News Special Contributor, Chris Mosley, calls the programming at ex ovo, as well as Something Else and Cydonia Gallery, “some of the more surprising moments on the Dallas scene of late.”
William Sarradet reviews Material Intension for Glasstire
Sarradet calls Material Intension a group show brimming with ideas.
ex ovo opens at 414 Fabrication Street in Dallas
ex ovo opened on April 6, 2019 at 414 Fabrication Street in Dallas. The first exhibition, Material Intension, featured work by Kristen Cochran, Travis Iurato, and Leslie Martinez.