Tag Archives: dallas museum of art

Jeffrey Grove appointed to new executive position at DMA

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DMA GroveJeffrey Grove, the gay senior curator of contemporary art at the Dallas Museum of Art (whom we profiled here), has just been appointed to a new position within the museum.

Grove will now serve as senior curator of special projects and research, a newly created position, Maxwell L. Anderson, the DMA’s director, announced. Grove was most recently responsible for spearheading the Cindy Sherman exhibition, which is on display through June 9 (and well worth a visit). His upcoming projects for the DMA include a show featuring the work of Jim Hodges (opening in October) and a retrospective of one of the art world’s most influential women, Isa Genzken (opening in the fall of 2014).

A nationwide search is now under way to find a new curator of contemporary art to replace Grove.

—  Arnold Wayne Jones

Kidd’s stuff

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When Chip Kidd is the designer, you can judge a book by its cover

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CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK? | Dust jacket designer Chip Kidd, above, has created iconic covers for authors like David Sedaris and Haruki Murakami, below.

ARNOLD WAYNE JONES  | Life+Style Editor

Chip Kidd takes the adage “you can’t judge a book by its cover” seriously. On the other hand, part of his job is to get you to look at the book in the first place.

In the world of publishing, there is probably no more respected dust-jacket designer than Kidd. After more than 25 years at Alfred A. Knopf, Kidd’s reputation is almost as solid as the authors for who he has designed covers: Michael Crichton, David Sedaris, Cormac McCarthy, James Ellroy and Michael Ondaatje, to name a few; some writers even have it in their contracts that no one but Kidd may design their book jackets.

You might think such acclaim would give Kidd an ego bigger than some of the novelists and essayists whose words adorn his art. But nothing could be further from the truth.

“Yes, a cover can be a sales tool, but it can just get your attention,” he says. “The question I get asked with astonishing regularity, and have for decades now, is ‘Do you read the books before you design them?’ Oh my god yes! Yes yes yes yes yes!”

Everything he does is in service to the text. Which means he has to flex his creative muscle while still respecting the source.

“It’s tricky — each book is its own particular case,” Kidd says from his office in New York City. “ I could give you a whole case study on [McCarthy’s] The Road and how we ended up with what we did. But different authors want different things. I have been doing this 25 years and counting, and that’s working non-stop. There is every conceivable story [of how a design came about].”

Those stories, in fact, make up a presentation of his work that he’ll bring to the Dallas Museum of Art this week.

There are carefully planned successes, and unexpected failures, “such as the horrible [cover] you have to do again and again until everyone gives up,” he says.

“But the opposite of that is also true: The one where everything comes together.”

Kidd is thinking about his design for Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84, an experience “that was almost too good to be true. The [final design ] is bookshelvesexactly what I presented to our editor-in-chief. I usually do about three different things, but this one I thought was absolutely the best thing to do and everybody agreed. I would say that’s my most favorite or my recent covers.”

Without even reading the book, its cover suggests something ethereal, dreamlike, unnerving — all words that Kidd says capture Murakami’s writing to a tee.

The story begins with a woman in Tokyo navigating down a spiral staircase from a highway, but when she reaches the bottom, she feels she has entered a parallel universe. Kidd originally considered a Tokyo cityscape, “but faces work remarkably well on an emotional level and on an aesthetic level. I just started researching faces of Japanese women.” Suddenly, an instant classic.
It’s not always that easy.

“We publish every conceivable kind of book — cookbooks, crime fiction, literature,” Kidd says. And he has to bring that creative bent to all of them.

“Genre stuff is hardest because you want to transcend the genre,” he says. ” Technically, 1Q84 is science fiction — there is supernatural stuff going on, though it is very subtle. So a design ethos of mine is, if you can predict what I’m going to do, I’ve failed.”

There is a shorthand that develops when he works with the same authors over and over, but even that’s almost incidental, because “I try to wipe the slate clean every time.” Still, no one can deny his covers for Michael Crichton’s books, such are Jurassic Park, became part of the iconography of the novels. (I tell Kidd Disclosure is still one of the best dust jackets I’ve ever seen. “Yes, that’s about as good as it gets,” he agrees.)

Turning a hardcover jacket into a paperback soft-cover is a whole different beast, which comes with its own dynamics.

“There are so many different factors at play” in designing a paperback, he says. “Sometimes it’s about whether the hardcover was perceived to have under-performed. Then you have the opposite and everything in between: Let’s keep this and that element and change the rest. One of the things we follow here at Knopf is, at the end of the day you want the author to be pleased. You sometimes talk them into it or you compromise. There is a sort of buttered-side-down aspect to this business.”

What does it take to make a lasting, memorable cover? Even Kidd’s not sure. Certainly, though, he’s agree that the original jacket for The Great Gatsby is iconic. Not so much.

“From a graphic designer’s point of view, coming into it cold, it’s not great — it’s kind of silly! Eyes floating over a purple sky…? But the book is iconic so the cover became iconic. The most important thing is the text. … though from a book collector’s point of view, to find a first edition with a jacket is worth tons and tons of money.”

Spoken like someone who understands art and business.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition February 24, 2012.

—  Kevin Thomas

Kenneth Craighead, Diana Pollak among judges for Richardson’s Cottonwood Art Festival

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The suburbs get a little more gay friendly with this year’s announcement of Richardson’s major event, the Cottonwood Art Festival. Probably the city’s biggest attraction, the CAF happens twice a year with the first going down May 5–6 and generates a whopping $2 million-plus in sales.

This year’s list of jurors includes out gallery owner and director Kenneth Craighead of Craighead Green Gallery, as well as Diana Pollak, an LGBT ally who has served on the board of Youth First Texas.

Read the entire list of announced judges after the jump.

Continue reading “Kenneth Craighead, Diana Pollak among judges for Richardson’s Cottonwood Art Festival” »

—  Rich Lopez

His ‘World’ and welcome to it

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French fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier talks one-on-one about his Dallas exhibition, celebrities and the most beautiful clothing a gay man can wear (hint: it’s not couture)

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CELEBRITY MYTH MAKER | Need an idea how influential Gaultier is? Leading up to the Super Bowl halftime show this week, the image most associated with Madonna was the cone-bra boustier Gaultier designed.

RICHARD BURNETT  | Contributing Writer
lifestyle@dallasvoice.com

Jean Paul Gaultier loves a fabulous rack. While he was in Montreal, he let slip that one artifact scheduled for display in The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk — about to wrap up its run at the Dallas Museum of Art — was his 1960 teddy bear, Nana. The piece is complete with the cone bra Gaultier crafted when he was just 8 years old.
“You see, I designed the cone bra 30 years before I made one for Madonna,” Gaultier laughs.

The iconic body corset he created for Miss Ciccone’s 1990 Blond Ambition Tour is also included in this multimedia exhibition, the first international showing devoted to the celebrated French couturier and, featuring 140 ensembles from 40 years of his couture and prêt-à-porter collections. Gaultier gave the curators exclusive access to his label’s archives in putting together the exhibition. Still, the fabulous gay designer, in a rare one-on-one interview, goes out of his way to emphasize that this is not a retrospective.

“It is more a contemporary installation,” Gaultier says. “When the director of the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Nathalie Bondil, asked me to participate on this project, I did not want to have a retrospective that would be like a funeral, a chronological presentation. I worked closely two years with the team and curator, Thierry-Maxime Loriot, on the selection of the pieces, on developing the themes that have obsessed me — corsets, skin, cultures, genders, Parisiennes, etc. — since I started in the fashion world. It is my story [told] through my clothes.”

This is not your ordinary fashion show … nor ordinary museum piece. As extraordinarily well-constructed as Gaultier’s clothing, it boasts dazzling layouts, colors, lighting and projections that animate the faces of mannequins that make them seem to come alive.

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COWBOY CHIC | The entrance to the DMA exhibit, autographed for Dallas by JPG himself. (Arnold Wayne Jones/Dallas Voice)

Gaultier has always prided himself on being avant-garde and over-the-top, from the designs themselves to the models who show them off.

“The fashion world can be very formatted when it comes to casting choices and the way models should look,” he explains. “I don’t follow trends. From my very first shows, I did street castings, [using] friends and anybody I thought was interesting. I sell my clothes to real people, not only models. Women are very powerful now, and they can [take responsibility for] what they wear. It is like when Madonna decides to wear a corset; it is like a political statement because she decides to do so. It then becomes a symbol of power and femininity. We dress first for ourselves.”

Gaultier has also been inspired by and worked with many other celebrities from Pedro Almodóvar to Leslie Cheung. What, in his estimation, is the common denominator of great stars?

“All the stars I have worked with are very different,” Gaultier says. “I guess the thing that successful stars have in common is that they work very hard. There is no secret to success, even if you are not a pop singer. Madonna still fascinates me. She has been of great help for this exhibition and the [accompanying] book, loaning pieces from her Blond Ambition Tour and Confessions Tour.”

Another adored Gaultier muse is plus-size pop singer Beth Ditto, of the band The Gossip. Ditto once notoriously complained to London’s NME magazine, “If there’s anyone to blame for size zero, it’s not women. Blame gay men who work in the fashion industry and want these women as dolls. Men don’t know what it feels like to be a woman and be expected to look a particular way.”

“I think everybody is beautiful and has a different kind of beauty,” says Gaultier. “It is always a question of perception and of presentation. Beth Ditto is fascinating by the way she moves and assumes her body. She represents freedom. She comes from a small town in the U.S., is voluptuous and openly gay. She is very sexy. I have used a lot of plus-size models in my show. They are part of the society, so why not of the fashion world?”

While Gaultier believes women are dressing more for themselves these days rather than for men, he says straight men are also becoming much more style-savvy.

“I think all men should show more their sensitive side, to show more their bodies and shapes,” he explains. “It is not a question of gay or straight. Both can have good and bad taste! I think straight men are getting better with their style. [But] gay men are [still] more aware of what suits them best in some cases, because they have this sensitivity.”

As for his own wardrobe, Gaultier insists he owns nothing that approaches the kind of clothes he designs.

“I am not extravagant; I like to dress others,” he explains. “I am more conventional now, but in my personal archives I have a lot [of extravagant outfits], like when I hosted the MTV Europe Awards in 1995 and did 16 costume changes during the show, from a see-through gown with platform boots to a leopard-print Speedo with matching thigh-high boots and maxi fake fur coat. Actually, you can see excerpts of it in the exhibition.”

Gaultier — whose atelier has lost many employees to AIDS over the last quarter century — says somberly, “Condoms are the most beautiful clothes to wear. AIDS affected a lot my entourage, close friends, co-workers and my partner, who died from it in 1990. I started being involved with AmFar in 1992 when I did a benefit fashion show in LA to fight against this terrible disease. People need to be educated about safer sex. Because even if you can take medications and [can] control it, you still cannot cure it. So awareness is very important.”

”The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier”, at the Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 Harwood St., through Sunday. DallasMuseumofArt.org.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition February 10, 2012.

—  Kevin Thomas

Maxwell Anderson, the DMA’s new director

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IMG_2436Although the words exact didn’t escape his lips during his meeting with the press, Maxwell Anderson, who ascended to the job as new director of the Dallas Museum of Art early last month, doesn’t seem to think a show like the Gaultier exhibit is the direction an institution like the DMA should head in.

Museums shouldn’t be “entertainment centers that have an attached research center,” he said. “Creativity is more important that counting bodies through the door. As much as I love to see crowds, that is a for-profit goal, not a museum goal.”

Such a statement might read as fightin’-words in the consumerist heaven of Big D. But Anderson — who until last year ran the respected Indianapolis Museum of Art and has career history that includes the Metropolitan Museum of Art in his native New York City (although he has ties to Texas: His wife’s family lives in Houston) — projects something else: Not contempt for success, not a prissy elitism, but a desire to turn the DMA into a premiere national institution.

The timing is fortuitous. Anderson admires the Arts District and the DMA’s role as one of its anchors. “The Arts Distruct was [a step] in building this necklace of [art venues],” he said.

And he’s focused on spending his first 100 days (he’s got about 60 left) meeting with community leaders (and the press) to develop priorities. But he’s not the kind who seems to want to cater to the lowest common denominator … nor turn the museum into an acquisition machine. (Running a premiere museum “is not acquisitions alone — it’s a paradigm shift,” he said.) He has already declared “green, ethical, edicational” goals as chief among his interests for the DMA. And that includes taking advantage of the DMA’s already sizeable collection that is not on display.

That’s another one of his first-100-day goals. And it’s a good one. Most of Anderson’s goals seem to be. Though we still would like to see shows like Gaultier come back. Just a thought.

— Arnold Wayne Jones

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition February 10, 2012.

—  Kevin Thomas

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier at the DMA

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Gaultier gets his proper due

The world has ooh-ed and ahh-ed over designer Jean Paul Gaultier’s striking fashions for years, but from afar. The Dallas Museum of Art brings the designer’s work up close in the highly anticipated exhibit The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk. The exhibit includes not only his fashions, but an animatronic mannequin of the designer. And it talks!

DEETS: DMA, 1717 N. Harwood St. Through Feb. 12. $16–$20. DallasMuseumofArt.org.

—  Rich Lopez

The good, the bad & the ‘A-List’

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These arts, cultural & sports stories defined gay Dallas in 2011

FASHIONS AND FORWARD | The Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the DMA, above, was a highlight of the arts scene in 2011, while Dirk Nowitzki’s performance in the NBA playoffs gave the Mavs their first-ever — and much deserved — world title. (Arnold Wayne Jones/Dallas Voice)

FASHIONS AND FORWARD | The Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the DMA, above, was a highlight of the arts scene in 2011, while Dirk Nowitzki’s performance in the NBA playoffs gave the Mavs their first-ever — and much deserved — world title. (Arnold Wayne Jones/Dallas Voice)

A lot of eyes were focused on Dallas nationally in 2011 — for good and bad — but much of what made the city a fun place last year has specific queer appeal. CULTURE The rise of the reality TV star. 2011 was the year Dallas made a big splash across everyone’s television sets — and it had nothing to do with who shot J.R. (although that’s pending). From the culinary to the conniving, queer Dallasites were big on the small screen. On the positive side were generally good portrayals of gay Texans. Leslie Ezelle almost made it all the way in The Next Design Star, while The Cake Guys’ Chad Fitzgerald is still in contention on TLC’s The Next Great Baker. Lewisville’s Ben Starr was a standout on MasterChef. On the web, Andy Stark, Debbie Forth and Brent Paxton made strides with Internet shows Bear It All, LezBeProud and The Dallas Life,respectively.

‘A’ to Z | ‘The A-LIst: Dallas,’ above, had its detractors, but some reality TV stars from Big D, like Chad Fitzgerald, Leslie Ezelle and Ben Starr, represented us well.

‘A’ to Z | ‘The A-LIst: Dallas,’ above, had its detractors, but some reality TV stars from Big D, like Chad Fitzgerald, Leslie Ezelle and Ben Starr, represented us well.

There were downsides, though. Drew Ginsburg served as the token gay on Bravo’s teeth-clenching Most Eligible: Dallas, and the women on Big Rich Texas seemed a bit clichéd. But none were more polarizing than the cast of Logo’s The A-List: Dallas. Whether people loved or hated it, the six 20somethings (five gays, one girl) reflected stereotypes that made people cringe. Gaultier makes Dallas his runway. The Dallas Museum of Art scored a coup, thanks to couture. The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk not only featured the work of the famed designer, but was presented the designs in an innovative manner. Nothing about it was stuffy. Seeing his iconic designs in person is almost a religious experience — especially when its Madonna’s cone bra. Gaultier reminded us that art is more than paintings on a wall. (A close runner-up: The Caravaggio exhibit in Fort Worth.) The Return of Razzle Dazzle. ­­There was speculation whether Razzle Dazzle could actually renew itself after a near-decade lull, but the five-day spectacular was a hallmark during National Pride Month in June, organized by the Cedar Springs Merchant Association. The event started slowly with the wine walk but ramped up to the main event street party headlined by rapper Cazwell. Folding in the MetroBall with Deborah Cox, the dazzle had returned with high-profile entertainment and more than 10,000 in attendance on the final night. A Gathering pulled it together. TITAS executive director Charles Santos took on the daunting task of producing A Gathering, a collective of area performance arts companies, commemorating 30 years of AIDS. Groups such as the Dallas Opera, Turtle Creek Chorale and Dallas Theater Center donated their time for this one-of-a-kind show with all proceeds benefiting Dallas’ leading AIDS services organizations. And it was worth it. A stirring night of song, dance and art culminated in an approximate 1,000 in attendance and $60,000 raised for local charities. Bravo, indeed. The Bronx closed after 35 years. Cedar Springs isn’t short on its institutions, but when it lost The Bronx, the gayborhood felt a real loss. For more than three decades, the restaurant was home to many Sunday brunches and date nights in the community. We were introduced to Stephan Pyles there, and ultimately, we just always figured on it being there as part of the fabric of the Strip. A sister company to the neighboring Warwick Melrose bought the property with rumors of expansion. But as yet, the restaurant stands steadfast in its place as a reminder of all those memories that happened within its walls and on its plates.  The Omni changed the Dallas skyline. In November, The Omni Dallas hotel opened the doors to its 23-story structure and waited to fill it’s 1,000 rooms to Dallas visitors and staycationers. Connected to the Dallas Convention Center, the ultra-modern hotel is expected to increase the city’s convention business which has the Dallas Visitors and Conventions Bureau salivating — as they should. The hotel brought modern flair to a booming Downtown and inside was no different. With quality eateries and a healthy collection of art, including some by gay artists Cathey Miller and Ted Kincaid, the Omni quickly became a go-to spot for those even from Dallas. SPORTS The Super Bowl came to town. Although seeing the Cowboys make Super Bowl XLV would have been nice for locals, the event itself caused a major stir, both good and bad. Ticketing issues caused a commotion with some disgruntled buyers and Jerry Jones got a bad rap for some disorganization surrounding the game. But the world’s eyes were on North Texas as not only the game was of a galactic measure, but the celebs were too. From Kardashians to Ke$ha to Kevin Costner, parties and concerts flooded the city and the streets. The gays even got in on the action. Despite crummy weather, the Super Street Party was billed as the “world’s first ever gay Super Bowl party.” The ice and snow had cleared out and the gays came out, (and went back in to the warmer clubs) to get their football on. The XLV Party at the Cotton Bowl included a misguided gay night with acts such as Village People, Lady Bunny and Cazwell that was ultimately canceled. The Mavericks won big. The Mavs are like the boyfriend you can’t let go of because you see how much potential there is despite his shortcomings. After making the playoffs with some just-misses, the team pulled through to win against championship rivals, Miami Heat, who beat them in 2006. In June, the team cooled the Heat in six games, taking home its first NBA Championship, with Dirk Nowitzki appropriately being named MVP. The Rangers gave us faith. Pro sports ruled big in these parts. The Mavericks got us in the mood for championships and the Texas Rangers almost pulled off a victory in the World Series. With a strong and consistent showing for the season, the Rangers went on to defend their AL West Division pennant. Hopes were high as they handily defeated the Detroit Tigers in game six, but lost the in the seventh game. Although it was a crushing loss, the Texas Rangers proved why we need to stand by our men.

— Rich Lopez

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 6, 2012.

—  Michael Stephens

Spirit of giving

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2011 Toy Drive for children with cancer

Dr. Christine J. Coke of Allen is once again collecting new, unwrapped toys and gift cards from Toys R’ Us, Target or WalMart to donate to the Children’s Cancer Fund to benefit children undergoing treatment for cancer.

Donations can be dropped off at Dr. Coke’s office, 107 Suncreek Drive, Ste. 200 in Allen by Saturday, Dec. 17. You can also arrange to have donations picked up by calling Dr. Coke’s office at 214-383-1380, or by calling Linda Lucky any time at 214-632-9271.

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Cocktails for a Cause Red Ribbon Bash

The Cocktails for a Cause Red Ribbon Bash, benefiting Resource Center Dallas, begins at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9, at Central 214 at Hotel Palomar, 5300 E. Mockingbird. Admission is $25.

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Hardy Candy Christmas benefit show and auction

Miss IGRA Victoria Weston, Trisha Davis and Donna Dumae host the 25th annual Hardy Candy Christmas benefit show and auction, presented by TGRA-Dallas and the United Court of the Lone Star Empire on Saturday, Dec. 10, starting at 8 p.m., at Dallas Eagle, 5740 Maple Ave.

Proceeds benefit TGRA and UCLSE and the organizations they have chosen as beneficiaries.

Other events coming up at Dallas Eagle include the Stocking Stuffers Auction benefiting PPF on Dec. 16 and UCLE’s Jingle Ball Golden Rings 5 benefiting Youth First Texas on Dec. 17.

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Christmas Stocking Auction at The Round-Up

The Round-Up Saloon, 3912 Cedar Springs Road, will hold its annual Christmas Stocking Auction on Sunday, Dec. 11, at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m., and preview baskets will be on display in the bar on Saturday, Dec. 10.

Proceeds benefit Legacy Counseling Center and Legacy Founders Cottage.

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Black Tie Dinner check distribution party

The Black Tie Dinner committee will distribute checks representing proceeds from its 30th annual dinner, held last month, to the Human Rights Campaign and the dinner’s 17 local beneficiaries on Thursday, Dec. 15, at 6 p.m. at the Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N. Harwood. Those attending will also have the chance to visit the exhibit The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, now on display at the museum.

Go online to BlackTie.org for information.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition December 9, 2011.

—  Michael Stephens

Art attack

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Dallas gets a dose of queer and queer-friendly art options this month

Maybe the holiday season inspires artists or inspires buyers, but whichever the reason, Dallas’ art scene is in full bloom with openings, closings and anniversaries. These galleries are ready to introduce you to a world of art in your own backyard.

Local queer artist Robb Conover closes his pop art extravaganza Sweet Bullets at Kettle Art Friday. Conover curated the show with fellow artist Corey Godfrey, which includes work by Tony Reans, Nix Johnson, Daniel Birdsong, Conover and Godfrey and more. Expect an explosion of bold colors and pop culture references in this eclectic exhibit. Upon the closing of the show, the gallery will celebrate its seventh anniversary. Kettle Art, 2714 Elm St. KettleArt.com.

Local funny gay guy Dave Cudlipp debuts as an artist in Fresh Faces 2 x 2. Curator Rita Barnard’s goal of the show is to highlight local and regional artists both discovered and yet to be. Cudlipp, who we featured before as a writer for Dallas Comedy Conspiracy, shows his other talents in the exhibit where artists are required to get creative in a two by two inch space. Bath House Cultural Center, 521 E. Lawther Drive. Through Jan. 28 with an artists’ reception Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. 214-670-8749. BathHouseCultural.com.

The Dallas Museum of Art continues it’s stunning exhibit The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, featuring the designer’s edgy clothes over the years as well as added elements such as animatronic mannequins — including one of Gaultier himself. Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N. Harwood St. Through Feb. 12. $16–$20. DallasMuseumofArt.org.

Alison Jardine displays her work, pictured, in PixelNation at Ro2 Art gallery at the Aloft. The digital art works are the result of Jardine creating through her iPad for 365 consecutive days. With such a modern approach, Jardine ironically takes on nature as her theme with a pixel motif. Ro2Art at Aloft, 1033 Young St. Through Dec. 29 with an artist’s reception Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. 214-803-9575. Ro2Art.com.

The Downtown gallery of Ro2Art will simultaneously feature Dallas-based artist R. Mateo Diago’s work in Every Then … and Now. The exhibit includes works from an array of media such as photography, painting, found objects and even letters and notes. Diago’s work is described as giving weight to themes of lost loves, self-identity, dreams and sexual compulsion. Sounds like his work speaks to everybody. Ro2 Art, 110 N. Akard St. Dec. 17–Jan. 28 with an artist’s reception Dec. 17. 214-803-9575. Ro2Art.com.

Applying math and musical concepts in his work, Dallas-based Rusty Scruby takes his photographic work to a new level. In Memory Bytes, Scruby hand cuts and reassembles his works into constructions of hexagons and circles in a simulated knitting style. Taking the seemingly mundane, he transforms family photos, yearbook pictures and more into further dimensions that demand a deeper look. Cris Worley Fine Arts, 2277 Monitor St. Through Dec. 22. 214-641-9266. CrisWorley.com.

The works of British artist Nigel Cooke can either bring forth a sense of renewal or evoke a feeling of dread. Either way it can be fascinating in his art currently on display at the Goss-Michael Foundation. 1405 Turtle Creek Blvd. Through Feb. 18. 214-696-0555. GossMichaelFoundation.org.

— Rich Lopez

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition December 2, 2011.

—  Kevin Thomas

The Rachofskys make Poz magazine’s 100 list

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The December issue of Poz reveals the Poz 100 list featuring those who have made a difference in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Dallas made the list through the work of Cindy and Howard Rachofsky and their Two X Two for AIDS and Art benefit. From Poz.com.

The key to how we do this is, in part, the POZ 100. This year’s list celebrates 100 people, things and ideas that reinvent—and improve—how we tackle HIV.

We would need tens of thousands of pages to celebrate all the wonderful people and organizations bravely and effectively fighting the virus. The purpose of the POZ 100 is to highlight some of those who are making big splashes right now. This year’s list is a little top heavy. By that we mean there are a lot of big names in government and global AIDS on it. But the reality of today’s pinched economy means that all AIDS funding is under heavy artillery fire. And the folks on this list have been taking the hits while defending the perimeter. They have gone to bat for our community when others would like us just to go away. And without leadership on global and domestic AIDS at the highest levels, the money expires—and so could we.

79. The Rachofskys 
Cindy and Howard Rachofsky, superstars in the world of AIDS fund-raising, bring fresh dollars to the mix. To date, their annual “TWO X TWO for AIDS and Art” event has raised more than $29 million jointly benefiting amfAR (of which Cindy is a trustee) and the Dallas Museum of Art. They get art donated to save people from AIDS. Each year, Dallas’s high society scrambles to secure tickets to this event.

—  Rich Lopez