Dallas
Featured show: Tom Orr / In Balance, April 12 -May 31
As a master of material, sculptor Tom Orr creates vibrant, dynamic forms that enhance our optical experience. Otherwise rigid entities such as wood and metal elicit fluidity, visually balanced by light and shadow. For his fourth solo exhibition at Barry Whistler Gallery, the artist presents two large-scale sculptures that explore structure, balance, and space through a blend of these stoic materials, whether raw, painted, or polished. Viewers can expect to once again experience Orr’s signature ability to create the unexpected.
Image: Tom Orr, Inner Core (detail), 2024, 132 x 192 x 144 inches (approx.), photo by Allison V. Smith, image courtesy of the artist and Barry Whistler Gallery
Featured show: Brantly Sheffield: metaFORE, May 24-June 28
Who says art is for the birds? Or golf, for that matter? Brantly Sheffield creates large-scale paintings of golf courses in which waterfowl take up residence, disrupting all-too-perfect, costly and contested environments. “At first glance, the works appear as lush, abstract color fields, but closer inspection reveals birds playfully—and pointedly—defying the country club aesthetic,” explains Ro2 Gallery, where the artist’s exhibition is on view this spring. Sheffield’s artworks entice viewers by playing with “ideas of exclusivity and artistic freedom, challenging who truly ‘belongs’ in these constructed landscapes.”
Image: Brantly Sheffield, Green, 2024, prismacolor and ink on paper, 12 x 9 inches, image courtesy of the artist and Ro2 Gallery
Fort Worth
Featured show: A Humble Gift by Ariel Davis, May 2-June 7
Fort Worth-based artist Ariel Davis joins the traditions of sculpture and still life painting with her solo exhibition at Artspace 111, where she once held the position of gallery manager. The works in A Humble Gift are inspired by the artist’s family tradition of gifting oranges at Christmas, a memory that holds significant meaning for not only the artist but those of us for whom the symbolic and humbling nature of gift giving speaks volumes.
Image: Ariel Davis, A Humble Gift, Opened, 2025, oil on canvas, 29 x 29 inches, image courtesy of the artist and Artspace 111
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DALLAS: Tom Orr, Inner Core (detail), 2024, 132 x 192 x 144 inches (approx.), photo by Allison V. Smith, image courtesy of the artist and Barry Whistler Gallery
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DALLAS: Brantly Sheffield, Green, 2024, prismacolor and ink on paper, 12 x 9 inches, image courtesy of the artist and Ro2 Gallery
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FORT WORTH: Ariel Davis, A Humble Gift, Opened, 2025, oil on canvas, 29 x 29 inches, image courtesy of the artist and Artspace 111
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HOUSTON: JJ Baker, Bicycle Wheel, 2024, oil on found board, 36 x 36 inches, image courtesy of the artist and Monterroso Gallery
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HOUSTON: Daniel Rios Rodriguez, Untitled, 2011–2025, oil on linen, canvas, wood, and nails, 11 x 16 5/8 x 1 1/4 inches, image courtesy of the artist and Seven Sisters
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MARFA: Sandy Skoglund, The Cold War, 1999, archival pigmented ink print (edition 12/30), 16 x 20 inches, image courtesy of the artist and Rule Gallery
Houston
Monterroso Gallery
Featured show: Closer than They Appear, May 24-July 5
The readymade has supplied a virtually endless supply of inspiration for many artists throughout history, and the same holds true for contemporary creatives too. In his latest exhibition at Houston’s Monterroso Gallery, JJ Baker seeks to transform such everyday materials and objects through artistic means. By painting representational images on items that would otherwise be discarded, Baker shifts both content and concept, prompting considerations of materiality, value, and the extraordinary.
Image: JJ Baker, Bicycle Wheel, 2024, oil on found board, 36 x 36 inches, image courtesy of the artist and Monterroso Gallery
Featured show: Daniel Rios Rodriguez: Sweet Fire, April 25-June 7
Visionary. The word brings to mind unwavering confidence and a steadfast imagination. Daniel Rios Rodriguez incorporates visionary motifs in his paintings—eyes, suns, stars, to name a few. In Sweet Fire, these visual symbols don’t just reference seeing as we’ve come to understand it, but they peer in a bit deeper. Here, the artist highlights dual functions as expression and weaponization: the sun lights our way but can burn our eyes; fire warms but it can also scorch; twinkling stars have already died. Through painting, Rodriguez creates a world in which he (and we) might come to terms with how multiple truths can exist at once.
Image: Daniel Rios Rodriguez, Untitled, 2011–2025, oil on linen, canvas, wood, and nails, 11 x 16 5/8 x 1 1/4 inches, image courtesy of the artist and Seven Sisters
Marfa
Rule Gallery
Featured show: Everything // Everything, May 24-July 19
Guest curator Jodee Sweet brings together six artists for Everything // Everything, a group whose works “reflect on the continuous cycles of transformation that shape our lives,” she explains. In this context, Sarah Bowling, Margaret Neumann, Eduardo Portillo, Diego Rodriguez-Warner, Arlene Shechet, Sandy Skoglund use photography, painting, sculpture and more to trace the fits and starts of life—sometimes humorous, sometimes poetic, yet always complex. Together, the artists embrace the existentially fraught idea that by merely carrying out our daily lives, we both create and destroy the world around us.
Image: Sandy Skoglund, The Cold War, 1999, archival pigmented ink print (edition 12/30), 16 x 20 inches, image courtesy of the artist and Rule Gallery
—NANCY ZASTUDIL
