MKG Across Texas:
Corporate Commissions
Spring Greetings from MKG! We hope you are safe and well. MKG is thankful for our ongoing collaborations with galleries, artists, architects, and clients, which have enabled us to place compelling art in corporate and private spaces for over 20 years. As the quarantine has forced us to slow down, we are proud and delighted to share some of our favorite recent projects from across Texas: Trammell Crow Center in Dallas and Sysco LABS in Austin. For these projects, we worked with interior architects and designers in order to create cohesive and visually compelling collections, and we partnered with international and local artists to commission art that accommodated our client’s large scale spaces as well as their vision and budget.
Two impressive works by acclaimed Japanese-American artist Jacob Hashimoto greet visitors to the Trammell Crow Center in downtown Dallas. Blurring the line between sculpture and collage, Hashimoto’s bold, site-specific works consist of hundreds of rice paper and bamboo “kites” that are suspended by fishing wire and hung from wooden pegs.
As one approaches the installations, the details of individual kites become clear. These kites become granular components in the synthetic design of the wall installation. When viewed from a distance, an ephemeral and suggested landscape materializes, hinting at rolling hills or a setting sun.
A monumental steel sculpture by American artist Jeremy Thomas occupies the space beneath a floating stair in the lobby. Thomas calls these sculptures “inflatables,” made by heating a steel envelope to a very high temperature and injecting it with pressurized air, which produces an amorphous steel sculpture. Painted with high gloss paint, the balloon-like shape belies the steel medium.
On the opposite side of the lobby, a visually captivating work by French artist Philippe Decrauzat plays with the viewer’s perception. Decrauzat’s practice combines the influences of Minimalism and Op art, producing elegantly deceptive shaped canvases that continue the exploration of visual perception.
Prominently placed in Trammell Crow Center’s elevator banks are four unique tapestries designed by multi-media Asian-American artist Pae White. Depicting crinkled foil, the metallic imagery is woven into a tapestry in Flanders. Cut into four sections, the tapestry depicts a continuum of the foil, presenting an unassuming and familiar household object in a highly traditional, luxurious, dramatic manner.
In Trammell Crow’s conference center, Mexican artist Marela Zacarias blends painting and sculpture with four commissioned works that bring the walls into the third dimension with geometric and abstract design.
Calling upon her experience as a muralist, the artist uses a labor-intensive process of molding window screens and plaster into undulating forms that she paints to give the illusion of bold and vibrant fabric.
Meanwhile, at Sysco LABS’ Austin office, MKG commissioned local Texas artists to brighten their industrial chic work space. Texas-born and Austin-based artist Melissa Borrell adds energy and color to Sysco LABS’ conference room. Here, Borrell plays with light, shadow, and movement through the use of color and geometric shapes to create an eye-catching architectural wall sculpture
El Nacho, a Houston-based graffiti artist, painted the dynamic mural behind the banquette seating in the dining area. Adding energy and playing off the rawness of the interiors, the mural projects from the corner in earthy yet vibrant tones.
Scott Reeder’s neon “shhhh,” instructs passers-by outside a phone room in a corridor. This minimal installation, using the artist’s own handwriting, adds to the playful energy found in this collection. Below, Stephen Eichhorn’s diamond-shaped composition adds dynamism to a sitting area. Eichhorn’s matte black background enhances the colorful hand-cut paper flora that he has sourced from botany textbooks.
Behind the Scenes
Click the image above to catch a quick glimpse behind the scenes as our friends at Displays Fine Art Services install two Jacob Hashimoto works at Trammell Crow Center in Dallas, TX!
Happenings
Dallas Art Fair Online
Although the 2020 Dallas Art Fair has been postponed to October, from April 14-23, 2020, the Dallas Art Fair will present Dallas Art Fair Online. This will allow everyone to digitally view and purchase works from many participating galleries. We will be featuring our favorites from the fair such as this Clare Woods painting from Simon Lee Gallery on our Instagram starting next week.
Check out our Instagram page here for more of MKG’s art installations and favorites!
MKG Watch List
- Kristy Luck (B. 1985), a California-based painter, creates windows into psychological spaces where forms emerge from fluid gestures and rich colors. Building upon sketches, her surreal landscapes evoke a subconscious understanding of space and objects. The titles give viewers a glimpse of her intentions and the imagery and patterns echo historical depictions of women in melancholic or revelatory states. Luck is represented by Philip Martin Gallery in Los Angeles, CA.
- Harold Ancart (B. 1980) was born in Brussels and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Best known for his expressionistic landscapes, Ancart’s new mixed media sculptures highlight the social implications of architecture. In “Pools,” the artist miniaturizes the swimming pool in cast concrete wall relief sculptures, further abstracted by rich color. Ancart highlights the pool as status symbol by removing its functionality, saying, “Anyone could afford the space for one, and even if one could not bathe in it, one could still invite their friends to have a drink or a cigarette around the pool. Who cares that you can’t swim in it; everyone knows that once you own a pool you never go in…”. Harold Ancart is represented by David Zwirner.
- Whitney Bedford (B. 1976) was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, but has lived in Los Angeles, by the beach, most of her life. In her paintings, Bedford typically layers expressive brushstrokes on top of drawings of shipwrecks, islands and volcanic masses. For her “Veduta” series, she reinterprets the composition of traditional landscape paintings by placing drawn desert plants on stages and behind glass walls in the foreground. She is represented by Vielmetter in Los Angeles and Carrie Secrist Gallery in Chicago.
- Adrian Esparza (B. 1970) is an El Paso, TX-based artist who explores material culture by “re-instilling lost value in found objects.” Esparza first drew international appreciation through his deconstruction of the Mexican serape. By diffusing color and expanding space by weaving sarape thread around nails to form a grid, Esparza creates a re-imagining of his own Mexican-American cultural heritage. Esparza is represented by Cris Worley Fine Arts in Dallas, TX.