This Week in Dallas: Art, Film, and Live Music

It may be dreary outside, but that cool weather is the perfect reason to show off that brand new outfit. This week is full of art exhibitions, film premiers, and live music! So try to suppress that road rage as best as you can, and go have (cheap or free) fun!

Thursday

Matthew Brinston’s solo exhibition “I Wish I Were Me" at WAAS Gallery

This new body of work, a collection of large-scale oil paintings and clay sculptures, rhythmically and aggressively deals with inward reflection and the journey towards the truest version of yourself. Utilizing abstraction, jagged shapes, and bold colors Brinston invites his viewer to dwell in the tension of who we are, who we were, and who we wish we could become.

Friday

Buy new rain boots and give back with ROMA Boots at Nordstrom (5-7pm)

Dallas-based Roma Boots is launching in select Nordstrom stores this month. To celebrate, Roma Boots founder, Samuel Bistrian and, Roma Boots partner, Duck Dynasty's Sadie Robertson and will be making an appearance at Nordstrom NorthPark Center on Friday, November 20 from 5-7 p.m.

Get more information on this event here. Check out Roma Boots website here.

International Dallasites meet at the EUROcircle Dallas Kickoff (7-9pm)

Invite all your international and European friends to meet with the international citizens of Dallas! Hosted at Meddlesome Moth from 7 until 9pm this Friday!

"ATTENTION" by S2 x SMITH II Short Film at the Dallas Contemporary ( 7:30 pm- 10pm)

Attention, based on a true story written and directed by Charles Smith II, inspired by personal past experiences on the up and down hill battles that love presents. The by any means necessary for attention played by Stevi, female role, seeking everything that she thought she wasn’t getting by stepping outside of the relationship. Displaying guilt, insecurities, anger, trauma and deception by perception. The motion picture mini short film displays the journey through the eyes of both actors perspective of pain, love and character transcendence. The toxic fulfillment that each character fights to find within one another with glimpses of climax moments and heated arguments, passionate intimacy and clear gut wrenching betrayal in trust.

Dance the night away with the best cover band in Dallas, LE CURE! (7-??)

The British are coming....with cover bands! Get your 80's on and dance away to the Revolution at 7pm and LE CURE at 9:30pm at Barley House Uptown.

Saturday

Text and art in visual culture; Michael Corris exhibition opening at Liliana Bloch ( 6pm - 9pm)

In this exhibition of monotypes, Michael Corris explores the rich conversation between text and image in art and visual culture.

The format of Corris's monotypes pairs the printed image with the palette of pigments used to create the original painting. This composition alludes to the formal structure of the emblem, a complex allegorical symbol consisting of an image, a motto, and a narrative text. In Corris' emblems, the title or extended caption of the image functions as a motto in disguise.

For more information, click here.

Get your art on at Peggy Wauters solo exhibition "Tales From The Misty Fields" at Ro2 Art in Downtown Dallas (7pm- 10pm)

Peggy Wauters creates humanoid forms that bespeak extreme experience. From physical mutation and disintegration to the evocation of profound psychological states. Wauters' drawings, paintings, and sculptures are an art of provocation and contemplation.

For more information, click here.

Watch your favorite futuristic psychopath at Texas Theatre then dance the night away.

Viddy well! Clockwork Orange in 35mm + a concert. Slooshy the bird of rarest-spun heaven metal, or like, silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now, the sounds of George Quartz', witness the gang of vicious, young hoodlums of seres* and hear the angel trumpets and devil trombones of BLACK TAFFY! The theatre's lobby will be transformed into the old Korova Milkbar, so come with uncles, the Cold Cut Deejays, to hear all proper the most horror-show fuzzy warbles of the modern age!

To see my weekend adventures, follow @Czarina_Ekaterina and @OurNewMonarch on Instagram!

#dallasdate #dallasevents #dallasartgalleries #artexhibition #artopening #clockworkorange #dallastravel #dallasnightout #activitiesdallas

Matt Hansel - Reverence & Reverie

Currently exhibiting at The Lodge Gallery in New York, Matt Hansel brings the Renaissance into the 21st century through image manipulation and decontextualization. I got a chance to chat with him over this show and his past works, looking at the man behind the paintings. These personal insights bring Hansel’s paintings into a new light, conceptualizing the greats by anonymity. The images featured in this interview are a conglomeration of Hansel’s work from past and current exhibitions. Check out his work at Reverence & Reverie showing at The Lodge Gallery. While you’re there, be sure to check out the speakeasy bar in the back of the gallery.

How has your style changed over your career?

I think it’s more helpful to think of modes of image making as a means to an end. If you think of the way something is made as integral to it’s conceptual underpinnings, you realize that the way you make a conceptual object has to be specific to that object. Therefore, different conceptual objects will always require and demand there own way of being made. So, instead of a style that changes to keep up with current trends, I try and find a mode of image making that supports the concept of every object I make.

Were you always influenced by the Renaissance?

I am more intrigued by the way we interact with historical objects, art in particular. I like to think of art history as a stream which every artist enters during their own time period. This stream of art and artists is continually growing and increasing in volume. Within this stream, the new inevitably mixes with the old and vice versa. The more art that is created, the more our perceptions about art changes. Which in turn affects the way we see artists that entered the stream long ago. In this way, the new influences the old as much as the old influences the new. This is one of the things I love most about art.

How do you choose which works to reimagine?

I have recently been attracted to European paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries, especially self-portraits. I like the earnestness with which the artists depict themselves. There seems to be a real longing to be remembered in the self-portraits of these eras. The artists imbue the work with as much technical virtuosity as possible to ensure that future generations will value it and take care of it. Which, in many cases they have. I like the concept of sending an object out into the world as your proxy, hoping it will live forever. It’s a beautiful idea. The need to be seen and remembered is something I think we can all relate to.

Many of your works exclude the face of the artist or subject, why do you choose to remove that from your paintings?

By re-enacting the practice of the artist who once was, I attach my own intentions. I duplicate, double, mirror and repeat images over and over until they have been stripped of their original identity. This occurs to both the physical representation of the artist as well as the artist’s intentions. This multiplying also introduces the idea of recursion. Recursion is the process of repeating items in a self-similar way. For instance, when two mirrors are placed facing one another allowing an image to reflect infinitely between them. This recursion allows me to deconstruct ideas associated with what is supposed to be “original” or “authentic.”

What’s the significance of the melting frames?

Part of what I’m doing is re-contextualizing an antiquated form of painting. I’m taking it out of the museum setting and introducing it to the white box of the gallery. In doing so, the work sheds some of it’s former attributes. I like to think of the frames as remnants of it’s previous life. These remnants have been shed and left to decay.

What’s the most challenging part of creating your paintings?

I think finding the precarious balance between form and content is always the most difficult thing to accomplish. In order for a piece to fully function, both things must be working in tandem.

Craft by itself means very little. As evidenced by the fact that there are so many well made objects out there that we don’t think twice about. Craft is a hollow veneer that often looks great but leaves you quickly. Ideas by themselves are just that. They are ephemeral and need a vessel. They need a delivery system. This creates a perfect symbiotic relationship between form and content. One is balanced by the other. But, it’s a hard balance to strike.

For more information visit

Matt Hansel’s website

Ekaterina’s Instagram:

@Czarina_Ekaterina

@OurNewMonarch

#newyorkart #matthansel

The Perfect Pumpkin Spice Cocktail

Yes, you read that correctly. I have finally found the Holy Grail of autumn inebriations. The Pumpkin Spice Cocktail is finally here, and it's better than you could have ever imagined. It's sweet, it's full of pumpkin goodness and it's got plenty of alcohol. One of these bad boys is the fall cocktail you need morning, noon, and night. It's a blended cocktail, garnished with an edible flower that just screams, "Instagram me!"

Appropriately called the Basic B, it tastes like a liquified pumpkin pie, topped with a spiced marshmallow fluff. It's intense flavor is addicting beyond belief, and a perfect way to satisfy that sweet tooth. It's one of the seasonal cocktails available at Bolsa, a restaurant specializing in farm-to-table cuisine.

The atmosphere in Bolsa complements their fall cocktail menu; a mixture of Oak Cliff history with warm, modern touches perfect for any occasion. Their fall menu is not to be ignored either, with a warm Butternut Squash Bisque to warm you up. Some other autumn dishes include their Vegetarian Mesquite Noodles with basil, Yellowtail Tuna with chili pop rocks, and the Windy Hill Goat Mole with savory mocha crema. If you need more convincing, I reviewed their fall menu here.

Bolsa is located at 614 West Davis, Dallas, TX, 75208. Check out their website for business hours.

To follow Bolsa on Facebook for happy hour deals and special events, click here.

To follow me on my adventures in Dallas and info on the best happy hours, food specials, and events, check out my Instagrams: @OurNewMonarch and @Czarina_Ekaterina

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