Four Must-See Gallery Shows During Dallas Arts Month — Surreal-Tinged Pantings, AI-Generated Imagery With Costume Jewelry, and More

Dallas Arts Month is officially here. This April, Dallas art dealers are aligning with Art Fair time, offering gallery shows during the month. These are four must-see gallery shows during Dallas Arts Month.

Begin at Daisha Board Gallery’s epic Tin District space, presenting “Silk Route — Our Creative Odyssey.” The focus is multicultural, curating five Indian female talents, all based in Dallas, working in diverse media: Mansi Aggarwal, Anindita Dasgupta, Bharathi Dev, Anjali Pai, and Janak Narayan, who also steps up as curator.

The dazzling, Surreal-tinged paintings of Dasgupta truly steal the show. Characterized by heavy patterning and a Matisse-like palette that translates forms from nature, these canvases emit a bolt of energy (through May 3). Board’s Tin District neighbor, Ro2 Art, is another must-stop. Gallerist Jordan Roth is one of Texas’ maverick dealers, and his programming always surprises.

Case in point, his doubleheader stars NYU professor Carla Gannis, whose paintings pair AI-generated imagery with tremendous encrustations of sculptural elements including costume jewelry — the analog versus algorithmic, so to speak. Counterpoised with Gannis is Japanese-born, Texas-based painter Yasuyo Maruyama, whose startling portraits exist between the hyperreal and the unreal with touches of humanity and manga (both shows, April 12 through May 17).

Finally, beeline to the new U.S. HQ of Colector gallery, whose grand reveal takes place the week before Dallas Art Fair. Directed, owned, and founded by Mexican architect Jesús Alberto Flores, this young Turk’s other locales are Colector’s original gallery in Monterrey and a Houston project space that opened this past fall. Flores unveils in River Bend, adjoining Dallas Art Fair offices and prime gallery neighbors such as Erin Cluley.

His vision calls for a bold commitment to Texas, as well as its art fairs; Colector, which participated in Untitled Art’s 2024 Miami edition, has signed on for both Dallas Art Fair this month and Untitled Art, Houston, come September. What you’ll see for Colector’s inaugural Dallas show in its expansive 2,200-square-feet space: a solo for avant-garde Mexican artist Dr. Lakra (Jerónimo López Ramírez), who’s both a tattooist and a fine artist with Sotheby’s auction records to prove it.

Collected by NYC’s MoMA, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Hammer Museum at UCLA, Dr. Lakra’s edgy take on pinups and luchadores are laced with Surrealism, fetish culture, and ritual. He’s also the headliner of Colector’s booth at Dallas Art Fair (exhibition April 5 though August).