In Collaboration With LOEWE, Dallas Contemporary Celebrates Its Upcoming Spring Exhibition With An Intimate Highland Park Dinner

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, and things at Dallas Contemporary (DC) are feeling GOOD.

For the kunsthalle (i.e. a non-collecting art space, *cough*), last week provided abundant opportunities for celebration. On Wednesday, the organization’s board of directors announced that, following an extensive search, they appointed Lucia Simek as DC’s new Executive Director. “A visionary leader with deep ties to the Texas arts community and a bold global perspective,” the interim-no-longer Simek deserved the appointment, which ushers in a new era for DC.

The next day, board member Catalina Gonzalez Jorba and Santiago Jorba opened their stunning Highland Park home for an intimate dinner co-hosted by luxury Spanish fashion house LOEWE that celebrated Dallas Contemporary’s upcoming spring exhibition, You Stretched Diagonally Across It: Contemporary Tapestry. Mexico City-based curator Su Wu traveled to Dallas (on our coldest week of the year) to lead a salon-style lecture about the exhibition. I experienced no difficulty identifying Wu in the crowd; she simply looked cooler than the rest of us. 

When I recapped fall’s best events, I awarded Dallas Contemporary’s Gala with “Best Vibes,” and I stand by that. DC attracts the most dynamic crowd — people who wear LOEWE and know what kunsthalle means, for example. The Jorbas hosted the dinner in their “yellow room.” An impeccable hostess, Jorba (in intricately beaded LOEWE floral pumps I coveted all night) adorned the tables with sculptural florals by CONCEPTO. She draped the tables in bewitching batik tablecloths by Kneeland Co., which were made in Gujarat, India, and will be available for purchase in the “DC Shop” that Kneeland Co.’s Joanna Williams curated for the exhibition. Even the plates featured photography from artist Shayna Fontana.

Chef Juan Garrido and Cassandra Moses from Art 2 Catering (the best in Dallas, IMHO!) prepared an exquisite three-course dinner that included an otherworldly potato-crusted Florida red snapper. My kind of fish and chips! Fulfilling the prophecy of their name, each dish looked like a work of art.

After dinner concluded, Wu captivated guests by detailing her process for curating this exhibition, which has been in the works alongside Simek for years. As the exhibition does, Wu explored the “interstices specific to tapestry – between art and craft, the medium and the matter, and devotion and its technological mediation.”

With artistic touches woven through every detail, the entire evening inspired and delighted. Undoubtedly, Dallas Contemporary’s future shines brighter than ever.

“You Stretched Diagonally Across It: Contemporary Tapestry” opens at Dallas Contemporary on April 11 and runs through October 12.

PC Spotted: Rod Sager, Ann McReynolds, Janelle Pinnell, Ramiro Garcia, Peter Augustus Owen, Kasey Lemkin, Shelby Wagner, Brian Loreen, Narumi Bravo, Gowri Sharma, Sally Pretorius Hodge, Jessica Khan, Caroline Harrison, Stephanie Seay, Kate Marie Grinold Sigfusson, and Erica Denton.