Welcome to Wet Paint in the Wild, the freewheeling—and free!—spinoff of Artnet News Pro’s beloved Wet Paint gossip column, where we give art-world insiders a disposable camera to chronicle their lives on the circuit. To read the latest Wet Paint column, click here (members only).
Earlier this month, dealers flocked to the heart of Texas for the Dallas Art Fair. Despite nearly being attacked by a rogue collector there last year, I was sad to not be in attendance this time. Suffice to say, it’s always lively. To find out what I was missing, I asked my friends Sam Marion Wilken and Shane Rossi, who run the scrappy new Manhattan gallery Francis Irv, to take some photos while they exhibited at a satellite fair, the Dallas Invitational. Let’s see what they got up to… —Annie Armstrong
Checking in at HQ for the week, the Fairmont Hotel.
Dan Desmond, Anna Raginskaya, Sam Gordon at the Joule’s “speakeasy”.
In the morning, we unpacked and blocked out our install. Works by Karla Kaplun (left) and Rachel Fäth (right).
Later in the day at Sophie Giraux’s opening at And Now. Sophie is on the right pictured with Jenny Borland (of JENNY’S).
A quick gallery selfie as we traversed to Tabboo!’s opening at Dallas Contemporary.
Clémence White (of Karma) noting Tabboo!’s depiction of himself as an Egyptian God.
Shane (hand coming from the left) and Clémence (right) appreciating Tabboo!’s suit.
Later that night, we celebrate Sophie’s successful opening. Here is Sophie, balloon rose, and a massive LCD screen.
After finalizing our install, we made it to Vojtěch Kovařík’s opening at The Power Station. Here is Kyle Thurman sitting in Jacob Kassay’s permanent sculpture in the courtyard.
Danny McDonald selfie cam.
Opening day of the Dallas Invitational. Sam pictured with works by Benjamin Echeverria (left) and Karla Kaplun (right).
After opening hours, we caravanned to a cocktail hour at Marguerite Hoffman’s home. Pictured are Olivier Babin (of C L E A R I N G) and James Cope (of And Now and organizer of the Dallas Invitational).
Leah Newman (of LOMEX) and photographer Zeshan Ahmed.
Dinner at Cosmo’s, an unexpected fusion of Honkey Tonk and Thai food. Jenny, Lee Foley (of Bel Ami), Alex Shulan (of LOMEX), and artist Coco Young cheers, to the tune of Moe Bandy’s Thank Goodness It’s Friday.
Alex mid-confession that his Wet Paint in the Wild was entirely iPhone photographs run through an app that mimics disposable film.
Artists Danny McDonald and Kyle Thurman.
The evening continued to the Berghain of Dallas: The Round-Up. Our Uber driver obliged our requests for Gary Stewart’s country heartbreaker She’s Actin’ Single, I’m Drinkin’ Doubles. He clocked out and came along.
Jenny crushing a Limp Bizkit cover. Or was it Goodbye Earl?
Artist Bobby Zehnder getting some wiggles out after his solo presentation with C L E A R I N G.
Sam after absolutely shelving the classic “Amarillo by Morning” by George Strait on Karaoke.
Shane here with works by Benjamin Echeverria (left) and J. Parker Valentine (right).
Made-Up Men, Danny and Kyle’s show at Tureen.
Genius convention in the back room of Tureen.
After the fair closed, we spent the day at the Kimbell and Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Seen here debriefing over coffee. The waiter took this one. Thank you, Lisa.
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