Editor’s Note

June / July 2021

TERRI PROVENCAL

Publisher / Editor in Chief terri@patronmagazine.com Instagram terri_provencal and patronmag

In a year when it was nearly okay to let things fall apart, our nine Art Influencers made things happen. These remarkable people from diverse backgrounds, wholly engaged in disparate careers, illustrate that they are not only the very best in their field, but also highly skilled in the art of tenacity.

Meet the 2021 Art Influencers: Dr. Mark D. Roglán celebrates 20 years of stewardship of the Meadows Museum, coinciding with the museum’s 20th anniversary in its current location; Terry Loftis led the TACA Resiliency Initiative when the arts needed it the most; Anna Kern got creative with her role as manager of art programming with NorthPark Center; Dallas Art Fair director Kelly Cornell and colleague Sarah Blagden kept the fair alive in a year lacking in-person viewing events; Vanessa Peters prevailed in releasing her new album Modern Age; Kyle Hobratschk kept creatives creating through his 100 W - Corsicana Artist & Writer Residency; Darryl Ratcliff lifted Black artistic voices through multiple platforms; and for multidisciplinary artist Leslie Martinez, signed with And Now gallery, 2020 was a banner year.

The arts do bring out the impassioned, as evinced by Beatriz Esguerra. She’s a familiar and welcoming face when the Dallas Art Fair is in session as a steadfast exhibitor representing the work of artists from her native Colombia. In Natural Habitat she opens her Bogotá home to our readers, where inside we are treated to exceptional examples of the work of Colombian artists augustly displayed with signature flair. Add her eponymous booth to your must-view list this November, when the Dallas Art Fair returns.

The pandemic couldn’t deter the opening of Thompson Dallas within The National, a tenderly restored historic George Dahl-designed building on Akard. On location at the expansive 9th floor pool and deck areas, and up one level to 10 where Catbird, the Jeramie Robison–crafted restaurant resides, fashion takes on new heights in this month’s installment. Enjoy the urban outdoors in A Place In The Sun photographed by new contributor Luis Martinez, with creative direction by Elaine Raffel.

Elsewhere, in our Departments, Concentrations 63: Julian Charrière, Towards No Earthly Pole at the Dallas Museum of Art immerses the viewer in the lesstrafficked regions across the planet, which are no less altered by the carbon footprints of humans.

Chris Byrne visits with his longtime friend Peter Halley at The Ranch in Montauk, NY, newly owned and managed by Max Levai. Halley has an exhibition this June in this venue, formerly known as Deep Hollow Ranch and owned at one time by Andy Warhol, and most recently by J.Crew/Gap CEO Mickey Drexler. Readers are treated to a preview of the artist’s solo show featuring his Cell Grid paintings to come this fall to Dallas Contemporary.

RH Dallas is finally here, the feverishly anticipated reimagining of Restoration Hardware on Knox Street. It was worth the long, gaping-hole wait—three stories of design fabulousness, a wine bar, rooftop terrace, and restaurant make the pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare a top attraction.

The faces and stories behind American immigrants whose contributions to this country are widely or lesser known underpin George W. Bush’s Out of Many, One. The exhibition, on view at the George W. Bush Presidential Center through January, presents the former president- turned-painter’s portraits of 43 immigrants. A companion book includes each painting along with anecdotes written by Bush or in the words of the Americans themselves. His hope, he writes, is that the book “will help focus our collective attention on the positive impacts that immigrants are making on our country.”

This issue highlights unfaltering resolve in all its artistic forms. We admire these individuals and organizations so committed to our region.

– Terri Provencal