Art Lab: A New Experiment in Downtown Dallas

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Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas’ new Art Lab, 1608 Main Street

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On Main Street in downtown Dallas, there’s a two-story brick building tucked away next to Neiman-Marcus. Inside, the wood stain on the counter is still wet, and workers are still up on ladders aiming lights at art works.

Art Lab is in a part of downtown that hasn’t seen a modern art gallery in decades. But it’s near the center of downtown re-development: Nearby are mostly dusty, empty, boarded-up storefronts — or skyscrapers being turned into more luxury condos and hotels.

But what’s different about Art Lab is not readily apparent. It’s actually a collective gallery, a gallery that will showcase works from 11 different exhibitors. A kind of meta-gallery, as it were.

Art Lab is a new effort by the Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas, or CADD (as distinguished from the older, much larger group, DADA or Dallas Art Dealers Association). Members of the two-year old organization include such well-known exhibitors as Barry Whistler, Pan American Art Projects and Conduit Gallery. CADD’s first group venture to promote contemporary art was an art fair, which the group ran for the past two years. Formerly an associate director of Road Agent, Anne Lawrence is the new director of CADD. Actually, she’s the first director of CADD: She was hired in March to oversee CADD’s transition into a permanent home.

LAWRENCE: One of the really special things about the fair was that it let us know what it was like to work together and what, as a group, we could accomplish.

Lawrence says that CADD was able to renovate the empty storefront because a downtown developer wanted to put in something that was “interesting and sustainable.” The 4,000 square foot space was built in 1915, and its most recent occupant had been the Linz Brothers jewelers. In fact, says Lawrence, the jewelry firm’s old cabinet safe had just been hauled away.

CADD’s Art Lab is a handsome, high-ceilinged affair with the old brick walls and steel columns preserved, where possible, but with new white walls that form individual alcoves and offices. Art Lab will offer six shows a year, debuting with Indexing the Moment, an exhibition of sculptures, photos, prints, paintings and video works from its 11 members. The artists include photographer Allison V. Smith, new media artist Kristin Lucas, digital photographer Ted Kincaid, and underwater photographer Kenda North. Lawrence notes CADD’s new home features two galleries (one on the mezzanine) that will also permit the group to present more in the way of lectures and panels. The building’s location — between the Design District and Deep Ellum, near the Arts District and Booker T. Washington Arts Magnet, as well as El Centro College and UT-Dallas’ Central Trak‘s artists’ residency — also will encourage programs with downtown schools and art groups.

LAWRENCE: Being right next to Neiman-Marcus and being right next to a new downtown crowd – new to us – it seemed very exciting. It’s kind of unlimited what we can do with this space.