Entertainment

11:03 AM CST on Wednesday, December 28, 2005

By JANET KUTNER / The Dallas Morning News

Two decades is more than a lifetime for most art galleries, so when Barry Whistler celebrates its 20th anniversary with "20/20," a two-part exhibition that combines past with present, it's significant.

There's a sense of history here. An amorphous John Pomara painting from 1985 hangs next to his 2005 Jet-sons, a unique digital print depicting streaks of color speeding across a bright blue background. Apex Blues, a 1984 painting by Danny Williams, was in the gallery's inaugural show.

The second installment of "20/20" devotes the main gallery to 10 artists, hanging works by all 20 artists (including those featured in the first installment) salon-style in the back room.

"We wanted to give people a chance to see a formative group of artists' works that have contributed to our strong Texas art community," Mr. Whistler says. Without fanfare, he has promoted the careers of emerging and established talents alike. Ninety percent of the artists he represents are in the permanent collections of prominent Texas museums, as well as public and private collections.

Nostalgia abides in a whimsical variation on the Leaning Tower of Pisa that the unpredictable Art Guys of Houston built by gluing pencils together in 1991 and in colorful geometric abstractions by the late Antoinette LaSelle of Denton, one of several artists whose estates Mr. Whistler represents.

Many of Texas' top talents have passed through these doors – Vernon Fisher, Nic Nicosia, Joseph Havel, James Surls, Al Souza and Terry Allen, among them. Mr. Whistler was the first to show both Helen Altman and Michael Ray Charles. A number of 500X alums made Whistler their next step, including Mr. Havel and Scott Barber, the bright young painter who died of cancer this year.

Age is not an issue. Ms. LaSelle was 99 when she had her last show in 2001. Newcomers such as mixed-media painter Betsy Odom and photographers Kelli Connell and Allison V. Smith are still in their 20s or 30s, but Irene Roderick, another recent addition, was a middle-aged homemaker when Mr. Whistler took her on a couple of years ago.

Ms. Roderick dominated the previous installment of "20/20" with a huge white motorcycle constructed from cardboard and fuzzy fabric, a tiny drawing of which is in the current show. The ledge on which that vehicle was displayed now holds a similarly nonfunctional battleship that Lorraine Tady, one of the gallery's most versatile artists, built from wood scraps.

A big urethane painting by Mr. Barber hangs on the back wall of the main gallery. Other works in this room include poetic hand-tinted photographs of the Big Bend and the Texas coast by Ann Stautberg and crisp color photographs of vintage downtown buildings in the West Texas art hub of Marfa by Ms. Smith.

Highlights in the salon area, which is the most fun part of the show, include Michael Miller's cartoony rendition of Nemo as a kangaroo rat perched on a red, white and blue throw rug, and Michael C. McMillan's bizarre drawings of this and that, done on the stained pages of old will paper.

Mr. Whistler continues his search for fresh talent. "It's important to keep up, so I try to make myself more aware of what's out there by going to events like Art Basel Miami and by getting to New York on a regular basis," he says. "It's re-energizing when I get away, but it also confirms to me that what I'm doing fits a niche."

Deep Ellum is no longer the art mecca it was when Mr. Whistler opened in a renovated warehouse space on Commerce in October 1985, but his Canton Street location is looking better all the time. On Feb. 25, the same day he opens an exhibition of recent works by Mr. Pomara, former Angstrom Gallery director Christina Rees will open a new gallery next door.

The combined energy of two contemporary galleries in such close proximity should be a draw.

E-mail jkutner@dallasnews.com

"20/20: Part II" continues through Jan. 14 at Barry Whistler Gallery, 2909-B Canton St. Hours: noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and by appointment. Free. 214-939-0242, www.barry whistlergallery.com.