MUST-SEE ART

9 heartwarming art openings in Dallas-Fort Worth this February

As our thoughts turn to love and Valentines Day, Texas artists get to show some real heart this February. Several exciting group exhibitions bring to life themes both familiar and novel. Meet the artists or simply view their work to warm your spirit as we wait for the arrival of spring. Here are nine must-see exhibitions to visit in February, in order of opening date.

28th Annual "El Corazón"
Bath House Cultural Center, through March 4
This longstanding tradition brings the work of local and regional visual artists to the Bath House Cultural Center each year in collaboration with Jose Vargas, who has been curating the exhibit for decades. Each work showcases an artist's individual interpretation of the human heart, and the show as a whole encompasses an eclectic collection of ideas, styles, and concepts.

"Out of the Fire"
Love Texas Art, through March 19
This group exhibition in the art lounge, gallery, and shop in Sundance Square brings the work of 17 ceramics artists into view. Each woman whose work is on display is based in Texas. With both traditional and modern references, works range from conceptual to utilitarian, demonstrating the varying perspectives of women's roles in life and art.

Grand Opening Event, "Roll up to The Rollup"
The Rollup, February 9 and February 11
The Rollup is a Texas-based artist incubator and art event producer, and its first show and sale is coming to Deep Ellum on Saturday, February 11. The exhibition will present painted skate board decks created by DFW artists. A pre-event VIP party will be held on Thursday, February 9 at 7 pm. Proceeds from both events will benefit 4DWN, a volunteer-fueled and skateboarding-centered Dallas area charitable organization.

"MVMTLS: Movement of Lone Stars"
South Dallas Cultural Center, February 10-March 24
South Dallas became a supporting character in this multimedia exploration of Black collective memory. Filmmaker Adriane McCray assembled a collection of interviews with South Dallas residents conducted during the pandemic lockdown of 2020. Each subject addresses childhood memories, with the assembled product a collage of home videos, aged photographs, collected archival footage, and present-day photography. The opening reception for the exhibit is Friday, February 10 at 6 pm.

"I'll Be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen"
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, February 12-April 30
One of the most anticipated exhibits of the season, "I'll Be Your Mirror" surveys the impact of the digital screen on art from 1969 to present day. The works of more than 50 artists explore themes of liminal space, connectivity, surveillance, the repository, digital abstraction, the posthuman body, automation and the loneliness epidemic, ecology, and turning a mirror on ourselves. Curator Alison Hearst brings together a show that's described as one of very few "presentations exploring art and digital technology in the past decade at this scale."

"Joaquin Soto: Mestizo"
Gallery 2960 at The Epic Grand Prairie, February 13-24
Joaquin Soto explores his deep connection to native and European traits, and how they have blended to be part of his Mexican background, in this exhibit of sculptural and wall-mounted art. The display will run through March 3 with an artist's reception on Thursday, February 16 at 5 pm.

JD Miller’s annual Valentine’s Day LIVE painting
Samuel Lynne Galleries, February 14
A favorite Valentine's Day event returns to Samuel Lynn Galleries, with Dallas artist J. D. Miller painting live in the gallery. Miller, the founder of Reflectionism, will bring together color texture and shape to create his perspective of a floral arrangement provided by McShan Florists while incorporating the energy of those assembled in the gallery. The gallery will raffle off a signed copy of JD Miller’s new artist book, JD Miller: Reflections from Dragon Street, and Miller will sign copies after the live painting. The event takes place from 6-9 pm, Tuesday, February 14 with Miller's live painting to begin at 6:45 pm.

Modern Art Museum, "I'll Be Your Mirror"

Photo courtesy of Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Hito Steyerl, How Not to Be Seen

"Deep in the Art of Texas"
Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery, February 18-March 25
Photographs from 29 diverse Texas artists make this show revelatory and undoubtedly eclectic. The photographs were taken as early as the 1940s to present day, and include landscape, documentary, portraiture, and abstract concepts. The opening reception for the exhibit is Saturday, February 18 at 5 pm.

"In the Shadow of Dictatorship: Creating the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art”
Meadows Museum, February 26-June 18
In 1966, artist and collector Fernando Zóbel opened The Museum of Spanish Abstract Art as the first museum in Spain exclusively for abstract art. Highlights from the museum's collection are making their way to the United States, many for the first time. Works in the collection represent a broad spectrum of abstract works created during Franco's dictatorship, 1930 to 1975.

Meadows Museum galleries museums

Ancient Sculpture News

Fort Worth museum one of only 3 in U.S. to get rare sculpture exhibit

Lorenzo di Masi/Torlonia Collection

The Torlonia Nile

A major exhibition of ancient Roman masterworks is coming to the U.S. for the first time to be viewed at only three museums — including the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

Called Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection, it's an assemblage of works stewarded by the Torlonia Family beginning in the early-19th century, and will be installed at the Kimbell from September 14, 2025 – January 25, 2026.

As part of the Foundation’s mission to showcase these historical works to the public, the exhibition will premiere at the Art Institute of Chicago on March 15 through June 29, before traveling to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Its third stop will be at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, from March 14 - July 19, 2026.

The Torlonia Collection was established during the course of the 19th century by the Franco-Italian banker Prince Giovanni Torlonia and his son Alessandro, then handed down over generations, eventually growing into the largest private collection of ancient Roman sculptures.

Today, the Torlonia Foundation represents the culmination of the Family’s continued passion for art. Created at the behest of Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1925–2017), the Foundation’s mission is to preserve and promote the Torlonia Collection and Villa Albani Torlonia.

In 1876, Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1800-1886) created a museum to house and exhibit the Family’s holdings, which was open to small groups until its closure at the onset of World War II. The sculptures remained unseen by the public from that time until the Foundation’s first exhibition at the Musei Capitolini in Rome in 2020. That was followed by a stint at the Louvre, the first presentation of the collection outside of Rome, where it has drawn more than 600,000 visitors to date, an unprecedented feat.

The exhibit
The curators of Myth & Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection are Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff of the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition is co-organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Torlonia Foundation, in collaboration with the Kimbell Art Museum, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and The Museum Box. All of the sculptures in the exhibition have been restored by the Foundation with the support of Bvlgari.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue co-published by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Torlonia Foundation, edited by Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff, with essays by Silvia Beltrametti and Salvatore Settis.

The North American presentation will feature 58 highlights from the Torlonia Collection, including 24 newly restored works that have not been on view in nearly a century. The sculptures date from approximately the 5th century BCE to the early 4th century CE, with the majority of the works dating to the High Imperial period (1st–2nd centuries CE). Highlights include examples of the most emblematic genres of ancient marble sculpture, acquired by the Torlonia Family from the most prominent collections of Rome’s patrician families, as well as from excavations made on the Family’s own estates throughout Italy.

“The Foundation is excited to be sharing the Torlonia Collection with audiences in North America for the first time. This exceptional group of ancient sculptures is a testament to the enduring cultural legacy of ancient Rome, as well as the vision and passion of multiple generations of the Torlonia Family,” said Alessandro Poma Murialdo, President of the Torlonia Foundation.

The presentation is organized thematically in six sections, featuring sculptures found on the Torlonia Family’s properties in Rome and the surrounding suburbs and their estate in Porto, Portugal, as well as a number of exceptional sarcophagi (stone coffins), among the largest sculpted works in marble to survive from ancient Rome.

The tour reinforces the work of the Foundation to advance the appreciation and understanding of this unparalleled collection and the rich cultural heritage it represents. The Foundation’s mission is carried out through a continuous joint effort between the public and private sectors, including with the cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Culture. The Foundation is supported by a longstanding collaboration with Bvlgari as the principal sponsor of the restoration project since its inception in Rome and throughout the global tour, and Chiomenti, who has lent invaluable support to the Foundation’s core activities.

galleries

MUST-SEE ART

9 heartwarming art openings in Dallas-Fort Worth this February

Best Fort Worth-area neighborhoods for magical 2024 Christmas lights

Where to see the most stunning Christmas lights in Fort Worth for 2024

Luscious doughnut shop Duck Donuts makes Fort Worth debut

Ancient Sculpture News

Fort Worth museum one of only 3 in U.S. to get rare sculpture exhibit