Lance Letscher + Joan Winter and in the project room Ana Serrano at Conduit Gallery

Lance Letscher + Joan Winter
and in the project room Ana Serrano
at Conduit Gallery through November 12

Conduit Gallery has a three room solid show featuring artists Lance Letscher,
Joan Winter and in the project room Ana Serrano. The best thing about this show
is that these artists could not be more different, so you get a unique experience
as you travel from room to room. From collage, to model structures, to sculptures
and etchings; the variety of objects and ideas at Conduit made my head spin.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

receive moderndallas.weekly

Lance Letscher’s show titled “needle in the hay” marks a different approach to
collage than I normally have seen from him. Usually I would have expected to
see collage cut-outs of geometric shapes that overlap with muted color schemes.
However, this shift of work surprised me with the spades of collage cut-outs
retaining their shapes and reference to their representational images. In other
words, he cut-out a train track and then placed the picture in the collage
without altering the image to fit another purpose. This shake up of style is really
quite exciting, because Letscher seems to be channeling one of the earliest
collage artists, Hannah Höch. The objects feel as random and skillfully messed
together, like a DADA artist would want a collage to be. Letscher also avoids
the trap of “seen one collage seen them all,” by his sheer skill and experience
in selecting the images for each composition.

previous articles
by
Todd Camplin

Lance Letscher - The Night Kitchen - 2011, collage on masonite, 14x18”

Lance Letscher - Funny Landscape - 2011, collage on masonite, 40x60”

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

please support
our charities

Joan Winter’s work is less about selection and more about craft and objects. Winter’s
show “unfolding light,” confronts you with sculptures of flowing geometric and organic
forms. You will notice that the shapes before you are casting shadows, which are
reflected in the etchings and photos. To me, Joan Winter’s show was more about the
shadows and the play of light, rather than the objects in the room. And although
all the images were still, the implication of movement across these works made me
feel that the lights were moving like waves across each picture. This was a very quiet
and beautiful show.

Joan Winter - Ambi-flux II - 2010, birds eye maple & Baltic birch, 26x58x36”

Conduit has the best project room in Dallas, because the gallery seems to be near fearless
in the work they choose to display in the small space. Ana Serrano’s “hand painted
dream flow” is the kind of work I expect from this room. Serrano makes models that look
like the colorful Latino neighborhoods. Funky and fun, these models are incredibly
charming. Now that I have seen Serrano’s work at Conduit, I want to see her supersized
installation down in Houston at the Rice Gallery.

Ana Serrano - "hand painted dream flow" - installation

I have waited a while to write about Conduit Gallery, but to be honest, I could write about them
every time they have a show, because they always have something that peeks my interest. They
were the vanguard gallery to shift many of the best galleries to move down to the Design District.

Check out Letscher’s randomness, Winter’s shadows, and Serrano’s world at Conduit Gallery,
until November 12th.